Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-01-08
BEARS TRAVELLERS FROM THE
TOWN OF PORT SAID.
Discomfort Caused by the Clouds Of
sand-Rewards That Were Given
Ismail and De Lesseps.
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star and
Chicago Record Herald.


| Its original purpose was to haul away the
| dirt that was taken out of the ditch and
| dump it on the DESERT then it was used 10
| transport supplies from one point on the
! canal to another; and finally, when Port
| Said became a great port of entry 1or pas
sengers the rails were relaid, the track pal
lasted and diminutive cars put on, hauleo
by locomotives that look like tops, put 90
their business WELL This line runs the en-
tire length of the canal, which is eighty
seven miles, parallel with the banks, ana
belongs to the canal company. Recently
the Egyptian government has made an ar
rangement SO that the track Will De
widened to a standard gauge. and hereafter
through trains can be run from one end OF
Egypt to the other. Rails and iron ties are
stacked up on both sides of the track the
entire distance between Port Said and ~
malta, and thousands of men are at WORK.
1t is comparatively easy to oulld Iali
way in this section of Egypt, because there
is no rain no frost. no rocks, no grace, no
curves and no instructions but hillocks OF
sand. At the same time the drifting OF the
sand is continuous and compeis the raii
ways to keep gangs Of men constantly at
work shoveling it off the right of way. II
is even worse than the snow in the north
ern latitude of the United States.
Ismail and De Lesseps.
The only permanent reward the khedive
Ismail receives for the hundreds OF mil
lions Of dollars he spent on the canal ana
for the loss of his throne is the honor OF
having the little town of Ismalia named
after him. The present generation remem-
bers his splendor and his extravaganza. ana
there are many still living who attenoed
the festivities he arranged at the opening
of the canal at cost of 81, OOOOOO They
remember his folly and his sins also, ana
he will pass into the traditions Of the
country as the most luxurious and the
greatest spendthrift of all the Pharoahs;
but, as l tell you, the name OF the little
town is all the recognition he gets.
And De Lessaps does not even get that
much. All he has is monument at the
end Of the long breakwater which extends
into the Mediterranean; at the mouth OF
the canal. 1t was put there in order to
make the current sconr its own channel,
and the company has utilized 1t as pedes-
tai for bronze statue OF the genius VINO
converted Africa into an island and planned
and carried out the most important pubic
Improvement yet made by men. De Lesseps
expected a dukedom.t Perhaps he would
have been gratified II the empire had sur
vived, but that figure of bronze and 1T
tie strip of ribbon indicating the very com
mon distinction of belonging to the French
Legion of Honor. are the only public recog-
| milton he ever received His family enjoys
an annuity of $4,000 from the company in
exchange for certain rights ana STOCK
which they surrendered.
There is a striking lesson in the career
and fate of De Lesseps. He was great, but
not square" His whole career was DIS
graced by the use of brides and blackmall.
He corrupted everybody he wanted TO reach
from the emperor of France and the sultan
of Turkey to the doorkeepers in the palace
of the khedive and the clerks in the cham
Der Of deputies at Paris 1t Is the common
opinion that at least one-half of the $780,
COO 600 that the canal cost was either stolen
or wasted or otherwise diverted from an
honest purpose by the extravaganza and
wastefulness Of the managers of the COM
pany.
Sand That Follows One.
At Ismalia we change into a new train
of excellent and comfortable cars. They
are built on the English pattern and came
from England. They gave us good dinner
at 81 % in the dining car, well cooked and
we'll served and the train made thirty miles
an hour over a smooth track, which Is
great improvement upon what one expert
ences in Spain, Italy and southern Europe.
| The sleeping system for long journeys
is quite as good equal to the best in Eu-
rope, although Americans prefer the open
Pullmans to the narrow little compartments
| they compelled to occupy over here.
And in Egypt the closets into which the
| sleeping cars are divided are the more OBJ
| jectionable because they cannot be ven
| tilated. The sand stirred up by the rush
| Of the train would sufocate the passengers
everything is closed up tight and there are
double windows. 1t is impossible to have
anything open.
|. An American lady to whom I was COM
| planning of this replied that if we should
| open the windows of our sleeping compart-
| ments they would not be able to find us in
| the morning. We would be buried under
| the sand. AS 1t is, everything is covered
| with thick coating in a very few mo-
ments, and the porter has to go about with
| brush keeping the seats and the window
| stills clear. Every time the train stops men
with feather busters go through the first
| and second-class carriages before the new
passengers are admitted.
Crude petroleum, which has been used so
successfully on the road between PhiladeI-
| phia and Atlantic City to keep down the
| sand, and in other parts of the country
| where there has been similar trouble, has
| never been tried in Egypt. And I suppose
| that 1t would be useless. There is too much
One cannot Oil the whole desert
Egypt's Railways.
The Egyptian railways mostly belong to
| the government. The total system on the
LIST of last January was 2,173 miles. of
which 1893 miles belong to the state and
| $50 miles to private companies. Most of
| the private roads re&narrow-gauge spurs
and feeders which connect the sugar mills
and other manufactures with the public
| roads. Two-thirds Of the railway tracks
| are in lower Egypt. With Cairo as focus,
they spread out like fan. through the coun-
try drained by the delta of the Nile Alex
andria, the greatest seaport of Egypt, Is
the extreme terminus to the westward, and
Port Said, the mouth OF the Suez canal,
| marks the western edge of the fan. From
Cairo track runs southward along the
bank Of the Nile for several hundred miles.
and is gradually being extended toward the
interior Before the end of another year
| 1t will be possible to reach Khartoum with
out changing cars. Indeed, there is now
but a small gap between Assouan at the
| first cataract and Wadf-Haifa at the second
| For military purposes as well as for civil
! lization and trade 1t is the intention of the
government to push the railway up into
| the Soudan country as fast as possible,
and before many years tourists can go
from the Mediterranean to the heart of the
! Dark Continent upon train de luxe with
| sleeping and dining cars.
The Egyptian railways are economically