The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1894-12-16
TALES OF ALL COUNTRIES.
GEORGE WALKER At SUEz.
By ANTHONY TRoLLoPE.

ever visited, Buez In Egypt at the bead Of tn
Red Sea is By far the vilest, the most unpleasant
and the least interesting. There are no womei
there. no water, and no vegetation. II lie sur
rounded, and indeed often filed, by = world o
ssnd. A scorching sun is always overhead; an,
which seems TO have been made purposel
destitute Of all the comforts OF civilized life
Nevertheless, in looking back upon the week o
my life which ! spent there, I always enjoy
certain sort of triumph. or rather, upon one da,
OF that week, which lends a sort Of halo no
only to my %sojourn at Suez, but TO the who'll
period of my residence in Egypt.
am free to confess that l am not a grea
man, and that, at any rate in the Garlic
part of my career, l had a hankering afte
the homsTe which is paid to greatness. Iwoul,
fain have been q popular orator, feeding
myself on the incense rendered TO me b,
thousands; or falling that, q man born to power
whom those around him were compelled TO re
spect, and perhaps TO fear. I am not ashamed tc
acknowledge this, and l believe that most ofm
neighbors In Friday street would own as mucl
were they as open-hearted as myself.
1t lie now some time since | was recommended
TO pass the first four months Of the year in CairC
because l had q sore throat. The doctor maj
have been right, but l shall never divest myself
Of the idea that my partners wished to be rid OF
me while they made certain changes in the man.
agement Of the firm. They would not otherwise
have shown such interest every time l blew my
nose or relieved my huskiness by a slight cough,
they would not have been so intimate with
that surgeon from st. Bartholomew who dlned
with them twice at the Albion; nor would they
have gone TO work directly that my back was
turned, and have done those very things which
they could not have done had I remained al
homo. BE that as It may, I was frightened and
went to Cairo, and while there 1 made q trip to
Suez for q week.
was not happy at Cairo. for I know nobody
there, and the people at the hotel were as I
thought uncivil. 1t seemed to me as though I
were allowed to 20 in and out merely by suffer-
ance; and yet I paid my bill regularly every
week. The house was full Of company. but the
company was made up Of parties of twos and
threes, and they all seemed to have their own
friends. 1 did make attempts to overcome that
terrible British exclusiveness, that noit me tan
pere with which an Englishman arms himself,
and in which he thinks IL necessary to envelop
his wife; but II was in vain, and l found myself
sitting down to breakfast and dinner. day after
day. as much alone as I should do II I called for
n chop at q separate table in the Cathedral cof-
fee house. And yet at breakfast and dinner l
made one Of an assembiage Of thirty or forty
people. That l thought dull.
But as i stood one morning on the steps be-
fore the hotel. bethinking myself that my throat
was as we'll as ever I 1t to be. I was
suddenly slapped on the back. Never in my
life did l feel a more pleasant sensation, or turn
round with more unaffected delight to re-
turn a friends greeting. It was as though
a cup Of water had been handed to mo in
the desert. / knew that a cargo of passengers
for Australia had reached Cairo that morning
and were to be passed on 10 Suez as soon as the
railway would take them. and did not therefore
expect that the greeting had come from any So
journer in Egypt I should perhaps have ex-
planned that the even tenor % pur life at the
hotel was disturbed some fouL lines q month
by q flight through Cairo of . o lSE travellers.
who like locusts ate up y. : rat there
was eatable at the inn for the day. Whey
sat down at the same tables with us, never
mixing with US. having their separate interests
and hopes, and being often. as l thought.
somewhat loud and almost selfish in the express
sion Of them. These focks consisted Of passen-
gers passing and repassing by the overland
route to and from India and Australia; and had
/ nothing else to tell, l should delight to de-
scribe all that / watched of their habits and
manners-the outward bound being SO different
In their traits from their brethren on their re-
turn. But 1 have TO tell Of my own triumph at
Suez. and must therefore hasten on to say that
on turning round quickly with my outstretched
hand, / found 1t clasped by John Robinson.
well. Robinson, Is this you 2" "Holloa,
Walker. what are you doing hero 2" That, of
course, was tho style OF greeting. Elsewhere I
should not have cared much to meet John Rob-
lnsun, for he was q man who had never done
well in the world. He had been In business
and connected with q fairly good house In
Size Lane, but he had married early. and
things had not exactly gone well with him. 1
don't think the house broke, but he did: and so
he was driven TO take himself and five children
OF 20 Australia. / should not have
cared TO come across him. but I was positively
glad to be slapped on the back by anybody in
front of Shepherds Hotel at Cairo.
/ soon learned that Robinson with his wife and
children. and indeed with all the rest OF the
cargo, were to be passed on to
Sues that afternoon, and after q while /
agreed TO accompany their party. l had
made up my mind on coming out from Eng
and that / would see all the wonders of Egypt
and hitherto / had seen nothing. / did ride
IN one dag some fifteen miles on a donkey TO
wee the petriied forest; but the guide, who called
himself a dragomAn, took me wrong or cheated
in some way. We rode half q day over q
'tOny. sandy plain. seeing nothing. with a terri
Die wind that filled my mouth with grit. and at
ast the dragomAn got on. Deere" said he,
up a small DIT OF stone, dis 10 dc forest
made Of stone. Carry that home" Then we
.urned and rode back to Cairo. My chief OBJ
as to the country was this-that
way We went, the wind blew into our
eeth. The days work cost me ive-and-twenty
and since that / had not as yet made
my other expedition. l was therefore glad OF
IN opportunity OF going TO Suez. and OF making
he journey In company with an acquaintance.
At that time the railway was open. as far as
emember, nearly half the way from Cairo 10
,uez 1t did not run four or nye times a day. as
always do in other countries, but four or hve
lines a month. In fact, It only carried passen-
ON the arrival OF these hocks passing be-
ween England and her Eastern possessions.
there were trains passing back WI and for
Yard constantly, As l perceived In walking to
nd from the station, but as | learned, they car
led nothing but the lAborers working on the
and the water sent into the desert for their
Ise. IL struck me forcibly at the time that l
hould not have liked TO have money in that in
Iestment.
Well. l went with Robinson to suez. The