The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1913-06-05
DEMANDED ENGINEERS LIFE.
Arabs Sought Vengeance For Son
Who Was Killed BY Train.

AlZakin, the former tramc inspector
of the Egyptian Delta Railway, leaned
back in his chair, and drew several
long, meditative pulls on his nargileh.
when the Egyptian railroad was
first put through" he said, 1.-The ma
tives regarded it as creation OF evil
| spirits. They not only disapproved
of it, but they attacked its employees.
| 1T was not unusual for band OF
natives to gallop up on their swift
| Arabian horses, coming apparently
| from out of the sands of the desert,
and then, as they rode alongside the
train, take a pot shot at US, wheeling
! and going off at a gallop the moment
the shots had been fired from their
long-barreled guns. Their holy men
used to make incantations and cast
spells upon us just asthey did on any
evil thing, and the ignorant natives
thought that they were fulfilling the
will of Allah if they manned an en-
ployee or threw train off the tracks.
THE road had been built by France
when it held it's protectorate over
Egypt 1t was narrow-guage line,
and it was not particularly difficult
task to make trouble for the men who
were trying to keep things running
straight.
lone day little Arab boy toddled
out from the cover of the palms which
lined the tracks just as a train came
along. There wasn't a chance TOR
him and there wasn't time for the
engineer even to shut steam off before
we were on top of the little chap.
His father it chanced, was working
in the palm grove, and saw it all.
"a couple of days later the father
called at the Office of the general
manager with dozen of his clans
men, all armed with long rifles with
inlaid stocks and chased barrels. 1t
was the policy then to attempt to
conciliate the natives, and the gener-
al manager promptly made an offer
to settle.
Money damages, however, were
not what the Arabs wanted. They
spurned the offer with contempt and
demanded that the engineer be given
up to them so that they could take
his life in place of that of the little
bow. That was a compensation that
the general manager could not con-
cede; in fact, he had already trans
ferred the engineer to another part
of the line, fearing the natives might
try to wreak vengeance.
The delegation finally left when
they found that the man would not
be produced, but they left with
threatening gestures and warnings
that Arabs never forget.
"a month later I was riding on
train which was nearing Beltan, on
the main line At the junction there
was a triangle of tracks, the main line
and the Kafr Hanna section coming
together at the point. A cross track
from one to the other formed the base
of the triangle.
The train from Kafr Hanna, to
which my car was attached, was due
at the junction three minutes ahead
of a train on the main line, and both
were due at Beltan the same number
of minutes apart We had the right
of way, and unless we were very
much behind time the mainline train
was always held for us. There was
no telegraph, you know, and the
length of time that the other train
would be held, depended largely upon
the discrimination of the signalman
at the junction.
81 was not surprised that we were
signaled to proceed, although we
were five minutes behind time. This
was largely due to the weather, which
was foggy that morning.
"You have never seen one of our
Egyptian fogs. They are worse than
any l have seen in this country The
mists lie close to the ground and seem
to be held down by the trees where
there is any foliage. Not until the
sun gets high do they begin to swirl
about in the heavens like so many
white-robed spirits.
when our engineer received the
signal to proceed he went on cautl-
ously, as was the custom, until we
passed the switch into the main line.
I stood in the open door of the bag
gage car, having come forward from
my own car, which was attached to
the rear of the train.
The engine, two freight cars and
the mail car had passed the cross
over track and the baggage car was