Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-05-24
ASOuthern Pilgrim in Eastern Lands
Vital EXANDF2IA
ByEdgGr
E.. Folk,
DID,.

Worth and Waxahachie. My friend, Col
onel Barton, of Paris, just itched to get
hold of the country and introduce mod
ern machinery In it's cultivation, such as
the DISC plow the reaper and binder, etc.
If he could do so he would be richer
than Pharaoh in a short while-if only
he could succeed in keeping down revo-
luton until he could get his modern ma
chinery started. But the land, which is
worth about $1,000 an acre, belongs to II
few rich men. They rent it to those
poor peasants or fellahin for $50 an acre.
The fellahin will tend one or two acres
and make a living off it for themselves
and family, in addition to the rent. II
Colonel Barton should introduce his mod
ern machinery, by which one man could
do the work Of eight or ten, 1t would
put a good many of them out OF bust
ness If he should start riding around
the field on his disc pillow. he would have
TO take several men as a guard along
with him, or he might not get very far.
And so there would not be so much of
saving in men after ALL At any rate,
this is the way they do IT in Egypt. This
Is the way they always have done 1t.
And this is the way they will probably
always do 1t. I may add that as for
fuel, they do not need much. having very
little need for fire to warm by. For cook
from the stable or field by the women,
mixed with dirt and dried in the sun.
Water for drinking purposes is taken
from the river or canal in skin bottles
or earthen jars. Their bathing is done
in the early mornings in the river or
canal from which the drinking water IS
taken. I have seen in the same canal
right close together woman washing
clothes, children dipping water in jars
for drinking and cooking and ounalo
cooling himself
Their beasts of burden are camels,
donkeys, the backs of the men and the
heads Of the women, the principal per-
haps being the donkeys and the Wo-
men. Outside of the cities, they have no
wheeled vehicles of any description. Their
domestic animals are the camel, the DON
key, the buffalo, the cow, the boat ana
the sheep. / saw no hogs, few chickens,
dogs and cats Their milk is obtained
from buffaloes and goats, and to some
extent COWS, though Solomon says the
milk of the cow is too poor. The milk
man does not carry his milk TO MS Gus
toner in cans. He simply drives the buI-
falo or goat or cow to his customer
door and milks a gallon or quart or pint,
or whatever amount may be required, De-
fore his eyes. In this way there can be
no watering of the milk. And these
or many of them at any rate-are the
things we saw on our 150-mile ride from
Alexandria to Cairo-cities, towns, viii
lagos, mud huts, matched roofs, men, wo-
men, children, camels, donkeys, sheep,
goats, fields in clover, and fields ready
for planting, men ploughing and men
hoeing-men, buffaloes, donkeys drawing
water to irrigate the fields; some men
and women sitting in the shade of their
rude huts resting in the heat of the day,
children playing about. 1t was moving
picture show 100 miles long, only we and
not the pictures were doing the moving.
1t was a living panorama, magnificent
picture of rural Egypt. My roommate
in Cairo, Rev. W. r. Minter, of North
Carolina, remarked soon after our ar
rival that he did not expect to see any
thing in Egypt which would interest him
more And some others of us felt about
the same way. We were to see for the
most part Egypt as it was. This is
Egypt as it is. We were to see the dead
past. This was the living present-in fact,
present and past both. And thus we
came to Cairo. But of that l shall have
to tell in my next.