The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-05-27
copyrighted, 1905, by George Ade.)

copyrighted, 1906 BY George Ade.)
egyptian civilization is supposed
to be stationary, except in the
~ larger Cities. The fellahin
scratch the rich alluvial soil with the
same kind Of clumsy wooden plow that
was used when Marc Antony came
down from home on a business trip and
got all snarled up with Cleopatra;
hut2about t. the he Size sie Of a a lower berth.
They lift the water from the Nile by
exactly the same wooden sweep that
was in vogue when Cheops began work
on the pyramids. 1t may be remarked,
en- PEASANT, that the fellahin are the
farmers Of Egypt. I might have n. said
'farmers in the first place, but what
is the use of spending month u; in
one cannot pick up words Of the fell
ahin description to parade up and down
in front of his friends and cause them
to feel ignorant and ultraviolet The
en- PEASANT, which is tucked in so neatly
above, I found in Paris. It means
"under your hat or something like
that. It is impossible to translate
ing some of the piquant significance Of
the original. For instance, "strfng
beans'' can never be haricots vert.
They may look the same and taste the
same, but when they are both on the
bill. me for the haricots vert every
time.
To resume: The outlying districts
nom progressive. This is a mistake.
While driving out from Assiut to visit
another cheerful cluster of tombs we
came upon large gang of workmen
engaged in improving the road. AS
soon as the carriage ahead Of ours
struck the improved road it turned
turtle, and for moment the air was
full of jumping tourists Our convey
ance started over the improved section,
but mired down, so we got out and
walked until we came to an un1mproved
road, and then we jumped in and sped
merrily on our way. [ stopped for
several minutes to watch the men at
work. and I was deeply impressed by
the fact that here in this heather land,
where they have no normal schools or
farmers Institutes to guide them, no
agricultural weeklies to beacon them
out of the darkness, the simple children
of the orient were "improving' the
roads Just as I had seen them improved
during my boyhood days in Indiana.
In other words, they were scooping dirt
out of the ditch on either side and
dumping it in tall, unsurmountab!Ie
ihillocks fight in the middle Of the road
way. Inc mOSI nyOIoceputiouo CoWu
ship supervisor in the whole middle
west could not have done more i'm
beetle job.
X j. X
In Indiana every voter is required to
;stwork the roads, or pay q road tax,
E OF late years, under intelligent direc-
tion, the highways have been vastly
improved, but there was a time when
ssworking the roads, was a large joke.
TO avoid paying the tax the farmer
would have to 60 out with team and
do something to a public highway
Usually he selected a road which he
would not traverse in going. to town,
and he would plow it up and 'sscrape
1t into hollows and leave it looking like
q sample of the Bad Lands in Montana;
AS soon as the tax was "worked out -
he discontinued the improvement:
After two or three days Of working
a fairly bad road could be made alto
eether impassabl If were a mill
tary commander and had to execute q
retreat and cut off my pursuit by
superior force I would have a corps. OF
fat-headed township supervisors bring
up the rear and "work - the roads.
It was in this same town Of Asslut