Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1904-03-01
CAIRO A PERPETUAL SHOW.
Nowhere Slse Is There Such Vivid
Co,or and Such Striking Contrast.

" anu SnSH SttiNun9 CONTRAST
Cairo reminds one of an impress
si9nIst picture. II is so unreal; the
colors are SO unnaturally bright, and
the costumes and the manners of the
people so different from what we are
accustomed TO. The scenery as well
as the actors appear to belong to an
other world. For the first few days
after your arrival you are satisfied
to sit on the terrace of Shepherds
Hotel and watch the noisy, restless,
ever-changing crowd-haf Oriental.
half European-that passes back and
forth on foot, on horseback, in car
riages. on camels and astride diminu-
tive donkeys.
Every nation of the earth seems to
be represented and the present
touches fingers with the past wher
ever you may look. Under the glare
of an electric light you see veneer
able Arab sheiks wearing the same
robes and leaning upon the some sort
of staff that was used when Abraham
was boy; and scribes with inkstands
made from the horns of cattle and
pens Whitfield from reeds sit at the
street corners and at the threshold of
the post Office, writing letters at the
dictation of patrons whose fingers
thoughts in words.
Go a block from the most modern
of modern hotels and clubs, and you
will come face to face with stately
patriarchal figures in ample turbans,
long vests of Syrian silk and outer
robes of cashmere that seem to have
stepped out of an illustrated Bible,
and as the sun goes down you hear
the call of the mueZzin from the bal
cony of the minarets, and devout Mos
lens drop down on the pavement to
pray. Water carriers with the same
sheepsllin and pigskin bottles that
were used by the patriarchs rub up
against English grooms III top boots
and silk hats, sherbet and licorice
water and lemonade sellers, with tin
cans and brass cups. which they clink
like castanets, gossip with peddlers of
post cards and wax matches. Mer-
chants, bankers, lawyers, soldiers,
beggars, guides, policemen meet and
dodge each other
Officials from the foreign Office and
the treasury, conscious of their i'm
portance and responsibility, and
dressed in the smartest of modern
French tailoring, halt at the crossing
to avoid an Egyptian lady riding
astride upon donkey with her bare
feet in velvet slippers and her face
covered with rusty black veil. Syr-
ians in long baggy trousers and braid
ed packets, Bedouins in flowing robes
of brown and white stripes, whose
turbans indicate the clan to which
they belong; Persians with tall caps
of brown cancels hair; Nubians with
faces as black as coal; Egyptian fell
laheen in ragged blue shirts and
fezes of red felt; Copt priests in long
black gowns like those worn by our
judiciary and sharp-edgeG stovepipe
hats; Englishmen in pith helmets and
khaki suits; keen-eyed Algerians in
white robes, and representatives of
every other race and nation elbow
one another as they pass along the
sidewalk, talking with nervous ges-
ticulations.
There is nothing like it elsewhere
in the world. 1t is new and novel to
the oldest traveller. and one must have
seen the strange picture for himself
to appreciate how unique and how fas-
cinating it is.-Chicago Record-Her-
aid,