Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-01-25
GOING EAST OF SUEZ."
Notes of a Journey Through the
Great Canal.

Stewart Edward White in Harper's Magazine.
Some time during the night We must
have started. but so gently had We slid
along at fractional speed that until l
raised my head and looked out / had not
realized the fact. / saw high sand-bank.
This glided monotonOusly by until grew
tired of looking at it, and got up.
After breakfast, however, found that
the sand-bank had various attractions all
its own. Three cameis laden with stone
and in convoy of Whitehead figures shut
fled down the slope at picturesque
angle. Two cowled women in black, veil
ed to the eyes in gauze heavily-sewn with
sequins, barefooted. with massive silver
anklets. watched us pass Hindoo work
men in turban and loin-cloth furnished a
picturesque note, but did not seem to be
injuring themselves by overexertion.
Naked small boys raced us for a short
distance. The banks glided by very slow
~ ana very evenly the wash sucked
duck-boat. and the sky above the yellow
sand looked extremely blue.
AT short and regular intervals, half
way up the miniature sandhills, heavy
piles OF snubDing posts had been planted.
For these We at first could guess no rea-
son. Soon, however. We had to pass an
other ship; and then we saw that one of
US must tie up to avoid being drawn ire
sistibly by suction into collision with the
other. The craft sidled by separated by
only a few feet; so that we could look
across to each others decks and ex-
change greeting. AS the day grew this
interest grew likewise. Dredgers in the
canal, rusty tramps flying unfamiliar
freighters. often with Greek or Turkish
characters on their sterns; small, dirty
steamers of suspicious business: paSsen-
ger ships like our own, returning from the
tropic, with Whitehead, languid figures
reclining in canvas chairs; gunboats of
this or that nation, bound on mysterious
affairs; once ''P. and o. converted into
a troopship from whose every available
portfolio. hatch, deck and shroud laugh
ing, brown, English faces shouted chaf1
at our German decks-all these either
tied up for us or were tied up for by US
The only craft that received no consid-
Grafton on our part were the various pic
tureSque Arab dhows, with their single
masts and the long yards slanting across
them Since these We're very small. our
suction dragged at them cruelty. As a
usual thing four vociferous figures clune
desperately to rope passed around one
OF the snubbinS posts ashore, while ar
old man Shrieked syllables at them from
the dhow itself. AS they never by any
chance thought OF Inooring her both stem
and stern. the dhow generally changed
ends rapidly. shipping considerable water
in the process. 1t must be very trying to
get so excited in n hot climate.
The high sandbanks of the early par,
of the day soon dropped lower to afford
us wider view. In its broad. general
features the country was. quite simply
the desert of Arizona over again.
We reached the end Of the canal about
3 o'clock of the afternoon, and dropped
anchor far off low-lying shores Our
binoculars showed US white houses in ap-
parently single rank along a far-reach.
ing. narrow sand-pit, with sparse trees
and a railway line. That was the town
OF SueZ. and seemed so little interesting
that We were not particularly sorry thai
We could not go ashore. Far In the dis.
lance were mountains; and the water all
about us was the light. clear green Of the
sky at sunset.