The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-12-09
LKrrKR FROM sAGDAD.


Dr. ku00O0RRs R0RmeTty ooottAes
Writes 90 Friends Here.
The following extracts are from letter
from Dr. John c. Lundberg, formerly .
resident of this city, where he Is well
known, now consul at Bagdad. The letter
Is dated at Bagdad. October Is. and Is to
w. H. Reeves, az follows:
81 have now seen the whole Of the
Tigris below Bagdad by daylight and
est arch in the world. Where the
Tigris and Euphrates join (the garden
of Edenl the tree of knowledge was
shown rs. but the clerk on the
steamer said IL was only thirty years old.
think 1t much oldsr-300 years at least.
saw Bassorah this time in beliam "a kind
of gondolal You know Bassorah is the
Venice Of Asia, the streets canals.
THE summer has been excessively hot,
for two months seldom under lis degrees
in my Office 1.-THE coolest place in town)
in daytime. and back away from the
river it has been as high as 12S de-
grees in tho shade. One night in July
thought the gates of hell had been left
open. Blasts OF invisible flame shot from
all quarters and the temperature rose at
go a. m. to lis degrees!!! Usually
the atmosphere here is dry. and
one can stand considerable heat, but
this summer has, owing to the vast inun-
dasions, been very damp. Last May there
occurred several crevasses in the eastern
bank Of the Euphrates, and the waters
came through with a roar, covering the
desert twelve feet deep. One day crossed
the river and walked out to the tomb
of Sit Zobeeda (Haroun-el- Raschid's)
wife) when further progress except
by boat or swimming was impossible.
Facing the setting sun not q speck OF
ground was visible and the horizon was
distinct AZ on the ocean; while in the di-
rection Of Babylon an island marked here
and there the location ofmounds. Owing to
illness of my wife have not yet been able
to visit either Babylon or Nineveh Cat the
latter place l am wanted to protect some
American misslonariesl
I'VE had very big epidemic Of cholera
here in August and September. In fact,
cholera has been raging in Messopatamia
since May. Among the many
amusing. things was forbidding the
sale Of watermelons. One morning
washtub) came down loaded and some
fifty policemen went aboard and began
pitching the melons IN the river. Immedi-
ately . thousand men. boys and women
stripped and swan out and gathered in
the spoiIs and then sat down and gorged
themselves with the forbidden fruit'-a
board of health fill banquet.
ne pSppAc Hcic are EIcht CakcFS. All
Arab of my acquaintance 1.-THE chief of q
band of robbers) will eat whole sheep,
with several pounds of rice, at one meal.
Then they are like the Esquimaux. To be
to their taste the food has TO float in fat.
1--WE have very fine fruit, grapes. melons.
plums aud pomegranates as large as
baby heads and of deep ruby color inside.
Provisions and servants are, however, high,
and the latter are lazy, dirty. thievish
and good-for-nothing. In India | get q
first-class cook for about So month. and
he boards himself; here i pay over twice
that and have to board him. l have TO
pay at least four times as much for our
servants food as for what We eat our
selves
tour of the Holy Land and Egypt and
then spend a couple of years in Europe
studying, when if l live l will come back
to America and practice"