Omaha daily bee., 1889-07-07

muUtu tnt bW0btest anu luClebb VI ClONSEs
The air just now is as pure as that Of Den
yer. All nature seems to smile and the only
poor thing upon the scene is man.
Out of the 8,5oO0O people of Egypt, fully
100000 are peasants. They are known as
"fellahs." They are the tillers Of the soil,
and they are the people VINO do the work,
and make the money which pays the i'm
mense yearly debt of Egypt These 'fellahs"
are the ancient Egyptians. They have been
oppressed throughout. the. ages until
and they are happy II they can
get enough to keep themselves alive. You
see their mud villages everywhere and they
slave from morning until night in the fields.
Their houses are rarely more than ten feet
high and often not more than eight feet
square. In an Egyptian village the houses
are built close together. There are no pave
ments, gas lamps nor modern improvements
of any kind The furniture of each house
consists of few mats, n sheep skin, cop
per kettle and some earthenware
pots. The bed of the family Is
ledge OF mud built in the side of the
room. There are no windows and the cook
ing is usually done out of doors in little
earthen, pot-like stove. The fuel Is OF dried
cow, camel or buffalo manure, and the
FOOD OF THE FAMILY
is mixture Of sorgum seed, millet and beans
ground up into flour and baked into sort
of q big, round, fiat cake A large part OF
the food of the felah consists of green's,
and l watched one eating turniD yesterday.
He began at the tip of the root and ate the
raw indigestible vegetable to the very end OF
the green, leaving not a vestage of it. ! have
zen them eating clover, and am told that
They seldom have any meat. Out OF the
milk of the buffalo and COW they make
sort of curd- like cheese, which Is extensively
used. They use no knives, forks nor spoons
and at supper they have, in addition to their
vegetables, sauce of onions and butter, into
which they dip pieces Of bread and eat it,
These Egyptian peasants wear little or no
lnf ypnt n N
here in Cairo the apparel of the men consists
of long blue gown which comes to below
the knees and a brown skull cap OF wool.
The women have gowns of blue cotton ana
the better classes of them cover up their
faces with long VEIL which is fastened just
under the eyes so as to hide the lower part
of the features. Between this veil and the
cloth-head dress there is brass spool about
three inches long, on each side of which the
eyes show out. Some of the girls are beauti-
full, but imagine that many of them look
better with their wells on than of.
The The Egytian eye is Large, ,asSs. black rs
very long on both lids and the edges Of the
eye-lids are often blackened with kohl. The
eyebrows are straight and smooth and
never bushy. The cheek bones are high,
the forehead is receding and the nose some
what inclined to fatness. In the country
you find much darker women than you do In
Cairo. and see scores of them working IN
this fields without wells. These felahin are
Mohammedans, and they believe that
CHRISTIANS WILL DE ETERNALLY DAMNED.
Very few of them attain riches and but
few rise to power. Arab Pasha was a
"fellahn andhe was one of the few excep-
tions to this rule.
1t Is no wonder they remain poor They
have been taxed for ages to such an extent
tn at they could barely live Ismail Pasha,
the last khedive, would, l am told, often
collect taxes twice year, coming down upon
the farmers for a second sum after he had
demanded the regular amount. Ii they were
not able to supply it the tax gatherers sold
their stock at auction, and he had the right
to make such as he pleased work for
him for nothing. At present there are
about five million acres of land under cult.
vation IN Egypt and there is an agricultural
population of more than four millions. This
| gives less than one and one-ffth acre per-
| son and the taxes amount to from 81 to 50 an
| acre and this is only one form of Egyptian
| taxation. just outside OF Cairo there IS
| government Office through which every piece
| of produce brought into the city for sale must
| pass, and every article is taxed. The farmer
| who brings u donkey load OF grass TO the
| city for sale must pay percentage on its
value before he can go in with it. 1t is the
| same with chicken or pigeon, basket OF
| vegetables or anything that the farmer
| raises. Then there is a tax upon date trees
| amounting to 100000 year, upon salt OF
more than million, upon tobacco and slaugh-
| ter houses, and in fact upon everything under
| the Egyptian sun. The donkey boy here
| pays q tax, the storekeeper is taxed. and
| there is in addition to this general tariff OF
| about per cent on all imports. There are
| taxes on sheep and goats. which are paid
| whether the animals are sold or not: There
are taxes ON wells, taxes on fisheries,
| end taxes paid for. lands which
| gave up with the loss OF Soudan. 1t Is no
! wonder that the Egyptian people are poor
| 1t is wonder that they can exist at all.
The bulk of this money goes out of the
| and thn natiyaS Of EuyDt grow
| ing poorer instead of richer 'Such taxa
tion," said our consulgeneral to me to-day,
"would create a revolution in the United
| States, and there is hardly country in the
world which would stand it. Not dollar of
| all the money which ls thus collected is ex-
| pended in public or private improvements
! among the hard-worked, overtaxed people,
from whom il has been wrung."
Egypt pays every year more than
THREE MILLION DOLLARS TO TURKEY.
| Why sne continues to do this is not we'll
| understood the world over. If England and
| Europe would shake their heads she could
| throw off the Turkish yoke, but the sultan
| of Turkey owes some large sums to the
European bankers. The European bankers
want this three million dollars, and IT
comes to them through the sultan. This Is
| one way in which the Rothschilds grind the
| feilahin. The total revenue collected last
| year was nearly fifty million dollars, and OF
| this more than twenty millions went to pay
| interests upon debts, which were entered into
| by the Egyptian governmentin in the past.
| New York contains about four times as
| much farming land as Egypt. Suppose the
| farmers of New York, irrespective of the
| capitalists and town people, had to pay
| tax of two hundred and twenty five million
| dollars year, they would be as heavily OPP
pressed, in proportion to their lands, as are
| the Egyptians. II they had to pay simply
| the tax of from four to nine dollars an acre
! they would have to mortgage their crops,
and If, in addition to this, they had to pay
import and export taxes, and taxes on their
| sales the result would be an almost
| immediate bankruptcy. Egypt Is not much
| bigger in reality than MASSACHUSETTS,. 1t is
only about the size of Maryland. Suppose
| that Maryland had population OF
| of c, 6,O0O, 600 to live off her farming lands and
should tax them at the above ratio, and you
| get the condition of Egypt to-day. Verify
| the pound of flesh of the Shylock OF Venice
was not more rigidly enacted than is now
| being cut off
THE POUND OF FLESH
| of the Egyptian peasants by the English and
| other European creditors.
These creditors watch the conditions OF
tn cir debtors, and they SEQ that all of the
| proceeds go into their pockets. Each of the
| cabinet officers Of the khedive has q sub