The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-11-10

be checked without extra. charge. and my trunks often cost me more than my fare We notice that the English and Egyptian passengers put most of their belongings into bundles and bags, which they are allowed to bring into the cars with them. Many d single passenger Is carrying four or five Yalises each holding as much as a small steamer trunk and the compartments are half filled with such luggage. Every first class car has a guard or porter who helps us off and on, and there are always fellahs at the depot ready to carry our stuff for five cents per piece.
 How Mails Are Guarded.
 Most of the Egyptian trains have mail car next to the engine, an express car back of that and also cars for ani- mals Our train carries one, in which are two blanketed horses. with Syrian grooms to take care of them They probably belong to some rich nabob of Cairo, and are going south by express
 The postal cars are carefully watched. The bags of mail are carried to them on red trucks made for the ITlrpose. The trucks are pushed by the Afabs and mail is handled by them; but dark-faced sol dier, with rife and sword, marches along with the mail and watches the bags taken in and out When truck Is loaded the soldier goes with it to the postoffice wagons. There is always guard on such Nile steamers as carry mail, and the letters are never left without some armed official to watch over them.
 Government Railroads Which Pay.
 Before we go on with our trip, let me tell you how the railroads are managed. Both those of Egypt and the Soudan are under the government, and both systems pay. Those of Egypt, according to Lord Cromer's last report, are now earning about 6 per cent on their capital stock and their working expenses are only about 60 per cent of the gross receipts. The business is rapidly increasing. They will carry 25O0,000 more passengers this year than last and more than 1.O00.0G9 tons more freight Egypt now has some- thing like 1500, miles of railroads which belong to the government and in addl- ton 600 or zoo miles of agricultural roads managed by private parties. The earn ings of the latter are increasing, and they carry more freight and passengers from year to year.
 The main lines are managed by Egyp- tian and European officials. The superin- tendents of departments, who receive 5000 and upward a year each, are main ly Europeans, and the inspectors and sub inspectors, who get from $50 to S240 d month, are in the main foreigners. Under these men are the native guards, track workers and mechanics of various kinds, who receive less wages. They are almost all Egyptians, there being something like 240O of them to about 150 Europeans
 As to the Soudan roads they go through thinly populated country, but the re- eeipts are considerably more than their working expenses and they are rapidly increasing. In 1906 they were double what they were in 1903, the chief increase being from the fourth-class passengers, who are natives
 Scenes on Cape to Cairo Road.
 This division of the Cape to Cairo road milks one of the richest countries on earth. l mean the delta of Egypt, which is more thickly populated than any other part of the globe. The land Is as black as your hat and it raises two or three crops a year. It is worth from S5O0 to s1O0O an acre. and furnishes a heavy trat- fife of cotton and grain. The distance from Alexandria to Cairo is 13S miles, and all the way Is through luxuriant farms. There is no desert in sight until you reach Cairo Cotton is piled up at every depot, there are boat loads of it on the canals which the track crosses and at the sta- lions cars of cotton bales fill the Side tracks The freight of this region alone would probably pay the expenses of the