Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-09-23
rs THE WORST CITY.
At PORT SAID VICE IN ITS LOWEST
FORMS RElGNS SUPREME.

me Place Is . Great Den Of Criminals.
The Onscouripes of All Nations Gather
It This Important Point on the Medi-
terranean.
On the baking sands at the southeast
corner of the Mediterranean just where
the Suez canal gives birth to tons OF steam
ers, ships and every sort of craft, lies Fort
Said, the wickcdest city In the whole
world.
1t is not lightly nor vainly that this
dirty, unattractive town on the borderlahu
between Asia and Africa, half mud walls
and half brick, has been given this name,
for if ever locality deserved such an OPP
probrious designation it is this same Fort
Said.
Not in any single particular has Por6
Said any advantages, commercial or atllos-
pheric. Seven months in the year 1t is
piping hot and fever breeding the other
five months hardly less dangerous to
health Trading or business ohere IS al
most none in the ord nary way, NOT even
of the oriental sort Few cities, indeed,
have so little to offer IN the way Of shops
and goods for sale Port Said's sole bust
ness importance, in fact, Is simply that 1t
serves as port of call for the vessels just
going into or Just coming out of the Suez
canal.
There are Is, 900 or 20, 900 people in the
town who are permanent residents, but
there not being any business to speak of
four-flfths of these lead idle wandering,
dissipated lives. Their numbers are con-
stantly added to, for, with the arrival Of
l.. = .-Ls In, 1rr-s~
bound to stay there ten or a dozen hours
at least--crew and passengers come ashore
for strolls through the dirty streets, and
the lower minded of them drink and gam
BILE in the dens that dot the town on every
hand.
Under these conditions there has sprung
up most alarming state of continued and
constant immortality, which never lessons,
but increases yearly. No law, no regula-
tions, no police force hold any of these de-
baucheries in check All is open and free.
Vice not only exists, but haunts itself
on every hand.
No other city offers like soil for vice to
grow in. Irregularly Port Said has sprung
up ever since the opening of the Suez
canal, when it was only handful of mud
huts on the Mediterranean shores, until
the present time when 1t is populous
city, while still struggling oriental vii
lage, of miles of crooked Streets narrow
lanes with many turn lending for the
most part in cul de sacs) and grim look
ing byways between dirty walls.
Hardly street in the whole town can
boast Of such thing as pavement. Even
the chief avenue, the Rue de Commerce, is
ankle deep In dust and sand and seems
more like slum quarter of a European
city than the chief artery of any metropo-
lis, however small
In all of Port Said there are only two
buildings that command attention from
the visitor-the casino and q big mosque
in the Arab quarter of the town. The
casino is the great gambling hell of this
end of the Mediterranean shore, and to it
flock all of the gamblers of that part of the
world gathering there in the dirty, gaudy
hall to put down their i'll gotten gold
pieces upon the faded green cloth. 1t is a
Monte Carlo, with all the charms of its
sybaritic luxuriance ard elegance gone, a
tawdry place frequented by the lowest
types 1t is there that the street beggars,
of which Port Said is FULL come to squan-
der away what they have gained from the
pockets of sympathizing visitors.
The mosque in the Arab quarter has
but one really interesting fea+ura and
that is a feature filled with unpleasantness
The traveller who zoos to x;e;t II moods ,,ac
essarily to take off his shoes in accordance
with the Mosem rito ard bic onl,, sofot,,
is to carry them ne he xvandors about
for the pjlfering Arabs in this quarter ri
the town think notbir, of nrr,oin;,,, ~
foot COVERINGS of .ny ono ana +haro +,
many - foreigner Who has had +o bohb1o
hack to bis sbini, = n.;r rf ,roo,,,fa,tolIo
shoes Of oriental manuf,cture ,,,r,bosad
speedily and at n dozen tines tbeir ,ct,,a1
value in some sbon nn,r tho ,,,osr,,a
Two tbipos an n Low DIT So;a a..
wickcdost r;tv in ox;s+o,,co o,o hoir,r. ~
climate which ,,,,l-ns h,Td dvirsi.is, WY
,ncose;+,, fo,, H., - VI q
tho foot +b,+ far
off scournrs of III tho na+ior- ,,oa, ' Nv.
nour Themselves irto IL Tta1iars D.:
Slams Austrians T,rl.s Ah,.lr;,,i Gus
Eyvnt;ons Arahs Sra,,in,d~ E,a, ,,,t'.'-s'
and even y fe,y do.,.aGad p,;til,a me-
he found in cverv cornor Of +h;s r,,ofI;,s ~,
settlement an of tha ,,.ons+ t,.rs
snoctiro notinr,, n,, - - pN9 ~ ~
s,,,;,,d,ors -, e,,i- p pi''' ss'
md ,,rofass;''',a, - Dn'' ",.ters
failed olsn,r,,,ma 'N's '' ''''''0 "''N il''o