The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1910-04-18
ACROSS THE WASTES ON A LITTLE TOY TRAIN, WHILE !
THE STRENUOUS ONE WORKS AND MAKES, 0THERS WORK.
BY gibson GARDNER.
Copyright 191O Newspaper Enterprise Association.

could have had the unanimous
vote of all present for the office
of ''sirdar."
So there you are! Outlaws,
missionaries, civil servants, SOL
diers-each feels that the Ameri-
can colonel is their sort"-fitted
by nature and equipped by expert
ence to know their lives and do
their work. And when he says,
Il am delighted to have met you,"
they know to certainly which
cannot be assailed that there is
sincerity in every syllable and
word.
But, as we were saying, in the
cool of the evening we started. A
cute little train of cars, all done
in white enamel paint, with a lit
tie red toy engine in front, and
a lot of Arabs in pajamas playing
brakemen, and Egyptians in khaki
playing conductor. You are given
stateroom (called a cabin) to
yourself, because the cars are
made up entirely of cabins, with
an aisle running along the side.
And right comfortable they are
compared with Geo. M. Pullman's
scheme of curtained shelves.
Each cabin has its own wash basin
with running water, and when you
come aboard you find your cabin
designated by card with your
name beside the door.
oh, we of the United States do
not know all there is of the COM
forts of travel! Think of being
awakened in the morning by al
polite attendant bringing a cup of
tea! And think of being able to
retire in privacy and to robe or
disrobe in an upright posture!
Think of meals prepared in al
kitchen car and served in a dining
car. And all this on the edge of
darkest Africa" Verify the time
has come to send a commission to
foreign parts in search of informa-
ton which might help our rail-
roads to mend their ways.
From Khartoum to Halfa is a
night and a day across the desert.
The road was built ~ years ago
by Gen. Kitchener as part of his
against the khalifa.
The desert ride is rather in
teresting. There are beautiful
mirages practically all the time.
Sometimes they are so near as to
seem accessible by a few steps;
again they are off on the horizon.
Always the blue cool water, horri-
bly, realistic, and the trees and
bushes most inviting. But 1t is
only superheated, shimmering air.
The desert is mostly rocks and
sands, flat, rolling and builder
strewn. There is no sage, but in
its place a tree-like bush with
great ugly white thorns, and the
mimosa, with yellow,
puffy blooms. When the train
approaches the Nile there is al
ways strip of green. Sometimes
it is a narrow strip extending back
a few hundred feet; again it may
run back half a mile. There are
groups and lines of date palms
and the clusters of mud houses,
where the fellah, or Egyptian
peasant, lives. Then comes the
Mohammedan graveyard It h e
most desolate thing on the face
of the earth-then the railroad
track; then the desert, limitless,
deadly, untracked, forbidding.
What did Col. Roosevelt do on
a long ride like this Work, of
course. Poor Abbott! He came
along as guest" and escort to
Mrs. Roosevelt. I found him in
the Roosevelt car laboriously writ
ing to dictation. And poor cali"
He came to chronicle the colonel's
doings for middle western read
ers. He was sucked into the vor-
tex of work, and had to turn him
self into sort of extempore Loeb,
minus a room full of assistant
stenographers. And nobody appre-
ciated the humor of the situation
more than Roosevelt.
Poor CAL" he would say, che
will have to stay at home today. II
shall look after Roosevelt news
for the Trib. If anything hap
pens to the ex-president, I prom
Use to send a bulletin immedi-l
ately."
But that Is another story. Wei
have arrived at Halfa and gone i
aboard the government steamer.
The colonel has gone aboard the
Ibis, kindly placed at his disposal
by. the Egyptian government. Wei
N va