The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-07-03
MOSLEMS JOIN TO BUILD
A RAILROAD TO MECCA

| by sea to Jedda, and they will never
use the pilgrims railroad.
Mohannedan merchants of Calcutta
have recently forwarded $4,000 ster-
ling. Lucknow has sent 90, 600 rupees:
4,0V0,000 pidSterS have come from Bur-
ma and Southern India.
| The Beirut Hadikat Ell Akhbar says
that the work of collecting funds is
| now splendidly organized in India and
| that l66 commissions have charge of it,
Even Natal and Australia are sending
| their mite.
In the Turkish empire a special tax
has been established for the railroad
1 of the HedjaZ; in addition to this the
entire official class are required to pay
a small percentage of their salaries.
Each new employe must give an en-
| tire months salary; and all pay 10 per
cent of their salary for May each year.
circumstances have brought about
| important changes in original plans.
] The idea of building the road originat-
ed with the second secretary of the
sultan, Mehemet Izzet Pasha. a little
over four years ago.
| 1t was enthusiastically a5onted nv
the sultan, and his decision was an
nounced by an trade in July, 1900. The
sultan had some visionary ideas that
vanished as his railroad education
progressed
He first decided that no material or
LABOR not OF Moslem origin should be
employed; but today foreign steel is
being imported and Italian and Aus
TRAN laberers are working on the road
! bed. The first plan was TO make the
track broad gauge, but the line is adj
! Yane1ng as narrow gauge road.
Of course Turkey had no competent
engineers for such an enterprise, and
so the entire work is materializing I'M
der foreign direction.
Few white persons have eyer tray-
eled along even the northern part Of
| this route. From Damascus 1t takes q
| southerly direction parallel with the
Jordan valley and the Dead sea. and
| from Twenty-Five to thirty miles west
Of them. -
| Some distance below the Dead sea
the route suddenly turns to the south
| east to cross the wide red sand waste
| of Northern Arabia extending nearly
1 to Medina. Then the road strikes
| south again to Mecca.
| The length of the entire line, Damas-
Gus to Mecca, will be 1,854 miles. The
I first section, Dana sous to Amman, 40
miles through fruit and grain lands.
was completed in September last. THE
second section, Amman to Ell Hassan.
1e2 miles, dry and bleak, is now nearly
finished, the track having been carried
/ to the south Of the Dead sea. The
third section, FL Hassan to Mahan,
sixty-twe miles long, is now being
| graded and the rails will probably be
laid before the end of the year. Sur
yeys are il progress in the desert be-
I! yond Mahan
Thus about third of the road viii
/ be ready for operation this year. but
progress across the desert may be slow.
NO one knows how much the work
| may be delayed by the possible hos
tif1ty of Bedouin tribes or the arid ma
| ture Of the country
The pleasant and easier part of the
| work was at an end last year, for the
| Whole country is as dry as a bone along
| the southern four fifths of the route.
For at least two-thirds of the way
! the road is never likely to have any
business excepting the transportation
OF pilgrims--wflo, about 1910. may
| travel between Damascus and Mecca
| in two to three days, a journey now
made with difficulty and danger In
five or six months.