The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-09-09
&6TT HE excitement of the arrival
4 at Port Said and the novelty

S6SB~ HE excitement of the arrival
at Port Said and the novelty
of everything connected
with the landing can never be forgot
ten,' said Seignior Perera, his enthu-
siasm rejuvenated by the recollection.
Gin one moment the orient flashes upon
the bewildered traveller: The kaleido-
scope never presented to the child
lures than those that fit before the eye
of the visitor at the portal Of that re-
markable city. It is near where Asia
and Africa are joined and Europe is a
near neighbor; all nationalities gather
there. 'Ah, see,' some one remarks.
there is an Indian And that fel-
low,' shouts another, 'he's Greek,
father instructing child, mo, he is a
Turk. They are all there, representa-
tives Of all lands, and q brilliant pic
ture they present.
"But Port Said is a good place to
get out of, and after difficult custom
house inspection, we prepared for a
tedious, comfortless journey to Cairo.
To our great surprise we, found every
modern convenience on that train, in
GLIDING fine dining-car with excellent
cuisine. Ten years ago I travelled that
route, and was grateful for an orange
or few dates purchased from a dirty
Arab. So you see Egypt is improving.
But it isn't model country. You
realize that when you pass thru the
villages and, see nakedness, filth and
dirt that make one feel i'll.
"The trip from Port Said to Cairo
is only about five hours long, and up
to Benha, about seventy miles from
Port Said, we passed thru the worst
portion of Egypt, marshy and desolate.
But from Benha the country is so
beautiful that one can easily realize
why Egypt is 50 prosperous and why
the English will never leave it.
IT remember the time when I visited
Egypt years ago after the rebellion of
Arab Pasha and the protectorate of
England there-the so-called protecto-
rate but practically the occupation of
Egypt, because England landed in Alex
Nndria in June, 1882, with the excuse
II establishing order in that city, which
was then in the hands of the rebels.
Since then she has practically had con-
troll Of it, so that today Lord Cromer
has more to say in Egypt than the
khedive himself When I made my
first visit Egypt looked very desolate,
as tho fading away, and I could hardly
realize now that after only few years
the country should have been changed
so wonderfully and that it should be
81 IeIIlle.
The caravansary of the World.
HCairo is a very picturesque and
captivating city, tho lamentably dirty
1t is the .caravansary of the world. In
few minutes walk thru any Of the
crowded streets one finds all the pic
lures that he remembers in an Illus
trated book Of eastern life We see
there the camel driver or leader in his
Sf1Jrrn 1914 10
a long blue or white shirt almost SINH
lar to nightgown; the old merchant
Mohammed seated on the hind quarter
OF his thorobred donkey running thru
the crowded street Just the same as
farmers son would race across the Da-
kota plains ON colt; the water-car-
rier, one Of the strangest sights in
Egypt, staggering. under full goat
skin, the legs and neck of the Beast
inflated and. distended; the Young
Saida, probably. riding a donkey as,
tribe and wearing what would be. a