Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-05-31
TWENTIETH CENTURY EGYPT
I. The Gateway of the East
By Frederic j. HaSkin

/ Occidental pokes his way through the
narrow passageways of the bazaars and
bargains and haggles and quarrels as
| if he had never been in "one-price
store" in the West.
The educated Oriental delights in
the society of the wealthy Occidentals
who make their winter homes in. Cairo
hOstelries. The American girl stopping
here is quite as much interested in the
Persian poet she meets at the hotel
dance as she is in the mummified re-
mains of the great Rameses in the
museum. Even the museum is para
dox, for the bodies of the ancient
Pharaohs and their priceless crown
jewels are exhibited in building the
exterior of which suggests nothing but
modern Italy.
Cairo and Alexandria are built after
Italian and French patterns and even
the immutable law of the Prophet has
been bent that the parks might have
ornaments in statues of great Egyp-
tians The Well-paVed streets, the
good street car service, the excellent
police system-all these things are OF
the west western. Ten minutes walk
in any direction will take the Wayfarer
into a quarter where the streets are
| paved only with ten centuries of dirt,
where the donkey and the camel are
the sole TRANSFORMATION agencies, and
where the law of the Prophet is the
only police regulation needed. These
are of the east eastern.
The khedive lives in splendor, but 1t
is Occidental and not Oriental splen-
dor. His palace is European, there is
but one wife in his harem and he
speaks French or English with his
most intimate associates. Not so
westernized is the Arab boy who serves
you in your hotel room-an extra dol
lar a month or an unusually liberal tip
hi lit,
to his bosom, thus charging his harem.
One sees a black man in gay dress
with three deep scars in each cheek
he is a slave. Slavery still exists in
Egypt despite the conscience of Eng
land, but IN form which emphasizes
the paradoxical character of the coun-
try. Any slave may have his freedom
by asking for it. There is no other
requirement whatever. Strange to say
there are many slaves who do not
make the request. The harem of the
wealthy pasha is guarded by slave
eunuchs Just as in the time when the
good Haroun al Raschid roamed the
streets of Cairo by night.
Egypt is the gateway TO the east
and Cairo is the market-place before
the gate. In the Orient great signif1-
canoe is attached to the gate of a city
and it's adjoining court. 1t was so in
| the early days of Israel when Eli and
his sons sat in the gates to judge the
people; it is so today when the Young
Turks gather at the Damascus gate in
Jerusalem to talk politics. From the
earliest dawn of history the gate has
been the general meeting place for
Orientals. Cairo we'll supports it's
share in the metaphor. Its streets are
thronged with people from almost
every nation of the world. east and
west, and there is a goodly number who
are literally men without a country.
The most daring stage director would
not presume to dress a comic opera
cast in as many varied colors and cos
tunes as are worn in the Ezbekieh
gardens of Cairo on any Sunday after
noon: nor could all the grease paint
on Broadway conjure up such a variety
of compilations.
Cairo Is the capital of modern
Egypt, built by the Arab conquerors
in the eighth century within sight of
the ruins of Memphis, the capital of
the glories of ancient Egypt. Three
hours distant by railway train is
Alexandria, the Greek capital of Egypt
and for centuries the center of educa-
ton and culture for the whole world.
In another direction, and about the
same distance away, is the modern
city of Port Said.
Port Said was built at the northern
entrance to the Suez canal and for
forty years has gloried in the title of
the "turnstile of the nations" This is
the true gateway to the east, and here
lies the dead body of the national as
pirations of Egypt. When the great
commerce of India had to be trans
shipped, Egypt was prosperous and out
of debt. The canal project so bur-
dened the country with debts that it
lost it's independence under bank
ruptcy proceedings. 1t was all for
nothing, for when the isthmus was cut
through there was no more commerce
for Egypt, and the great commercial
ports of Suez and Alexandria dwindled
in Importance.
In Cairo the Oriental and the Occi-
dental peoples mingle with each other.
take something from each other, study
each other, and sometimes delude
themselves into thinking they under
stand each other. But after all, there
is the barrier which is never broken
down. 1t is because of this changeless
and Interchangeable difference that
Egypt is so thoroughly fascinating.
For, as the Orient-loving Kipling has
written:
East is east and west is west, and never
the twain shall meet,
Till earth and sky stand presently at Gods
great Judgment seat
Downright, 1909, by Frederic ]. Haskln)
TomOrrOw--Twcntieth Century Egypt.
1.-THE Streets of Cairo.