The Globe-republican., 1899-05-04


Democracy
Less than $50 miles northwest from
Mount Sinai. to which the Lord de-
scended in fire and said: Remember
the Sabbath day to keep it holy, Queen
Vlctoria's third son, the Duke Of Con-
naught, few Sundays ago laid the
mortar on the foundation stone for the
greatest work Egypt has seen since the
pyramids were built.
The structure thus begun is the dam
across the Nile at Assouan, and is to
De the biggest thing OF its kind in the
world. 1t will bring to the land OF
the Pharaohs the greatest change 1t
has known since Moses, Graded in the
waters Of this same old Nile, led the
children Of Israel out of this same old
Egypt
Comparatively little has been said
about the wonderful work now going
on at Assouan as fast as 5000 workmen
and an army of engineers can push it,
because the scene of operations is so
Tar away from the newspapers. 1t is
twenty-four hours journey by rail
from Cairo. Hence it has not been
generally realized that the purpose of
this dam is to turn $500 square miles
OF Egypt-a distance more than half
the size OF the state OF Connecticut
from desert into a garden so fertile
that three crops a year can be raised
on il. Egypt's productive capacity
will be increased one-fourth, and it is
said that her output Of raw sugar will
be at least doubled.
Lord Rosebery, who is somewhat
given to epigram, once observed that
"the Nile is Egypt, and Egypt is the
Nile" That part Of the country which
has been able to keep its irrigation
canals filed from the river has been
phenomenally productive, and the rest
Of it has been more or less a desert.
according to how much help it can get
at odd times from Father Nile. The
work of the new dam will be to store
up the water from the food season and
distribute it for irrigation in new ter
ritory to build up new Egypt. The
dam will be mile and quarter long,
and will rise straight up 300 feet from
the bed of the river, creating at its
back a lake IA miles long, and, in the
food season, 66 feet deeper than nature
intended 1t is estimated that the res
ervoir thus created will hold /, zoo, OOO,-
600 tons of water.
There is one feature of this vast en-
terprise that will break the heart of
the archaeologist and cause the tourist
to weep. John Bull made few caus-
tic comments on American lack of po-
try and sentiment when it became ap-
parent that the diversion of great
quantities of water from above Mag
ara Falls for the manufacture of cleo
tricity to turn all the wheels in the
neigh borhood might interfere with the
beauty of the cataract to which all the
world and his wife go on their wedding
Journey. What then shall be said of
John Bull and his dam on the Nile,
for. in spite of all equivocations, it
seems to be certain that this practical
enterprise is going to spoil the ruins of
the temple of Philae, which stand on
a tiny island in the river just above
the dam, and within sight Of it.
There was such a hue and cry 1t
first about the impending doom of this
little garden spot of Egypt's ancient
gods that the engineers looked around
a second time for some other location
for the dam, but there was no other
place where nature had done so much
to save expense as on the present site.
and so the matter was compromised by