The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1911-10-11
We ARE cAlRENES,
PURE AND SIMPLE
Have Nothing to Be Ashamed Of in
the Name Of Our Town and May
Be Proud Of the Progress Which
Has Been Made in Recent Years
in This City.

In her letter to The Bulletin dis
cussing the proposition to give Cairo
a new descriptive title, Mrs. Fanny
p, Hacker, superintendent OF
schools, opposes the proposition, OBJ
,1ectS to pronouncing the name of the
city Ki-ro, preferring Kerro, and
suggests that the name of Walnut
street be changed to Shoobra ave-
nue. after the fashionable thorough
fare Of our namesake on the Nile.
She discusses the subject most in
terestingy and it will pay all the
readers Of The Bulletin to carefully
peruse her communication.
Other readers of The Bulletin
also discuss the subject in this issue
The Gate of the West" is favored
by one as descriptive title; Mrs.
Cassidy has another word to say in
favor of THE City of Rivers" and
some one suggests "0hisippi," word
made up from portions of the names
of the Great Rivers
Mrs. Hackers letter foliows:
1T goes without saying" that
Cairo got its name from the Egypt
ian Cairo. The famous Nile, eontri-
buting to the fertility of that valley,
just as the mighty Mississippi has
contributed to the fertility Of this
valley, conceded by many to be the
garden spot of the world The idea
was carried out by naming the city
below us. in Tennessee. Memphis.
Thcbes is above us. Then we have
Delta, Joppa. and so on, and to com
plete the idea our county is Alexan-
der, or Alexandria.
The pronunciation of Cairo had
best not be changed. kiro is the
Egyptian way; Kerro is our way
and the latter sounds more musicai
to me- We Americans, American
ize foreign words with impunity and
make others of our very own. It's
name. from the Arabic AL Kahireh,
signifies "the victorious" We are
r Cairepes, pure and simple.
THE City OF Rivers" does not har-
monize; IT Is too commercial, too ma
terial. Think of calling the Ancient
Citp of Egypt, The City of Rivers.
or the River City" and all it's pc
culiar fascination would have van
ished We cling to the historical and
add TO it the charm of beauty ano
mystery.
Shoobra Avenue Proposed.
Change the name of one street
If you like, but instead of walnut,
which seems to mean little or moth
ing, call it Shoobra avenue, today
One of the fashionable promenades
of the Egyptian Cairo is ShooDraI
avenue, five miles long, shaded by
stately sycamores and acacias. Our
Shoobra since the addition of
Smiths Drive" is easily five miles
long and shaded with mystic mur-
mering cottonwoods, and dreamy
monster fern trees, willows already
casting graceful shadows, promise
of the complete shelter from the sun
a few years hence.
Don't for an instance associate the
name Egyptian with darkness That
was never the intention. Think of
Egypt proper as the eldest born of
Time; the mother of civilization:
the longest lived among the nations
of the EARTH the teacher of art, phil :,
osophy and religion, before Greece
and Rome were born.
II stirs me hlo II & rwnnmbfr the
actors in that drama, whose theater
was the valley of the Nile The land
Of the Pharaohs of Joseph, OF Moses,
Alexander the Great, Caesar, AM
thony and Cleopatra Silence broods
over her now but her glory is Sc
cure beyond the possibility of loss
embalmed in art and literature,
like mummlfied kings Egypt will
ever charm us byy the attraction Of
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