The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1894-03-29
s1Rne1s or REAL cAIRo.


sights More Wonderful Even Than Those
seen nj the Worlds Pair.
Among those who have seen many ori-
entail cities there Is controversy as 20 which
Of them most conspicuously embodies the
characteristics q the east. Some lay claim
10 have found In Syria. Others in Persia
and vet others in India the type iu ques-
ton. Yet cannot help suspecting that II
a vote were taken OF all the more famous
capitals and great towns Of Asia and
northern Africa Cairo would win the irst
place.
Every body. after putting his own spe-
cinl fnvorite first, would put Cairo sec
ond The color and movement and per
petual play Of light and shade ON an ever
shifting mass Of hues. that kaleidoscope
OF humanity which the ordinary, every
day traffic Of the Egyptian capital keeps
whirling before the eyes, must be hard TO
beat. Even here, on this hotel terrace, In
front Of shepherds. where the west Is ever
husily dashing its somber blacks and 50
Der grays ON the glowing palette Of the
east. the effect IL almost bewilderiug.
But the coat and boots and hillycock Of
the European. with their suggestions Of
the homogeneous. and the overcivilized, and
the unpicturesque. are easily got rid OF.
That is the charm Of Cairo. You step
aside from one Of its main thoroughfares,
crowded with western vehicles OF every
description from the drag 90 pony trap,
and in an instant you arr at once IN a
maze ~ ALLEYS. where no draft animal Of
any kind has ever set foot since the houses
were built ON either side, and through
which YOU may tread Your way, surround
ell by the same moving masses OF color for
Na.aHHn HfNr
emerging again into western civilization.
Lost. in every sense Of the word, geo
graphically az well as imaginatively, you
wander on amid the restlessly flowing
stream Of swarthy, turbaned faces aud
1.-the white and blue robed figures, your
ears filled with the strange cries and your
senses intoxicated with the heavy. name
less odors Of the east. Farther and far
Their Won ramble and deeper and deeper
plunge into this magic labyrinth Of magic
ways. The alleys seem TO narrow more
and more every minute until the rich
brown, profuscly carved woodwork OF the
jutting gables GA either side Of the road
way almost threatens 10 meet and blot out
tine stripof burning blue above your head.
A the street Strengthens the crowd APP
pears TO thicken until at the moment
when one is at its narrowest and the other
at its densest you step out into a little
square in which the blaze Of color and the
play of movement reach their height. You
are ia the carpet bazaar Of Cairo, the spot
at which the many colored throng around
you finds its most gorgeous background. 4
Carpets of every hue and web-Tunisian,
Algerian. Smyrniot, PeIsian-drape the
whole quadrangle with an arras worthy .
Of a sultan's seraglio.
4 -
sight of it of such a picture in such
frame would be to conjure up vision OF
crude and garish magnifcence az which .
the eye would ache and the taste revolt. .
But the east is an artist Of unerring
though unstudied skill, and every patch .
of brilliant aud violently contrasted color
that it seems 10 have flung so recklessly
together hiss fallen as by divinely pre-
established harmony into its proper and
most effective place. And nature herself. .
In compromising her pigments for these
swarthy skins has entered into decora-
tive conspiracy with man.
Considered merely as an arrangement
In browns. the faces OF "a Cairene crowd
are a study in themselves. Between the
light cafe au lait color OF the half western
lied Levantine and the blue black negroid
from Abyssinia or the Sudan there are
well nigh half a dozen different shades
distinguishable 70 the attentive eve. The
cafe an lait changes to chocolate, the choc-
olate TO a kind Of cafe noir. the kind that
you complain Of on the grounds of defect
i've strength, and this again to the kind
that You complain Of on the strength Of
excessive grounds. Then comes the lus- .
terless jet, as of the unpublished boot, aud
then, last and lowest note OF the gamut,
comes that deep glossy ebony which might
drive all the blacking manufacturers in
the world 20 the despairing confession that
nature is here, at any rate, superior 70
Art.-London Telegraph.