The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-05-23

In the present again, and the Halfa Of to-
day is the Egypt of to-day. Halfa has left
OFF being fortress and a garrison: to-day
It is all workshops and railway terminus.
To-day it makes war, not with bayonets.
out with rvets and spindle-glands. Rail-
trains and trucks clank up and down till
Halfa looks for all the world like Chicago
IN tur5an. In chains. too, for 20 Halfa
come all the worst Williams of Egypt You
must know that till the other day no Egyp-
tian could be hung for murder except on
the evidence of eye-witnesses, just the peo-
pie whom most murderers strive to avoid.
so the, rails and sleeperS are Slung ashore
to the jingle of ankle chains, and after a
day in Halfa it startles you no way to hear
mat the black foreman of the engine shop
dld his fiVe murders, and that, nevertheless.
ne is a most intelligent industrious. and
harmless creature. On the contrary, you
find it admirable that Egypt's rufians are
doing Egypts work 4f8
Halfa clangs from morning till night with
rails lassoed and drawn up a sloping pair
or their fellows by many convicts onto
trucks; it thuds with sleepers and bones of
bully beef dumped onto the shore. AS you
strange rails and sudden enginelamps fash
IN your face, and warning whistles scream
IN your ears. AS you lie at night you hear
the plug-plug of the goods engines nearer
and nearer till it sounds as if ii must
be walking in at your tent door. From the
shops of Halfa the untamed Soudan Is being
tanned at last. 1t is the new system, the
modern system, mind and mechanics beating
muscle and shovel-head spear. 1t takes up
and digests all the past the bits of Ismairs
railway came into the Dongola line; the en-
CINE of Wolseleys time has been rebuilt,
and is running again; the artillery barracks
are store for all things pertaining to en-
glDes. They are all coming together now
for the victorious end, ready to enter for
the fifth act and the final curtain of Khar-
toum.
But that is not ali Halfa and it is not all
the Soudan. Looking at it hence from its
threshold, the Soudan seems like a strong
and swift wild beast that many hunters
have pursued, none Subdued. The Soudan
is observation-disclosures but still insa-
table. Turn your ponys head and canter
out a mile; we are at the cemetery No
need to dismount. or even read the names:
see merely how full it is. Each white cross
Go and hear the old inhabitants talk-the
men who have contrived to live year in.
year out; in the, Soudan, in splitting sun
and red-hot sand. You will notice it best
with the men who are less trained to take
a pull on their sentiment than are British
off1cers-with the. foreman engineers and
| the foreman mechanics and all the other
| plain, efficient Englshmen who are at work
| on Halfa. Their talk is half Of the chances
| who have died.
Poor Bill, e died at Habu AIMED. Yes;
'es ere in the cemetery; No; there wasn't
was poor Captain Blank; real wise man,
he was: no better in all the Egyptian army:
sir. and tell you that that's laying good
| deal, that is. Fought too: ne was engaged
| to a girl at home, you know, sir, and he
| wouldn't give up. j nursed him till the
| doctor come, and then till the end. Didn't
you see him when you was out. at the ceme-
"Ah yes says the third; don't you re-
member that night out at Murat-poor
| Blank, and poor Dash, and poor Tertius,
and you and me. Five we were, and now
| there's only us two left. Dear, yes: and I
| slept in Tertius bed the night before he
took it,; he was gone and buried forty,eight
no. thirty-six. it was--thrty-six hours
| later. All. yes; he was a good fellow, too.
| To see the way those niggers criedH'
| Yes, it is a murderous devil, the Soudan.
! and we have watered it with more of our
blood than 1t will ever yield to pay for.
| The man-eater is very grim and he is not
| stated yet. Only this time he will be con-
| quered at last.