Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-07-18

engineering, law and medicine. Now
 good preparatory schools have been es- tablished, and only their graduates are admitted to the professional colleges. In these schools Arabic is thoroughly taught; two European languages are etudied, one thoroughly and one slight ly; also geometry, drawing, geography, history, chemistry and physics. Three fourths of the pupils choose French as the principal European language and learn to speak it we'll; they also learn little English and pick up smatter-
 ing of Italian.
 You mustn't compare Egyptian schools with those of Europe," said In- spector in Chief Douglas Dunlop to me.
 .'In land of 6,O0o,000 or more souls, we
 have only about 10000 pupils. 1t is not at general education we are aiming.
 The first need is to supply good ma
 terial for the professional schools, to
 train men to enter the civil service. Here in Egypt there is no middle class
 between the fellahin and the pachas.
 and it would be doing no good to edu- cate people to stand around in patent leather shoes and high collars doing
 nothing. Of the Kottabs, or native schools, there are 12,000, and we have no control over them. The only way to get control would be by government
 subvention to each, and we haven't the
 money. The Kottabs teach little be-
 sides the Koran"
 Great prominence is given in the gov
 ernment schools to sciences and draw
 ing, because so many graduates are to
 study medicine and civil engineering. The land survey department, for in-
 stance, was founded by Mason Bey,
 one of the many ex-confederate officers who, after our civil war, entered the
 Egyptian service. There is not one American in the service now, believe.
 Mason Bey was intrigued out of office in 1888, and the department lapsed. It was revived in 1892, and A. R. Bird wood, who was Mason's private secre- tary, and who married an American wife, is now the director.
 There hangs in Birdwood's office the first map of the official resurvey, or cadastre, of Egypt. It is a most thor ough and careful work, requiring years for its completion, and the portion com pleted at a cost of 50,0 ,000 has restored to the government land illegally held which has sold for 175, 1000, and it has
 added g e8,90o annually to the tax list. One gets from this an idea of the in- fuences that busted Mason Bey. The
 map is an excellent piece of work, 1oe Fo box of tive engineers.
 MT. Birdwood's survey confirms the
 impression that Egypt is growing; that the area of cultivated land is increas- | ing This is possible because better
 canals and sharper supervision prevent | water waste and in part because of | the increasing cultivation of cotton, ! which requires little irrigation. Egyp- | tian cotton is sold to some extent in the ' United States, and American eonsuls
 have testified that it reaches the GUS | toner in heater, better bales than the l American average. Birdwood's depart | ment is introducing the culture of many Indian, European and American trees and vegetables. The agricultural col- | lege makes a wonderful exhibit at the Cairo flower and vegetable show. The people are encouraged by fair taxation to take up more land. Of course taxa ton is not low. The country is still paying for Ismail's folly, not to speak
 of other things better worth while; but it is more equitably taxed; and year by year the burden is reduced and sim plifed. The system of bribes and
 bakahish cannot be abolished all at
 once. but there Is improvement, even | among the native officials.
 I have not thus far mentioned the Khedive Abbas II. Hilmy The omission is not fatal. In appearance, Abbas is
 an all-powerful ruler. Everything is done by order of the khedive; but he | is a figure head A smooth-featured young man of 23, he looks as if his life
 were an easy one, it's problems mainly
 solved for him. His face is neither so strong nor so careworn and thought full as that of his nominal suzerain, Abdul Hamid of Turkey.
 But Abdul Hamid is so unfortunate
 as to be a real ruler.
 JOHN LANGDON HEAToN. Du Maurfer's Trick.