Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-01-02
Why. You know well enough that that WIN

why. You know well enough that th0t W1u
mean your reinforcement
For q moment Baring's life must have
hung in the balance. The khedive, trained
to despotic authority, had never been
spoken to in that way. He was mad with
rage; he had only to shout to his bodyguard
in the corridor outside and Barring would
have been killed in the twinkling of an eye.
But he thought better of it, and the En-
glishman left the palace with the order in
his pocket"
That was only one of many such scenes.
In time the masterful Briton made the
oriental understand who was the ruler of
Egypt, and then there was no more open
friction: The khedive accepted a life of
luxurious incidence, and Barring governed
his country in his name.
Faced Many Dangers.
But this was not accomplished until he
had passed through hundred perils. Many
another man. besides his Turkish friend.
told Barring that If he went on discharging
officials and busting away the cobwebs Of
centuries of misrule he would certainly be
poisoned by his own cook or stabbed some
dark night as he passed through the dark
alleys OF Cairo. But he went on his way
without needing these warnings.
Fortunately, his English assistants and
aids-de-camp were alive to his danger
and formed kind of bodyguard to watch
him night and day. Plot after plot against
his life was discovered, but the facts were
never made public-1ust as numerous an
archical attempts against the lives of Euro
pean soyereigns are carefully kept secret.
One day, at public audience, ragged
dervish approached Barring, carrying long
roll Of parchment. The guards, supposing
that the man wanted to present petition,
Garstin, who is now under secretary of
state for public works in Egypt, stepped up
to him, gripped his right wrist, and gave it
a sharp twist. With a howl Of pain the
ha nd nd mi
had been concealed in the roll of parch-
ment fell Gathering on the marble pave
ment of the hall.
One night. in 1885, an English tourist was
found dead in the streets of Cairo. He
had been stabbed three times in the back.
His watch and purse had not been stolen,
and the police officers could not at once
comprehend the motive Of the crime. At
the corpse, exclaimed:
Il have 1t! Don't you see that he Is
rather like the British agent in face and
figure? Those knife thrusts were meant for
Mr.. Barring"
Bore a Charmed Life.
Trusted servants in the Barring house,
hold had to be discharged or sent to prison
again and again because they were involved
in assassination plots. So it went on, for
months and years. until at last the supersti-
tious natives became convinced that Barring
bore a charmed life and would not lift a
finger against him. Today he is as safe in
Cairo as he would be in London. The Egyp-
tians idolize him, because he has released
them from bondage as effectually as Moses
released the Israelites.
1T has been my consistent aim he said
some time ago. Ito 80 govern Egypt that
every peasant would be sure of reapng that
which he has sown and enjoying life Of
comfort in recompense for his toll. When l
first made tour Of inspection up the Nile
no IN
1ectors and usurers. They were ground be-
tween the upper and the neither millstones.
1.-THE tax collector extorted, with many
stripes. ten times as much as the law called
for. and pocketed the difference. The usurer
lent money on the next crop at LOCO per
cent interest and took the entire fruit of
the fellah's labor in payment. Even that
d4u not settle the debt, and the poor man
dragged on from year to year, always in the
clutches Of the money lender. The debt was
carried forward from generation to genera
ton. / have known men who had been
striving all their lives to pay their grand
fathers debts and leave a clean sheet for
their children.
New Order Of Things.
1--WE have changed all that If a man
needs to borrow money nowadays in order
to plant his crops he can go to the national
bank. which has branches in all the large
towns, or to the governments agricultural
bank, which lends to farmers and peasants
at reasonable rates Of interest. Taxes have
been reduced, although the revenue has
been greatly increased, and care is taken
that the people pay only that which the
government receives
Lord Cromers moral courage is as great
as his physical bravery. When Hicks
Pasha's army was annihilated and Gordon
persisted at Khartoum there went up
throughout Great Britain mighty clamor
for immediate revenge Cromer slngle-
hot nj ax,l
quered it. He knew an immediate advance
against the Mahdists would lead only to
further disasters like those which had be-