Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-02-06
At THE PORT OF ADEN
Great Coaling Station for the
Naval Vessels.
AS HOT AS ANY PLACE
NO VEGETATION OR ANYTHING
GREEN TO BE SEEN.
Regarded as Healthy Place-Popula-
ton is OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
Commercial Center.
AS HOT AS ANY PLACE
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.

d
command the southern entrance to the Red
sea- 1t Is not like Gibraltar, which is
solid rock. but is strip of sand surrounded
nv an irregular chain of mountains with
irregular sharp edges, like the towers and
ninnacles of a cathedral The town lies at
its feet, and is mostly made up of one-story
barracks for troops and officers quarters,
with red tiled roofs which glisten in the
sun. There is nothing green visible; there
is no vegetation whatever In sight, and
hotter place does not exist upon the earth.
They call the site of the town the crater,
which is an appropriate name, for 1t Is
little more than cinder heap. AS long ago
as 300 an Arab writer declared that the
heat was so bad that 1t turned wine into
vinegar in a space of ten days.
There are no wells or springs or streams
of water. The people rely upon the rain
fall, which is conducted into cisterns, or
tanks, as they are called, some OF them,
according to tradition, dating back before
the Christian era, for Alden Is a very old
town. The military forces rely upon con-
densing machines which convert salt water
into fresh. There has been no rainfall for
several years, the tanks are dry, and the
entire population is now dependent upon
condensers. Yet Alden Is said to be a
healthy place and the mortality is exceed
ingly low. Another Arab author, writing
at the time of Mohammed, declared that:
Its inhabitants are all hale and strong;
sickness is unknown, nor are there poison
out plants, or animals, or fools, or blind
people and the women are ever young"
Mixture of All Sorts.
This description hardly applies to the
present population which, like that of Port
Said, Singapore, Panama and other similar
towns, is made up of mixture of good
bad and Indifferent human beings, including
many derelicts-there being about 10000 Eu
ropeans, Americans, Africans, Asiatics and
representatives of every corner of the earth
The larger number are ASlatiCS, Arabs, Hin
dus, Egyptians, Turks, Jews, Persans,
Greeks and Italians and Philippians, Singa-
lese, Malays, Iazarks end Sudanese. 1t is
asserted that not a single tribe in Arabia is
without representation, and that every one
of the sixty different human species in India
has two or more Of Its sons among the mot
ley crowd
The town is a semi-circular range of
houses, shows, cafes, banks and offices,
crowded against the base of the mountain,
all in condition of -dilapidation, for
everything goes here, and people Go not
care for appearances. There are a post Of
flee, hospital and four churches-one of
them a mission, which also has charge of
the hospital. The Europeans dress in white
and wear big pith helmets to protect their
heads from the sun. The AsiaticS wear big
turbans and long white flowing robes, under
walk while children wear nothing at all up
to the age of ten, and thereafter little as
the police will allow. The Jews and Greeks
control the mercantile business and are a
fine looking class of men.
There are carriages drawn by cows and
oxen and carts drawn by buffaloes and
camels. Most of the transportation is done
on 1.-The ship of the desert" and the mill
tGry authorities use them for draft animals.
There are fast camels and slow camels, just
there horses horses
and the Arabians breed and train them
skillfully for the purpose for which they
are to be uSed-for riding, or for carrying
burdens. Both kinds are found in Alden,
although a stranger cannot tell them apart
The ordinary camel, such as is used for
caravan purposes. will make sixty miles a
day without difficulty, plodding along
through the sand under a cargo of five or
SIX hundred pounds. a racing camel will
make 100 miles day with two men on his
back. In Arabia camels are absolutely in
despenSable, because no other beasts could
endure the desert heat and go without water
so long as they. The intervals between
watering places are usually twenty-five and
thirty miles. and often twice that distance
An Important Commercial Center.
Alden is the most important shipping
point in Arabia, and gets a large amount
of trade from Africa also. 1t is the most
important commercial center between
more and more important every year as
the east coast of Africa develops. There
is very little progress material develop
ment in Arabia. The country is actually
going backward, although a few miles
back of Alden the province of Yemen is one
of the richest spots on the globe. 1t has
plenty of water and the soil is exceedingly
rich, although there is very little enter
prise among the people. 1t is the coffee
province of Arabia, and formerly produced
mill n pYnOrtS
fallen off enormously of late years.
Coffee is not a native of Arabia, as peo-
pie usually suppose, but was brought into
that country from AbySSinla about the
year 400 by a man whose tomb is still
venerated in Yemen. Three hundred years
later Gen. Van Horne of the Dutch East
India Company picked up few seeds at
the port of Mocha while on his way out to
Java and planted them when he arrived at
Batavia From these seeds the most i'm
portant industry in Java sprang, and 1t is
increasing as rapidly as that Of Arabia is
falling off.
The Port of Jibui.
Across the Red sea from Alden is the port
of Jibuti, in French somaliland. where
Robert P Skinner of Masslon, Ohio, our
consul general at Marseille, has recently
landed with letter from Secretary Hay
to King Menelek of Abyssinia and an invi-
tation for the Abyssinans to participate
in the st. Louis exposition. The gunboat
Machias is waiting at Jibuti while Skin
ner has gone to Ads Abeda, the capital or
Abyssinia, but he will be back, and the re-
suits of his mission will no doubt be pub
lished before this letter is in print. There
is a good deal of curiosity all around about
this incident in the east. People out here
will insist upon regarding it as clever
diplomatic maneuver on the part or the
United States. Everywhere you go now
adays, especially since the Panama epf-
sode you will find Uncle Sam with repu-
tation as a landgrabber,- like the rest or
the progressive nations. There Is no use
in denying it, for the Englfshmen. French
men, Germans and all other neighbors
whom you meet in the smoking room of an
ocean steamer smile incredulously when
you explain that the United States has no
imperial policy, and that our intentions
in Abyssinia are purely commercial. 1t is
a pity that we didn't go there years ago.
The king is very much afraid of the Euro
pean powers, particularly of the four great
nations, and will have nothing to do with
the subjects of any of them. He will en-
ploy only Swiss. Belgians, Dutchmen and
Danes because he feels that their govern
ments will not interfere with his affairs
He weleomes anybody from the United