The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1900-09-06
LAND OF THE SPHINX
EGYPT COUNTRY OF STRANGE
CONTRASTS.
Where the Implements of Pharach's
Time May Be Seen from a Modern
Trains Window-The Cradle of Civ
iIizatiOn. 81

4OOh0 LpOA AlIlCd DIS d udIh COALlACuL
in everything-even in railways, says
a returned westerner. Yet the fact is
that the Egyptian railways are better
run than many American ones The
railway that runs from Alexandria to
upper Egypt is n after which many
American railways might pattern. 1t
is a double-track road. 1t has heavy
steel rails. The track is we'll ballast
ed. 1t has an elaborate system of sig
nal towers and pneumatic switches.
Much of it's roadway is lined with
heavy cut stone masonry parapets. It's
station platforms are also built of cut
stone masonry. Its station buildings
are of stone. It's bridges ard other
viaducts are of steel. Its trains run
smoothly and swiftly, averaging IS
miles an hour. There are many cross
ings in which the railway is carried
over the roadway on steel viaducts;
the few grade crossings are guarded
by gates, with gatekeepers. Signal men
with flags stand at all switches, sta
lions and crossings. Altogether the
equipment and operation of the road
are admirable. For hundreds of miles
this modern railway goes through the
fertile fields of Egypt-most incongru-
u amid the primitive methods of
~husbandry to be noted there.
For as the express trains whirl and
shrek past the toiling fellaheen in the
fields you see that they are using the
same primitive implements that their
forefathers used when Pharaoh reign
ed. They still pillow with a simple wood
en- implement, hauled by patient buff
falo oxen. They still l~aboriously lift
water with a sweep to the
head level of irrigating bitches.
They still use the sickle, as
they did in the days when
Ruth followed the reapers of Boaz.
And they still carry their bundles OF
fodder upon the backs of patient asses,
or, in default of asses backs, upon
their own.
Of course, all agriculture in Egypt is
not on such rudimentary lines. Rich
men and corporations own land as
we'll as fellaheen peasants, and many
tall chimneys testify to the existence
of pumping works. Then, too, the
Egyptian government has damned the
Nile at an enormous cost and is en-
gagged in other water storage schemes
that will enlarge the narrow strip of
irrigated land on either bank of the
great river and thereby enlarge the re-
sources of this wonderful country.
To talk of its temples, it's pyramids,
it's ruins and it's dead cities would be
telling twice-told tales. But no man
can gaze on this fiat and fertile river
valley without being amazed at it's
productiveness. / have been shown in
wasteful A~nglo-Saxon had exhausted
by two centuries of tobacco-raising.
But here in Egypt I see fields still as
fertile as when the first dynasty be-
gan, although they have been titled for
1000 years.
Some historians believe that Egypt
was the cradle of our Aryan civiliza-
ton. Here, they say, nomadic man
paused at the great river when wan
dering from Arabia-Felix into Africa.
Gradually those tired of wandering set
tied upon the fat and juicy banks of
the Nile river and began a fitful hus-
bandry of the soil. Gradually villages
grew up and thrift brought peace and
prosperity. The rich lands were di-
vided among the villagers. TLis was
the beginning of real property. The
property boundaries were annually OBJ
liberated by the rise of the Nile; regu-
lations were made to settle disputes
concerning them; this was the begin
ming of law. Wise men among the viii
layers observed that the sun. moon
and stars had much to do with the vol
ume of the Nile food; this was the be-
ginning Of astronomy. The simpler
villagers looked with awe upon these
wise men who spent their time COM
muning with the stars; this was the
beginning of the priesthood.
The priests soon claimed super
natural knowledge of the celestial
bodies and imposed rules regarding
the and conduct of men and
ordered the villagers to follow them
and to erect temples wherein these
rules should be expounded; this was
the beginning of religion. But the
fierce nomads of the desert found profit
in marrying and plundering the weak
er villagers by the riverside. There
fore the priests chose from among the
villagers those who were not only
brave but crafty, cunning and leaders
of men. These bold and cunning viii
layers succeeded in defeating the ierc-
er nomads by ambuscade and strata
GEM; this was the beginning of the