Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1907-08-03

loaned money on lands and crops. and
their interest rate IL said to have
AVERAGED $50 per cent per annum.
This was changed about six years
ago by the establishment of the Agri-
cultural bank on the part OF tho gov
eminent, that bank lending money to
the farmers NJ per cent TO within 30
per cent Of the value of their farms
To-day tho peasants all over iggypt
can get money at per cent. and the
Greeks have had TO come down on
their rates. There are now over 40.
600 Greeks In Egypt and they operate
as far north as the Sudan.
The Italians number about $4,000,
and the French somewhere between
$1,000 and 10000. There are many
Italian shops here in Alexandria and
there arc hundreds OF Italians doing
business in Cairo. They also furnish
some of the best mechanics Many of
them are masons and the greater
part of the Assouan dam and other
works OF a similar nature have been
constructed by them.
There are also Germans. Austrians
and Russians, together with few
Americans and Belglans. The Germans
are largely in evidence as clerks and
they carry on mercantile businesses
in many of the cities. Tho British
community amounts to about 10000,
but large number of these are SOL
diers or civil officials, and among them
are something like 5000 Maltese and
600 British East Indians. Practically
the whole government is administered
by the British. although many of the
subordinate officers are native Egyp-
tians. There are some French among
the officials who have held over from
the time when France was powerful
in Egypt; a few have come here to
manage sugar and cotton mills owned
by Frenchmen, and others are shop
keepers in Alexandria and Cairo.
ALEXANDRIA THE ANCIENT.
Returning to Alexandria, sitting
here In this Sc n day hotel, surround
ed by all the Injuries of Paris or New
York, l find 1t hard to realize that
am in one of the very oldest cities of
history 1 started out today to look
up relics of the past, going in a cab
by mile after mile of modern build
ings, and travelling over the site of
the metropolis which flourished here
long before Christ was born. The only
object of note still left is Pompey's
pillar. and that Is new in comparison
with the earliest history of old Egypt.
1t was put up only 1000 years ago,
and long after Alexandria had become
one of the greatest cities of the world.
Inc monument mus Detn Stlu
over the grave of Pompey, but 1t was
really erected by an Egyptian project
as q landmark for sailors, a burning
fire upon its top being visible for
miles about this part of the Mediter-
ranean sea. The pillar consists of a
massive column of polished granite
as big around as the boiler of u rail-
road locomotive and as high as a To-
story fiat. 1t consists of one solid
block of stone, standing straight up
on pedestal. 1t was dug out of the
quarries of Assouan far up the Nile
valley and was brought down the
river on RATS and lifted In some way
or other to its presene position. An
evidence OF its modern origin is now ia
be seen in the excavations which the
antiquarians are making about the
pedestal During the past few months
they have been digging in the earth
far below its foundation and have
taken out several massive stone
sphinxes. the heads of some of which
are still wrapped in cloths in order
to protect them from injury until they
can be taken to the museums of this
city and Cairo. shall send home a
which l have just made
OF one of these sphinxes.
They date back to the old Alexand-
ria and We're chiseled out several hun
dred years before Joseph and Mary took
the little baby Jesus on an ass across
the desert into this valley of the Nile
that he might not be killed by Herod
the king,