The Dolores star., 1907-01-11

For those whose desires lie outside
the beaten track Of globe trotter and
tourist, the upper reaches Of the Nile
o.er great inducements. Leaving
Cairo by train, one starts from
what will one day be the northern ter
minus of the great Cape to Cairo
railway, and travels steadily south
wards over the desert for two days.
Then change Is made to Nile
steamer, which southwark, ever
southwark, slowly forges its way
against the current of that mighty
river whose history goes back to such
remote impenetrable ages of antiquity
In another two days Wady Halfa is
reached, and thence light military
railway bears the weary and dishev-
eled traveller at length to Khartoum.
Over 20 years have passed since Cor
don't magnificent defense of the city
against the Mahdi's hordes and his
tragic fate at the hands of the Der.
wishes. thrilled all England to its
depths. For the following IA years
the town was practically an abandon
ed ruin, the khalifa holding his court
at Omdurman, on the other side of the
river. Then, with the reconquest of
the Soudan by Lord Kitchener, in
1898, everything was changed, and
Khartoum arose proudly from its ruins
to be once more the capital of that
vast desert empire whose resources
are as yet hardly realized and are alb.
solutely undeveloped. The old palace,
yuhnrn fhc i.
was merely a ruined shell, haunted,
as the superstitious natives averred,
by his uneasy spirit, SO it was decided
to erect new palace wherein the sir
dar and his retinue might be fittingly
housed. On the site of the former
building arose the Gordon college, a
really fine educational institution.
Since then have risen in rapid success
sion a. military hospital, an English
church and hotel, with lines of bar
racks and officers quarters, dominat-
ing the quaint huts and low narrow
bazaars which constitute the native
city.
In the summer months 1t 70 said of
Khartoum by those who have the mis-
fortune to remain there that, had
Dante visited it he would have added
another canto to his Inferno" only
the opinion is generally expressed in
language more terse than polite. The
thermometer stands at 1872 degrees
in the shade, and the pitiless sun
blazes down on the hot glaring desert,
varied by periodical sandstorms, when
the wind whirls down on the unhappy
place with terrific violence, burying
everybody and everything under a
layer of choking sand. In addition, all
the myriad descendants OF that swarm
of flies who constituted the fourth
plague of Egypt lead one to fervently
sympathize with the unfortunate sub
jects of King Pharaoh.
But with the month OF October
change comes DER the scene. The
mercury gradually falls until it
reaches 85 degrees or SO. freshness
creeps into the dry bracing atmos-
phere, the nights become cooler and
more restful, and the season is at
hand. Those lady members of the
English colony who have betaken
themselves to Cairo, Alexandria, or
even England, return, like birds to
their nests. for the feminine element
during the hot weather consists solely
of the missionaries and a couple Of
enforcedly stoical army medical sis
ters. The quaint curiosity shops in
the bazaar furbish up their goods, the
English church holds on Sunday a
fair-sized and smartly dressed congre-
cation, the hotel shows signs of life,
and finally, with grand flourish of
trumpets the Sirdar and Lady Win
gate arrive, take up their abode in
the palace, and another season has
begun.
Both the Sirdar and his wife are i'm
mensely popular, and contribute not
a little to the gaiety Of the city by
entertaining frequently and giving a
succession of dinners, dances and gar
den parties throughout the season.
Their entertainments, too, have any
thing but the stiff, formal cir which
usually characterizes official gather
ings, and their dinner parties are es-
pecially popular. The guests arrive
in the little donkey-carriages known
~ arabeahs, which constitute the
chief mode OF locomotion In Khar-