The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-11-12

connecting Khartum with wady
Halfa. and this has 10Th sleeping and
dining cara
soudan sleeIers and Diners.
The sleepers are divide an into
com partTnents about seven foe, .auar~
Win Two oeTths to each comparm@nt
There II an aisle from which the con
garments are entered. runnlng along
.he sioe OF the car, and the comp part
menus are large enough to enable one
- nave a wicker chair in them. In I'D
alton 10 the berthr. Each little room
nes an electric fan and Is lighted hy
electricity.
Inc dining car service IL good AMI
omparatiyely cheap. The meals rom
sist ~ 2 cup OF tea and some crarkera
roush IN By a Nubian porter al day-
break, 2 breakfast In the dining car
AZ ; O'Clock a table d'hote luncheon
~ and 4 dinner along In the even
ing.
! have kept the notas Of ono Inn
cheon and dinner. The lunch consist
ca OF macaro> with cheese. broiled
SQUADS. vegetable oysters. lamb chops
ana frled potatoes, q salad. preserved
Pfaches. oranges and apples and a
Of Turkish coffee. The dinner be-
with soup and fish. These were
loved BY a salmi OF pigeon. some
pinach. roast chicken and fried po-
tatoes. a salad. assorted preserves.
- - vi q d. ~
80 cents, the luch si2O. the dinner
$I-50 and h afternoon tea 80 cents.
My Dill was not presented until the
end Of the trip. BY averaging II / fnd
or $40, per day. The rates on that
ROAD also are lea During ordinary
seasons the first class passage costs
500 for the five hundred and odd
mics or between s and z cents a
mile. When the tourist season be-
gins tho ch1rpau ara ~af-a -. -n -
way or TO 500 for the round trip.
rms Is over 9 cents per mile.
1T Was a Baldwin"
In riding over the Sudan military
road we stopped for a time at Atbara.
where the Black Nile from Abyssinia
flows into the main stream and where
Is the famous bridge built by Ameri-
cans upon orders given by General
Kitchener. The contract was first Of
fered to the English. but they were
not able to build the bridge in the
time required, and the Americans took
the job and finished it. Atbara is
now one of the railroad division points
and it Is where the road across the
desert to the Red sea branches off. AS
we stopped at the station our engine
struck me as being familiar. | walk
ed to the front of the train and ex-
amined 1t. Sure enough, it was a
Baldwin, and Will the name "Phila-
delphia" standing out in the full blaze
of the Nubian sum A few moments
later, as | was crossing the Black Nile
over the steel bridge which our build
ers put up, / felt that | was not so
far from home, after all. ] was being
hauled by an American engine over
an American bridge, and hat In the
heart of the Nubian desert, more than
a thousand miles up the Nile. The
thought makes on proud of our Ameri-
can mechanics n of American enter
prise.
Where the Queen of Sheba Lived.
About 100 miles south of Atbara
we stopped at Shendi, where the
Queen of Sheba is said to nave lived
This is a station On the east bank of
the Nile, about five hours or more
from Khartum. 1t is a considerable
town with railroad shops, about which
are great piles of steel ties such as
are used in tho construction of desert
railways. They are merely shells of
steel. 50 made that they can be half
buried in the sand and still hold the
rails. The telegraph poles are also
Of steel, the white ants Of this region
making it impossible to use wood for
such purposes.
The Shendi of today consists of an
old and new town. The latter has
been laid out by the English and it
the Nile. In ancient times there was
a great city here. 1t was the capital
of the country and the residence Of the
Queen Of Sheba. 1t is said that the
queen went from here down the Nile
and crossed to Palestine, where she
had her filtration with King Solomon
The Abyssinians say that she went
back by the Red sea and stopped in
their country on the way. While she
was there Ii bore a son. whose faith
er was Solomon and h is the head
of the line of kings which rule Abys-
sinia today. The Mohammedans. on
the other hand. say that. the Queen of
Sheba did not live here at all. They
claim that her residence was in
Yemen, ARABIA, and that Solomon
went there to visit her. The queens
name was Bilkis. She was as witty
as she was beautiful, and she gave the
wise solomon many a riddle which he
was puzzled to answer.
FRANK CT. CARPENTER.