The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-07-17
T7UO Bachelor Maids
Go A-GlObe TrOttin4
Vivid Impressions of Cairo and Yellow Headed Blacks
Very Air About Cairo Seems to Draw One Back Cen
turies In Time and Prompt Suggestions of
Mystery-Beauty and Comicaity Are
All Mixed and Mnging There

| made before going into the Red sea and
coming to Suez. where I left it. l hope
you do not long to hear of the shores
of Africa and Arabia, for l have moth
| ing to recount except bare sand banks
and hot hills, with never specl1 of
green in sight. The aspect was indeed
too dreary and discouraging to tempt me
| from the steamer. l believe energetic
sightseers find interest in some water
tanks at Alden and like to say they have
BAT their foot in the Arabian sands.
but | found my own curiosity amply sat
| istied by looking at the pictures or them
without going for a cooking in the sun
and sand. Besides. there was plenty of
diversion on board
No sooner did our steamer come to q
stop than perfect swarm of Africans and
Arabians-wld fantastic looking things
| they were-surrounded the vessel in small
boats and came piling on board. They
brought things to sell: evil smelling
sharks jaws and tiger skins and fascin-
ating baskets of curious shapes and bar
barrie colors. but above all ostrich feather
things, boas. pumes and fans In all sizes
and all degrees of handsomeness.
The costumes of these strange and
gaunt figures ranged from Roman toga
effects to overcoats and suits Of mod
ern times. but remote modes. Their heads.
| though, were the particular feature Some
| of them were pcturesquely bound UP In
| turbans. others were jauntily tied up IN
rags and some seemed to effect the caking
on of some white stuff: and then there
were others still, whose jetty compilations
were weirdly offset by punches of Titan
| red and yellow curls, who proudly dis
| carded all other head decorations and
allowed the sunshine and breezes to frolic
| in their golden tresses.
Can you imagine the blacklist darkey
you ever saw sporting head of yellow
kinks which would make chorus girl
Jealous? l wondered that I had heard
nothing of this caprice of nature and
these golden-haired darlings In ebony
filed me with wonder. Inquiry, how
ever, brought forth the information that
these yellow mops, like those of Paris and
New York represented the triumph of art
over nature. 1t seems that those whose
heads were caked in white are simply
in a stage of preparation and will soon
come out as golden and as glowing as any
of them Lime Is what they use as
bleach, but l daresay the peroxide of hy-
drogen companies will soon recognize
a good business field and drive their prep
arations into darkest Africa.
No matter what the price of an OBJ
ject offered for sale on a steamer hap
pens to be, no one ever, thinks of &C
CeDLlnR II, anu, So tH6 dlnii5 pio-
cess is a maddening battle of voices. l
believe there is an unwritten law
among travellers to offer a third of the
original price and compromise on a
half, but the yards and yards of voice
which are expended in arriving at this
point, are never placed at their proper
value and must be counted as a total
| loss.
The stewards were all very relent-
less and active In leading the darkies
| from the promenade decks by the ear,
| as they are famous thieves; so, all the
| bartering and trading had to go on
over the sides of the vessel or from the
\ deck below.
1t was really very funny to watch
the gaunt black figure looking up at
us and attempting to fascinate us with
their beautiful snowy fans and feather
things.
LADY, lady! lady! lady" was the
insistant call Of their queer seductive
voices and even against your will you
would be drawn into giving them your
attention and get hopelessly tangled
up In bargaining for something you did
| not want but you can never summon
quite enough nerve to throw away.
I am afraid I shall never again see a
beautiful woman, putting her fan
| through its PAGES, without an irrever-
ent burst of mirth at the vivid memory
of some of those strange creatures who
would look up at us and take on all
| the graces and airs of a ballroom
queen; cooking their fantastic yellow
topped black faces to one side, flashing
their white teeth and rolling their
white eyes as they dangerously
MOVED their faces through the air in
a perfectly screaming travesty on
elegance and coquetry.
1t was only day or two later that
we came to Suez and from there
came by rail to Cairo; crossing desert
lands and green villages and getting a
splendid view of the canal and fasci-
mating glimpses of the land Of Egypt
1t was my farewell to the east and it
was as though the fascination and dis
tinction of the whole of it reached
their climax and like the sunset of a
splendid day, fiared up in an intensified
and mingled glory, never to be forgot
ten.
am sure 1t is foolish of me to write
you of Cairo at all, for l could scrb-
BILE all my ink away and never give
you one of the great and vivid impress
sions 1t has left upon me.
There are the wonderful Cairo sights,
the Cairo smells, the Cairo sounds.
have only to close my eyes and remem-
Der and they all come back to me-;
wonderfully complex and full of charm
and suggestion and beauty and comical-
something which seemed to react down
below and up above, and through all
Of these something which speaks to
another self, as music does, which re-
fuses to be caught and Gagged in words,
abiding comprehension and threatening
~ desert YOU, the very moment you try
to tell about 1t.
suppose you would dub it romance,
or history, or both together. an
sure don't know can only tell YOU
that the very air you breathe seems
laden with suggestions and memories
which draw you way back into the
shadowy corridors of time, where myth
and history embrace each other and
vanish away.
sometimes in spite of all the noise
and clamor and brilliance of the In
sistently real life about you. you seem
TO be lifted into some great haunted
place. where half forgotten and half
remembered voices call to you and
leave you listening and eluded.i
| But for fear that your practical
mind should take alarm I must hasten
to assure you that my steps into tho
land of shades were but tentative and
timid, and I am still living all too
| sordidly In the flesh for good econ
omy.
| One of the things which made my
delight in Cairo complete was the fact
| that | had the good fortune to be
| there when the great invasion OF
Clark's army of tourists occurred and,
as YOU know Madge. the material and
real, with her two delightful compan-
| ions besides a number of other friends
and home folks, were numbered among