Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1907-08-03
,ai Of The Dcsc Netcy BY Frank G. caybcey

goods into the valley and bringing the
cotton. sugar, grain and other pro-
ducts out TO the sea. The canal was
constructed by forced labor. The felie-
heen. to the number OF quarter OF n
million, scooped the sand out with thew
hands and carried II away IN baskets.
IL took them year to dig the 59-mile
ditch and they were go overworked
that $4,000 died on the Job, MehamcTt
Ali also spent an enormous amount
on the harbor, and Isnall Pasha laid
out more than s12.000000 IN the same
way, Since the English took hold they
have been steadily making other Inn
provements. and they have works now
under way which win cost millions
more. The commerce OF the port Is In
creasing enormously, ana the city
promises to become even greater than
1t has been IN the past
EGYPT IN 1907.
The conditions at Alexandria are
typical Of the new Egypt. Old Mother
Nile has drawn on the seven-league
boots Of modern progress and gha Is
growing in wealth like n Jipison weed
in an asparagus bed When | first
visited her a quarter of a century ago.
her country was a land of the dead,
with the obelisks and the pyramids as
its chief landmarks. Then lts most In
fled king of 1000 odd years ago and
her chief visitors were antiquity hunt
erB and one-lunged tourists after a
warm winter climate. These same
characters are here today, but In I'D
ditYon have come the capitalist. tho
syndicate and the ardent dollar chaser,
Egypt Is now a land Of banks and
stock exchanges. 1t throngs with civil
engineers, irrigation experts and men
Interested In the development. of tine
country by electricity and steam. The
delta OF the great fan of land which he
gins at Cairo and stretches out to the
Mediterranean is grid-ironed with iron
tracks and railroad trains now carry
one almost to the heart of central AZ
RIGA. When l was last here about i6
years ago Egypt was importing goods
to the amount of 20 OF 30 million dol
lars. She Is now buying more than
$100,000,000 worth every IL months and
her exports are more than twice what
they We're at that time. They now
amount to s1i0.000.000 q year and are
increasing right along.
In other letters l shall describe the
wonderful banking development
that has gone on here and the extra
ordinary increase In land values
throughout the whole valley of the
Nile. I am told that in the lower deli
ia farm lands are selling from $500 to
SltuVV All tCTt, anu tnhl especially SOOu
tracts bring even more. All the way
UP the Nile from Cairo to Assiout, for
a distance of about 800 miles, you can-
not buy an acre of cultivable land for
less than 5000 and many a fdrmer
would refuse to sell his little tract for
$500 per. Rents of lands have gone up
in the same proportion, and ! know OF
farms which are bringing from 500 t.
S5c an acre per year.
The same conditions obtain as TO
the real estate of the cities. Both Cairo
and Alexandria are initiating their vail
ues, and land is SO high In Cairo Itself
that a suburban DEVELOPMENT has be-
gun, and In the future the poorer of the
foreigners will probably have their
homes outside the city.
WESTERN CIVILIZATION AND. z
VICES COMING IN,
l find Egypt changing in character.
The Mohammedans are being corrupt
cd by the Christians, and the simple liv-
ing taught by the Koran whereby the
believer abstains from strong drink
and other vices, has become infected
with the gay and giddy pleasures of
the French Cairo. the city of the Ara
bian nights, is fast becoming a city of
Partisan nights, and the Mohammedan
call TO prayer is now mingled with the
bacchanalian songs OF the cafe chant
ants. In many cases the system of the
harem Is being exchanged for some
thing worse. The average Mohamme-