Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-01-11
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the beaten track of globe trotter and
 tourist. the upper reaches of the Nile offer 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. l Then change is made to Nile
 steamer, which southward, ever
 southward, 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 a 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 it's
 depths. For the following 14 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 it's ruins to be once more the capital of that vast desert empire whose resources are as yet hardly realized and are ab- solutely undeveloped. The old palace. where the great general met his death, was merely ruined shell, haunted, as the supersdtious natives averred, by his uneasy spirit, so 1t was decided to erect a 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 military. hospital. an English church and a 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 is 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 122 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 a change comes OCT the scene. The mercury gradually falls until it reaches S5 degrees or so. freshness creeps into the dry braeing 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- gation. the hotel shows signs of life. and finally. with a 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 im- mensely popular. and contribute not 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 s;iff. formal air which usually characterizes official gather ings. and their dinner parties are es- pecially popular. The guests arrive in the little donkey known as arabeahs. which constitute the chief mode of locomotioa in Khar4