Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1912-01-12

Last night the door bell rang and
who should be ushered in but a friend
of Julia's? He is one on whose shouId-
ers rest many weighty burdens, so
heavy did they become at one time that
he was sent abroad to get entirely out
of the harness.
asked him about his winter in Egypt
and / am going to give you an account
of trip up the Nile.
He laughed and said that he spent the
winter in a land that had no record of
ever having a rain since the flood. That
the sands of the desert reminded him
of the old song,
Where Africs sunny fountains
Roll down their golden sands
for the sand was yellow and in the
evening 1t seemed to make glow that
rose and met the rose color of the sun
set and made a picture only equaled
by the dawn and sunrise.
This man hired a houseboat for the
five in his family. The upper deck was
fitted up with their rooms and the
lower was one big room for the serv-
ants. Don't be amazed when I tell
you that it took 80 servants for that
boat. You know that in those east
ern lands a servant only does one Trims
and is not paid as we'll as ours VINO
are expected to do whatever is request
ed Many on that houseboat only re-
ceived about cents day.
The travel is very leisurely. they
start in the morning, at no special hour
and when night falls they turn the
nose of the boat to the bank, fasten IL
and stay until next day. You remem-
Der that Kipling said that you cannot
hustle the east, and my experience out
there taught me that when they au-
swer Immediately" you need not ak
pect to go or see them, in three-quaT-
ters of an hour.
These Nile houseboats are stockea
with everything one expects to eat on
the trip.
The turkeys, geese, ducks and even
sheep are taken on board alive. Every
evening as soon as the boat is fasten-
ed securely the live stock is turned loose
| on land to pick up food, and to ex-
ercise until morning. Little children are
given seven or eight fowls and with
long thin strip of wood they can guide
them as well as we do our horses with
the lines over their heads. These little
children are put In charge Of them when
the fowls are Matched and manage them
like the shepherds do their sheep.
The servants over there have mutton
they are vegetarians. They do not need
chairs, for they sit on their heels, and
when they get sleepy they wrap their
burnouse, a sort OF long scarf, about
them and lie on the floor. The air is
so dry and warm and their sleeping
quarters may be under the stars.
When the animals are killed, or even
the fowls, the use Of ice is not needed,
they may hang for days and so pure
and dry is the air there is no change
in the flesh. They are a happy heart
ed set and spend their evenings beating
sort of tom-tom, blowing the snake
charmer's pipe and dancing.
Some one asked how the people lived
whose homes were in a rainless land. He
said that the annual overflow of the
Nile made the soil for a mile or two
on each bank wonderfully. fertile, that
four and five crops year were raised
on It, and the rest was desert. The
desert sand Is coarse and yellow, not
much dust. But that when dust storm
arose everything fled, or like the os-
trich. hid its head.
He said that the wonderfully dry clear
atmosphere preserved the carvings on
the stones and that he saw many that
were five thousand years old that look
ed like the artist had just left his
work These pictures gave a splendid
the same primitive methods and imple-
ments are used today, just as they were
in the time of Moses.
enjoyed listening to his experiences
and feel sure that all Of you will have a
clearer idea of Egypt and her customs
from having had this glimpse into life
over there.
France has begun to develop the
cases, some of them are as large as
A.
she has introduced automobiles as a
method of conveyance, and irrigation is
working wonders.
asked about water for the villages
along the banks of the Nile and was
told that all the water was brought
from the river. Eunice shivered at the
idea of drinking the river water, but I
remembered seeing the carts drive into
the Amoor river in Eastern Siberia and
the men dip that water up to take into
Vladivostock for its inhabitants to use
can't say that I enjoyed my tea, cof-
fee or even food any more for the
knowledge, but one must accept grace
fully whatever cannot be changed and
knew I couldn't change things there
did not drink any that had not been
boiled and filtered and kept free of dis
ease, but 1 did have to use it,
Egypt and all that part of the world
can teach us many lessons. 1 am going
to close with a little verse that it's we'll
for all of us to bear in mind, not only
about Egypt but our own land:
1--WE see by the light of thousands of
years
And the knowledge of millions of men;
The lessons they learned through blood
and in tears
Are ours for the reading, and then
We sneer at their errors and follies and
Dreams
Their fraiI idols OF mind and of stone,
And call ourselves WISER forgetting it
seems,
That the future may laugh at our
own"
Faithfully yours,
LIZZIE o. THOMAS.