The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-24

make the streets wide. with several large squares, and to have the whole so ar ranged that Gatling guns placed at the chief crossings could command the whole city The result was the Khartum as you now see 1t.
 The town is laid out in three great sections. and all building plans must first be submitted to the government archi- tects before permits of construction can be issued. The section along the Nile IS devoted to the government buildings and the residences of the officials, and to others who can afford good houses. Back of that there are streets where houses of a smaller class may be built and farther back still and more to the south is a third section of houses for natives. The city is so planned that it can grow along these lines. and we believe that it will some day be one of the largest and most beautiful of the cities of interior Africa. ,"
 An Oasis City.
 I have now been in Khartum over a week and find it most interesting. The city is a great oasis in the midst of the desert, away off here in the heart of Africa. In coming to it I crossed the sands and rocks of Nubia, and it was not until I was within a few miles of Halfaya,
 
 of the Nile, that l saw signs of vegeta- ton. The train then entered a region of thorn bushes 10 or b feet high beyond which patches of grass bleaehed by the sun were to be seen, and closer other evidences of cultivation. The Arabs were digging out the thorn bushes on the edge of the desert and stacking them up in piles for fuel. There were a few animals grazing on the scanty grass, and the country made me think of the Big Bow Bend of Washington state, which is now being turned into farms. There is desert all about Khartum, and everywhere back from the Nile the lands are nothing but rock and sand
 Out of these bleak and arid surround ings rises a city of green All along the river, for a distance of more than two miles, runs a wide avenue shaded by trees and backed by buildings and private houses in beautiful gardens. This ave- nue is a succession of parks from one end of 1t to the other. It begins with the botanical and geological gardens, where all the trees of the tropics and semi tropics luxurantly grow and where one may see the soap tree, the monkey bread tree and other curious examples of the Sudanese flora. There are several lions and tigers in the garden, and there is also a mighty giraffe which l photo graphed this afternoon as he was taking a bite out of a branch at the height of d two-story house.
 Next to the geological garden is tho Grand hotel, a long, bungalowshaped structure, and beyond are the two-story homes of many officials, all beautifully shaded by date palms. The first public building on this avenue Is the post and telegraph office. Beyond it are the offices of the war department. with public gar dens behind them, and further still is the great white palace in which the gov ernor general of the Sudan lives and has his offices. This is directly on the river with a beautiful garden behind it. Far ther along the avenue is the Sudan club and the hospital and away at the south the large buildings of the Gordon Memo rial college, with the British barracks al the end of the street. This avenue runs right along the Blue Nile, with beautiful views in sight all the way. On the edgt of the river are numerous sakiyehs, or huge water wheels, moved around bA bullocks with humps on their backs. They raise the water from the river into the ditches and canals which carry it ovel the city and make vegetation possible The saldyehs start at o'clock every morning. Their wheels are never greaset