Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1897-01-29
PORT SAID.
The Worst City In the world-Crims
and Vice Supreme.


and Vice Supreme.
A writer to the London Daily Mail
says: ION the baking sands at the
southeast corner of the Mediterranean,
just where the Suez canal gives berth
to tons of steamers, ships and every
sort Of craft, lies Port Said, the worst
city in the world. 1t is not lightly that
this dirty, unattractive town on the
borderland between Asia and Africa,
half mud walls and half brick, has been
given this name, for If ever locality
deserved such an opprobrious designa-
ton 1t is Port Said. Not in any single
particular has Port Said any advan-
tages, commercial or atmospheric.
Seven months in the year 1t Is baking
hot and fever breeding, and the other
five months hardly less dangerous to
health. Trading or business there is
almost none in the ordinary 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 business importance, in fact,
is simply that it serves as a port OF
call for vessels just entering or just
leaving the Suez canal. There are 49,
600 or 10000 people in the town who
are permanent residents, but there not
being any business to speak of, four
fifths of these lead idle wandering, dis
sipated lives. Their numbers are con-
stantly added to, for, with the arrival
OF every ship in the roadstead-a ship
is always bound to stay here ten or a
dozen hours at least--crew and passen-
gers come ashore for strolls through
the dirty streets, and a number of
them drink and gamble in the dens
that dot the town on every hand.
Under these conditions there has
sprung up most alarming state of
continued debauchery, which never les
sens, but increases yearly. No law, no
regulations, no police force hold 1t in
check. All is open and free. No other
city offers like soil for vice to grow
In. 1rregularly, Port Said has sprung
up since the opening of the Suez canal,
when 1t was only handful of mud huts
on the Mediterranean shore, until the
present time, when 1t is populous
city, while still struggling Oriental
village, of miles of crooked streets,
narrow lanes, with many a turn, and
grim looking byways between dirty
walls. Hardly street in the whole
town can boast Of such thing as a
pavement. Even the chief avenue, the
Rue de Commerce, is ankle deep in
dust and sand, and seems more like
SUM quarter of a European city than
the chief artery Of any metropolis,
however small. Two things go to keep
Port Said the worst city in existence,
one being the climate, which invites
hard drinking on the part of the resi-
dents, and the other the fact that for
some reason or other the scum of all
the nations near by pour themselves
into it. Italians, Russians, Austrlans,
Turks, Abyssinians, Egyptians, Arabs,
SpaniardS, Frenchmen and degraded
Englishmen are to be found in every
corner of this profligate settlement, all
of the worst types their respective ma
tions can produce, blacklegs, swindIers,
gamblers, forgers, murderers and pro-
fessional beggars, whose arts have
failed elsewhere. 1t is common say
ing that five out of every six men who
go to live at Port Said die either of de-
lirium tremens or fever within few
years. Most of them succumb quickly
to the temptations of the place, and
join in the great professions Of dfssipa-
ton and rfotous living. There are, it
is true, many respectable people living
on the outskirts of the town, but they
make no impression upon the great IN
leavened mass.