Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-02-06

est imports are milhS 81 supplies, for gar
rison of 5000 men IL ajways kept here by
the British governmknts land all their food
is imported. Many engineers think that the
| 1ortincations are stronger than those at
| Gibraltar, but strangers are not allowed to
l visit them. ALI the public knows is that
the entire mountain is fortified, and that a
i vast amount of money and labor have been
expended to make itrimpregnable. because 1t
commands the approach to the SueZ canal
/ from one direction and is the outpost for
| the protection of Intiia.-~Ali the latest i'm
proyementS In military engineering have
been applied here, and the quick-firing ord
| nance is of the largest caliber and the latest
pattern. The notifications are guarded by
a broad ditch cut OUT OF the solid rock, with
| tween it and the sea. There are mines in
guarded. E11E
Alden is and has always been military
center, even in biblical times. Ezekiel re-
fers to 1T; Christian church was eStab-
l1shed here by the Emperor Constantine in
the year 342, and Christian Abyssinans for
tihed and held 1T for 800 years. The Eng
llsh took it by storm in 1888, and have held
| it ever since
The objects of greatest interest aside from
the fortihcations, which cannot be visited
are the water tanks, into which the rainfall
is conducted by drains and pipes from the
mountain sides. There are about fifty of
| them, ana II they were entirely cleared out
they would have capacity of 10000 900 gal
ioIio VI Wdlei, Out most OF them nave De-
come hlled with dust and rubbish. and only
thirteen are now used, which are capable of
holding 100000 gallons. 1t seems strange
that anybody should care to start a town at
place where there is no water. but the
iidTpor OF Aden seems to have been the at
traction. Some of the tanks, or reservoirs,
as we would call them, were chseled out of
the rock on the mountain side as early as
6eo years before Christ. The oldest ones are
about eighty feet long. forty feet wide and
ten feet deep, and it seems almost incredi-
bic that such great cavities could have been
excavated in the living rock without blast
ing powder but they are not as wonderful
as the rock tombs of Egypt and are not so
old by LOCO years.
People who live at Alden declare that the
climate is not so bad as is generally sup
posed, and that while this may have the
reputation OF being one of the hottest towns
in the world, there is always a cool breeze
blowing and those who are required to live
here know how to make themselves COM
Portable.
We have consul here. w. w Masterson
of Kentucky, who hasn't a thing to do.
There are two other Americans in trade
and several missionaries around on the
coast of the Persian gulf We have no
direct commerce with Arabia. No Ameri-
can ship is ever seen here except an occa-
stonal transport or naval vessel going to or
from the Philippines.
Efforts of Missionaries.
American missionaries arrived here, who
claimed to have been sent by a Brooklyn
church, but they had no money. Rev DR..
j. T. Young, the head of the Scotch mission
and director of the hospital, took them in
and kept them for five months without
compensation. They helped him some and
earned little money doing odd jobs about
town. One took the first opportunity that
offered to go over to Abyssinia. He had an
a mi tn all frio
1ty, and carried with him q map of that
continent printed in black which he pro-
posed to change into white map by
preaching the gospel to the natives but the
poor fellow died Of fever at leila few
months later. His companion secured en-
ployment at manual labor and lived in a
native hut until the government imported a
lot of windmills from Chicago, and he
turned out to be the only man who knew
how to set them UP. This job proved to be
profitable and he earned enough to pay
his steamship fare home and hasn't been
heard from since. = "a
In 1889 Rev. James Cantine of Brunswick,
N. j., and S. NJ Zwemer, of Chicago estab-
ished the first American mission in Arabia
representing the Dutch Reformed Church,
and have since been reinforced by several
medical men, teachers and Bible agents,
who have their headquarters at Muscat, on
the Persian gulf, and have done a great deal
of good in the interior against most dis
e Misr ny e1reumsta1ess warrs IWemer
" v. L
]. Barry and hts wife, Mrs. Margaret
Barry of New York city DIR. F. J. Thoms
and Mrs. Thoms, abeth graduates of the
University of Michigan, and several others
conducting schools. dispensaries and
other benevolent institutions and distrib-
uting Bibles and other Christian books.
They report numerous converts and have
educated several natives who now
nearly competent to assist them.
At Alden thereare regular Church of Eng
land establishment in the town and three
churches, English, Scottish and Roman
Catholic, for the soldiers. with a medical
mission founded by the late Ion Keith Fall
coner professor of the Arabic language and
literature at the University of Cambridge,
who came here as missionary and died
martyr to his zeal. The hospital has been
great blessing to the people, although the
reports of evangelical work are not en-
couraging. They have to catch Mohamme-
dams very young and educate them from
childhood in order to convert them to
Christianity.