Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1893-11-10
Money from the Midway.

Milk and honey will flow, and there
will be feasting and rejoicing in many
lands of the Orient this winter. The
people of the Midway, says the Chicago
Tribune, are going home, and they are
taking with them an amount which,
added to what they have already sent,
is estimated to approximate Sl,OOO,0 GOO.
If any man doubts it. let him go into
the banks and tourist agencies which
deal in foreign exchange and money.
They have been besieeed the last " o
days by Egyptians, Copts, Franks,
Arabs, Turks, Hindoos, Siugalese, Nj
biaUs, Japs aud SyriaEs with wads, bun
dies and bays Of money, TO be changed
into coin that passes current in their
far away homes.
l. was q curious sight to see them
come iu The first arrival Tuesday
was donkey boy from Cairo street.
From some remote corner of his flowing
robes he produced a tattered cloth. and
Gnroliins it, dumped 500 ia silver on
the counter.
Let ne have French francs for il,
he said, through the Interpreter. y
camel-driver followed who wanted
81 GOO changed. Along in quick sue
cession came an Arab who bought =
draft for 81 500 on Beyrout, a Turk,
who had $4,000 to transfer,
Persian dancer with fortune Of 81 sec
in American silver, and a Nubian
soldier, who unroled $500 in
bills. al day Tuesday and Wed esiay
they came with money in every imagin
able receptacle The elderly Egyptian
who sold piasters worth four cents for
coins of 300 B. c. for - each, pianked
down several hundred dollars in bills
aud asked for French Napoleons. De-
vout Turks, who had spared the time
from their devotions 10 sell something,
had Jumps of bills TO turn into gold
1t was n spectacle that inspired Major
Hutchinson to remark that the glory of
the Orient had returned. What he
meant was this: In Egypt an income OF
twenty francs month is deemed sutti-
cient to keep family and allow mar
gin for saving. The unmarried man
with an annual income of $25 is con-
sidered a great catch.
when that donkey boy from Cairo
street arrives home with his 500 what
will he do? Buy palace? 2" was asked
Major Hutchinson.
HE will be a marked man among
his people. He may not buy a palace
because he is as like as not to have half
dozen wives. The money he takes
home will keep them long, long time
The praise of Chicago will be sung in
many lands this winter, because hun
dreds of families in the Orient will be
in plenty with what their fathers have
earned in trade and received in back
sheesh. We have been sending people
home for month. Forty des-
tined for Turkey, Egypt and
Arabia leave in LIE Bretagne
next Saturday. Those who remained
until the last take home the most
money. 1t has been accumulated by
them all summer. We see it now for
the first time"
Tho Orientals who are going home
are leaving q little of their money be-
hind. Some of the Syrians have bought
first-class guns and pistols. When they
gallOD over LHo ueSelG Ou lhSii nv
chargers they will shoot Remingtons
and Colts in the air, instead of the rus
ty flint-lock muskats with which their
friends who stayed away from the fair
are armed. Half dozen of those
Egyptian donkey boys, who are taking
home independent fortunes, are going
in style beftting their changed condl-
diLions. They have purchased Ameri-
can clothes literally of south Clark
street second hand dealers. The Nu-
bians have invested in scented hair-oil
and mirrors. The Turks have bought
jewelry.
"They will be bowling swells among
their people," said Major Hutchinson.
''They have been treated here with
respect they were totally unused to. l
expect to hear of trouble on the Nile
when the donkey boys get back and
find that with Europeans familiar with
Egypt they are simply donkey boys.
Why some of them were taken riding
in carriages this summer"