Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1904-06-02
CAIRO A PERPETUAL SHOW.
Nowhere Else Are There such viva
CnIor md striking Contrast.

Cairo reminds one OF an impreSsiOniSt
picture 1t is so unreal, the colors are
So uunaturalIy bright and the costumes
and the manners OF the people 50 dif-
ferent from what we are accustomed
To. The scenery and the actors ap-
near 10 belong to another 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
.alf oriental, half EurOpean-th that
passes back and forth on foot on horse
back, in carriages, on camels ana
astride diminutive donkcys
Every nation Of the earth seems to be
represented, and the present touches
fingers with the past wherever you
may look. Under the glare of an elcc-
tric light you see venerable Arab sheiks
wearing the same robes and leaning
upon the same sort of staff that was
used when Abraham was Il boy, and
ScribcS with inkstands made from the
horns of cattle and pens whitfield from
reeds sit at the street corners and at
the threshold of the postotiice, writ
ing letters at the dictation of patrons
whose fingers have never been taught
to frame their thoughts in words.
Go block from the most modern of
modern hotels and clubs, and you will
come face to face with stately patri-
archaI 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 balcony of the min
arets, and devout MoSlems drop down
on the pavement to pray. Water car
riers with the same sheepSllin and pig
skin bottles that were used by the
patriarchs rub up against English
grooms in top boots and silk hats; sher-
bet 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. Merchants, bankers lawyers,
soldiers, bcggars, guides, policemen,
meet and dodge each other
Officials from the foreign office and
the treasury, conscious of their impor-
tance and responsibility and dressed in
the smartest of modern French tailor
ing, halt at the crossing to avoid an
Egyptian lady riding astride upon a
donkey with her bare feet in velvet
slippers and her face covered with a
musty black veil. Syrians in long, bag
~ trousers and braided jackets; Bed
ouins in flowing robes of brown and
white stripes, whose turbans indicate
the clan to which they belong; Persians
with tall caps of brown camers hair,
Nubians with faces as black as coal,
Egyptian felahin in ragged blue shirts
and feZZes of red felt, COpt priests
in long black gowns like those worn
by our judiciary and sharp edged stove
pipe hats, EngliShmen in pith helmets
and khaki suits, keen eyed Algerians in
white robes, and representatives of ev-
cry other race and nation elbow one
another as they pass along the side
walk, talking with nervous gesticula-
tons.
There is nothing like 1t elsewhere in
the world. 1t is new and novel to the
oldest traveller, and one must have seen
the strange picture for himself to ap-
prcciate how unique and how fascinat-
ing ii is.-Chicago Record Herald.