The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-03-23
CHOLERA AND THE PLAGUE.
Young English Engineer in Egypt
Sizes Up Their Comparative Merits.
From the Pittsburg Dlspatch.

Sizes Up Their Comparative Merits.
From the Pittsburg Dispatch.
Cairo, March 2.-"Plague coming?" said
the young civil engineer as he unfolded
his dinner napkin. II suppose So May
get it hot, come high Nile. Hope you're
quite fit this evening. Got beastly
throat myself"
Where do you camp this year," I asked.
Don't camp at ali, worse luck. Go into
office at Alexandria. Beastly place. Oh,
Of course, it's a step promotion, don't
you know; but It's bore. Tentin's jolly
lot better, especially with the plague ca
reering along. Camps the place in plague
time Can do as you like there. Cholera?
Same thing as cholera? Huh, not much!
Choleras easy. There's cholera every
high Nile. There's plague too, oftener'n
folks known, Stars that goes. They cal
1t typhus, aggravated typhus don't you
know. But cholera? Cholera is as much
healthier than this pimply Johnny they're
having down east as-as beer is healthier
than water" and the young engineer. who
with his smooth. fresh face looked little
more than a boy drained his glass with a
sigh of satisfaction.
Wen get it hot" he resumed in the
long waits of the table d'hote service.
Soda al be dear. Cholera is deucedly ex-
penslVe. Smallweed-you known Small
Weed-tubbed himself in fizz water all last
summer. Talk about Cleopatra's milk
paths Good sort, Smallweed, but boiled
water is fairish tub for me.
Cholera is nothing. 1t was bad.
though, two years ago. Saw 'em in Fay
UNI carrying out the dead every night.
Dozens. On donkeys. Did em up in bags
ike grain. No cholera there. you know.
Natives wouldn't report 1t. No doctor
sent for Howled all night though, so a
fellow couldn't sleep"
You were in camp that season."
asked.
Yes; lost my leave. Got my notice same
as always; You are entitled to six weeks
leave. Down at the foot they had writ
ten In Sir So and So will be pleased if
you do not take any leave this year
what could fellow do? Hard work, too.
Moved camp every three days Kept
things clean. Thirsty work, too. We
have weather up the Mile. It's not so
oeastly cold as it is in Cairo. l have a
nasty throat here all the time. Didn't
drink drop of water in six months.
Beer? Rather not Not in cholera time.
Went into chemists. Saw some kind of
fizz water. Asked him how much he'd
got. Said he said ten dozen bottles. III
take the lot says l. Used to have It sent
to camp a little at timeTheres a heap
of money In soda in high Nile
You ought to have seen the sanitary
rules l had In that camp. That's the
beauty of camp; you get something like
your own way. l had kit inspection twice
day, before meals. to see If those fell
lows hadn't struggled in some stomach
ache stun, cucumbers or radlshes, don't
you know. Eat green truck? My men had
their bacili cooked for them,if you please.
What did they drink? Water boiled.
Took on five extra men; put 'em on the
day. Men washed in boiled water, when l
was looking, anyhow. That sort of thing
made paratiine stoves dear. Wood, too.
Olive wood don't burn well. A palm
trunks a find. Men used to have a Jolly
good scrub before eating. Nearly took
the hide off 'em. AS for the one that went
TO the village for supplies, l offered to
boil him. Didn't take me, though.
"Beastly nuisance, that's what cholera
Is, resumed the young engineer, after
slowing away generous portion of sal
adj Used to sleep with one ear open.
Had to so after the men when they ran
away. They'd break for town in the mid
die of the night to get a bellyful of raw
germs. Had to saddle and gallop for
them. Do? Round EN- up, as you Amer
leans say, and give 'em the butt OF my
whip If they wouldn't trot hack to camp
peaceably. Tie 'em up when l got 'om
there. My lickin's did me good when I
was Il XIII lneSe ARABS are grown up
kids. They know when they need a tan
min and feel better when they've got il.
OF course, the regulations of the service
don't mention whip butts, but / couldn't
have worked interrupted and a dozen
breaks in my canals, just because some
fool Arabs chose to tumble down with
cholera. Rather not!
Had only one ease in my camp Pulled
him through Joke on Inglis. Had the
next camp 20 mine, Inglis did and one
of his Yussufs went wrong in his insides
same time as mine. Won a fiver from In
gls, betting whose man would get along
best. Awful bore, having to work all day
and keep hot plasters on a man all night.
Fellow gets tired after awhile"
The young engineer looked as unscarred
by care and as innocent of the world as a
baby He may have been %. At a pinch.
a year or two older.
Lots of cholera among the Bedouins,"
he began again. "Died by hundreds in
the GASES. l wouldn't let anybody come
into my camp except our own men, Kent
a revolver handy. Fired over their heads
II Bedouins hove in sight. Got so they
didn't dare come within five miles OF mo.
Why, they'd sneak IN In the night and
sleep IN a mans blanket, II II wasn't for
gunpowder."
where's the plague now2'
TEL you exactly where IL il. It's at
Djoddah. You know what that means.
Seaport FOR Mecca. Place where pilgrims
set together and have a happy time and
about the Black Death IN the school his
tories; how It used TO start In the east and
travel through Europe like new music