Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1898-02-20

d opdiIdIu " AhS ~ & AZ " OSStb
or some traveller is caught beyond the
three-mile limit and snickarsneed on gen.
eral principles, things are too dull to be
interesting.
Where Everything Goes.
No, the one town on earth where a man
can steep his SOU In every sort Of moral
perversity from plain assault and battery
n unmitigated drunk to the French
balliest kind of French ball cancan; the
town where apparently nearly every man
is vile and only the prospect pleases: a
town whose delirious d~elinquencies know
only one drawback, hereafter to be mem
toned. a town where-well. not to put on
the revelation any longer. the New York
World says, Cairo Is Its name. and 1t Is
to be found in Egypt, Africa, by any one
who is looking for a really live place.
Take me somewhere east of Suez. where
the best is like the worst.
Where there amt no Ten Commandments.
and man can raise a thirst.
Cairo isn't east Of Suez. but It's near
enough. The rainfall is less tina an inch
a year. The Libyan desert and the Arab
ian desert are on each side of 1t, and thirst
grows without cultivation. A man doesn't
The theory is that Cairo is so far away
st. Petersburg that any one h has
money enough to travel with has money
to burn. 1t comes pretty near being true:
Prices are higher for the foreigner and
lower for the native than anywhere else
VII ] CASCpl, SSsASh
five cents for a B. and s; is one side
Of the financial situation. The other is to
buy six delicious Mandarin oranges for
21a cents of a native dealer-if you know
him. Wages are 10 cents a day. and hotel
tariffs up to the Waldorf-Astoria level.
The Sport of the Town.
Sport in Cairo is not one-sided. 1t has
many phases. There are horse races con-
stantiy throughout the long, hot winter.
and betting is furious. Bare-fist prize
fighting Is one of the amusements. Per-
haps if Corbett and Fitzsimmons wanted
to pull off a bare-knuckle match in Cairo
sirabIe advertising matter would be printed
about it. But Tough, red-headed English
and Irish private soldiers in her majesty,s
ously every week for a few e. s., d.
Tuesday night is generally recognized as
sacred to the prize ring. as Saturday night
or rather Sunday mornings to the can
can.
Cairo has a population of 10000 natives
and a few thousand floating whites. There
are 300 excellent native policemen. but their
usefulness in preventing mischief. by white
rioters is considerably hampered by the
system of consular courts: The mixed
court is mpoS of numbers OF men OF
different nations. Americans included. who
wear the fez in token that they are Egyp.
tian savants and judge native cases. II
he is taken before the consul of his nation
and is not as a rule very harshly judged.
The government is in the main excellent.
but there are these little peculiarities.
Murder Unpunished.
A few years ago a white man might even
commit murder and escape any punishment
il his consul was good natured about it.
A Greek murderer did in this way avoid
punishment not long ago. The Greeks of
Egypt almost monopolize the money-lend-
ing business and the selling of rum to
natives. Some of them even run amer
TO- hos A f,rrny SiUn in AlayanH~i9 IC
"Hadgy Nadad, American Dentist" The
word american" is badly abused.
One of the main streets in the white
quarter Of Cairo Is lined on both sides by
on Greene street. in New York: fifteen
years or SO age; The girls are white. and
speak every civilized language after a fash.
bars" by courtesy. and indeed much bad
liquor Is consumed in them. No one eN-
cept the ever drinks water in
to get the mud out. but Is supposed to
carry cholera: germs. and probably does.
The Young women OF easy manners in
less frequently, and-most common of all
the nondescript Levantines of mixed races
who speak the Lingua Franco. a rag-tag
and bobtail of all the Latin tongues. which
is good from Athens to HongkOng.
Along this main street whips crack all
night. 1t never sleeps. though it Is rather
sleepy in the forenoon. There are great
dance halls, where dusky native women of
indescribable ugliness go through the pc
culiar gymnastics that have been observed
But II a visitor wishes to see even the
stomach dance made viler. he seeks one
Of the fairs held In the suburbs on holt
days, at Matarlyeh particularly. and
watches the wandering mountebanks per
form with disgusting gesticulation. The
songs suns on these occasions are pre-;
There are many respectable English and
sumably rather risky. but they are al
rays in Arabic.