Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-12-17
\ ROUND THE WORLD
"A WITH PROF. PARKS

had been warned to look out for
incessant and importunate begging for
"backshesh" in Egypt, but l must con-
fess that my first experience came with
a vigor and an earnestness for which
was not prepared. Realizing my unfor-
tunate and yet ludicrous situation, and
thinking strategy better than force,
pointed towards one of my companions;
away some of the boys rushed, releasing
me and surrounding him.
While driving along the streets we
looked upon a local school-an open and
bare room, where a dozen or more little
boys were sitting on a dirty floor around
a dilapidated looking pedagogue. A lit
tie later we were permitted to visit a.
Mohammedan school conducted along
more modern lines.
The principal of the school received
us with marke dcourtesy and directed
his assistants to conduct us to the Eng
lish room
AS we entered the class room every
body rose to his feet and saluted us by
raising his right hand to his forehead.
Each boy wore the red fez or tarboOsh,
on his head.
The Arab teacher with turban on his
head, shook hands with us, saying
welcome, welcome" with manifesto
lions of extreme pleasure. Then with
a sudden change in manner, he sternly
shouted to the boys, "sit down, silence"
The dignity of his position was asserted
i'm loud voice and by dictatorial and
arrogant manner. The boys were ODE
dent, but in a characteristic Oriental
manner they spoke in loud tones. We
found the boys spoke an dread English
fairly well, and that they had also some
familiarity with French, Spanish, Ital-
ian and Greek. 1t was amusing to hear
Arabic well, that being their natural
speech.
In the study of English grammar, the
boys were required to give from memo
ry definitions with which they did not
understand. 1t was amuseing to hear
them undertake to define such words
as sentence" choose" phrase" Gin
terjection,' "participle;" as l listened to
the meaningless words they uttered and
as 1 observed the crude explanations of
the teacher, it was hard to refrain from
a smile.
Concerning things which they under
stand and in which they were interested
noticed that the boys talked fairly WELL
but in the definitions in English gram
mar they were as helpless as an untried
swimmer in whirlpool
However, the same unwise custom pre-
walls i'm many schools In America where
little children recite like parrots the
things they do not comprehend People
are so prone to fall into fixed customs
that few realize how amusing and how
pathetic are many of the methods that
prevail In some of our schools. Before
leaving the school we made the boys a
little talk our trip around the world,
and concluded by complimenting them on
their ENGLISH thar era As
we left the boys arose again and gave
the salute. The principal was very gra-
cious; he offered us cigarettes which we
declined; he offered again, indicating
that the cigarettes were nice Egyptian"
Unable to partake of this extended hospi-
tally we thanked him for the opportunity
given us of seeing the school, and bade
him "Eood-by." using as far as we had
power both language and smiles to show
our PLEASURE.
The school impressed us more favorably
than we had expected but an experienced
traveller warned us not to look upon that
as a typical school. The ordinary Mo
hammedan schools, he said, were much
poorer; this school, he led us to believe,
had been modernized, Europeanized, An
glicized.
The customs of the Orientals were most
varied; only a few wore the European
dress. Most of them were barefooted; in
steal of coats and trousers they wore
long TUNES or robes like Mother Hub
bards,'' the colors being white, green,
blue, yellow or other shades; on their
heads they wore the turban or the red
fez; the turbans were of many colors and
kinds, representing the tribe or the race
to which the wearer belonged. The few
women seen in the streets wore black
robes and black wells.
At Port Said the west meets the east,
the European meets the Oriental, the
modern world meets the ancient civiliza-
ton, the Christian meets the Mohamme-
dan. This has been my first view of the
Orient. 1 had been dreaming of the pyr-
amids and the Nile, but they were yet
further on; instead 1 saw a city full of
strange people, strange costumes, bewil-
dering sights. 1 had read of the Arabs.
the Turks, the Bedouins, the Egyptians,
the Abyssinians, the Nubians, and the
Soudanese. had seen some of them at
the great fairs at Chicago and ST. Louis;
had come in contact with some of them
at Gibraltar, but / was not prepared for
the multitude of curious sights that met
my gaze at Port Said. 1t was novel, and
looked with the same eager interest that
a child looks on a circus parade, fearing
lest he miss anything: it was bewilder-
ing it was fascinating and 1 wanted
more.