davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-08
Opening of the Orient

Such was the Battle of the Pyramids.
combat between the middle ages and
modern times. In military sense, it
was not above the level of a massacre.
but it was great battle in its conse-
quences.
1t shattered forever the despotism of
the Mamelukes, those alien slaves who.
revolving against their masters, had
ruled Egypt TO rnearly six centuries.
AND 1t did far more than that. When
the blue squares of France broke
through the Mameluke line on that
plain down there by the little grove of
date palms. they opened the lane by
which the west passed through to the
east. From the field OF the battle of the
the Pyramids Occidental civilization
started on its eventful journey round
earth to the banks of the Ganges,
to the shore of the sea of Japan and
over the great wall OF China.
Napoleon himself was not to realize
his dream of empire in the orient, but
there by the Nile his sword cut the
first breach in the barrier with which
Islam had SO long shut in the peoples
of Asia and shut out Christendom and
the modern world. Here, as in Italy
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-08
The Oldest University

The French had, however, most stu
pidly outraged the feelings of the
faithful by stabling their horses in the
mosque of ell A2har. This Gamia ell
Azhar. the greatest university in all
Islam. is still one of the most interest
ing sights of Cairo. Within it's walls
the lamp of learning was first lighted
when oxford and Paris and Heidelberg
yet sat in primeva1 darkness, and it's
priests have kept the wick trimmed
for upward Of 900 years.
on my visit to ell A2har | was told
that 10000 students study, sleep and
eat beneath the roof of this ancient
the Gate of the BARRIERS. where for
morly the heads of all newly arrived
students were shaved, | stepped into
the sanctuary and found myself In the
biggest schoolroom / ever saw.
This immense hall. which is divided
into long aisles by colonades, was
swarming and humming with Mahom-
etans of all lands and all ages from
6 to so. Some were curled in sleep
on the stone floor. but hundreds of
classes were in session. the pupils nod
ding their heads making their notes,
many OF them on states. or dronng
their recitations as they squatted in
circles around long bearded teachers
who sat cross-legged on straw mats
The boys and young men only glanced
at me furtively out of the corners of
their eyes. but one little fellow who
did yield to his curiosity and turn
his head was promptly whacked with
a long pole.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-08

lie had lodged Nelson all the way from
1oulon to Alexandria, but the British
admiral had found the hiding place of
his lighting ships in the Bay of Aboukir,
which is one of the 40 mouths of the
Nile, and captured or sunk them all.
The folly of the Egyptian expedition
had received a terrible crown. Only two
really serviceable French warships re-
manned afloat in all the Mediterranean.
Napoleon was literally marooned on the
sands of Egypt. A sorrier plight could
hardly be imagined in the chances of war.
But to a man of his force, difficulties
and disasters are only hurdles to be
leaped He concealed his feelings, even
from those who looked on in the moment
that he received this hard blow, and at
once turned toward all a confident front.
This is the hour" he said, when
characters of superior order should
show themselves. An obligation to do
great things is laid upon us. Seas which
we do not command separate us from
France, but no seas divide Africa from
Asia. Here we will found an empire"
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-08
BY the Sphinx

When the night fell on the field of En-
babeh the campfires of Napoleon lit up
the Pyramids of Ghizeh, and from the
lofty summit of the tomb of Cheops the
astronomers of France beheld, though
family, the constellation of the South
ern Cross, while French sentries pa
trolled the shadow of the Sphinx in its
haunted hollow.
/ found 1t was a tradition among the
Arabs of the Pyramids that all the scars
wars, which the Sphinx carries, were
inflicted by Napoleon's soldiers who,
was told, used its mystifying and ma
jestic countenance as a target. That,
however, is only a legend for the tour
list. Long before the discovery of gun
powder, the Arabs had laid iconoclastic
hands on the beard of this god of the
desert-for the Sphinx of Ghizeh is not
woman-and it was the Mamelukes
themselves who made target of his in
scrutable face and shot away the nose.
The sun had lost its glare when
left the silent Sphinx-and its garrulous
Arabs-and, descending an unclouded
path in a mellow glory, it touched the
horizon line like a rainbow as it sank
behind the grim mountains of the desert
Before 1 could climb to the top of the
encircling hill the stars suddenly flashed
forth in the still blue sky.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-08
Beset on Every Hand

Cairo was speedily beaten back into
sullen obedience, when the gathering
of an army in Syria. beneath the cres-
cent of the sultan and under the COM
mand of the Pasha of Acre who had
merlted the name of Dejezzar or the
Butcher" gravely threatened Napoleon's
occupation of Egypt. Ii being contrary
to his nature to accept the defensive, to
sit down and wait to be attacked, he
took as many men as he dared to spare
from Egypt and. boldly crossed into - sia
to meet the enemy on his own ground.
His line of retreat and his Ine of COM
munications had been utterly destroyed
by Nelson's crushing victory. He was
cut off from France and Europe. The
mails to and from his army were dis
patched only to fall into the hands Of
the vigiiant British and be printed in the
London papers. the ardent love letters
of the soldiers and their sweethearts,
as well as official reports and the growl-
ing communications of his dissatisfied Of
ficers.
In the six months after the naval dis
aster, only one French courier was able
to steal through the British Blockade
of the Mediterranean. and his ship was
so hard pressed by pursuers that she
saved herself from capture by running
ashore. The courier landed. but out of IL
heavy packet of dispatches he bad saved
only one letter from the directory.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-08
The Night After the Battle

As an Egyptian night fell about me,
the memory summoned back that wild
and dreadful night across the river
when Napoleon's army first bivouacked
on this field of victory. Through all
the anxious hours the stone floors of
the great mosques of Cairo were COW
cred with the PROSTATE forms OF those
who, with their faces toward Mecca,
cast their troubles and their fears upon
Allah, while from the minarets the
muezzins whined to Mahomet their
prayers for the prophets help At the
same time the gates of the city wrere
thronged by other affrighted Cairenes
flying with their treasures from the
cruel barbarian, only to be robbed and
maybe murdered by the Bedouins who
lay in wait in the shadow of the city
wall
The leaders had craftily stimulated the
resistance of the people to the invader
by terrible prophecies of French afro
cities. When the flames shot up from
the river bank, where the Egyptian Of
ficials themselves were destroying the
boats to prevent their falling into the
hands of the enemy. the town was
thrilled with horror by the report that
the French were burning their captives
alive.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-08
Measuring the Nile

Still another effort to show the peo-
pie the usefulness of western science
was made at the Nilometer on the
Island of Rhoda in the oldest of Old
Cairo. The diligent dragoman always
takes his tourist to this interesting
neighborhood to show him where
Pharaohs daughter came down to
wash herself. while her unwashed
maidens walked along by the rivers 3
side and where she found little Moses
i'll the ark among the bulrushes. My
dragoman apologized to me for the
absence of the bulrushes They We're
in the museum, he said.
There. too is shown in the dusky
crypt beneath a very old Christian
church of the Coptic sect the scene of
the repose In Egypt of the Virgin
and child while in big ruinous
mosque many a tourist imperils his
buttons by trying to squeeze between
a pair of columns where none but
honest men can pass.
father and daughter poled me
across the ferry to the island where
the Nilometer has stood nearly 1900
Years to measure the rise of the Nile.
This Is the ancient gage OF Egyptian
prosperity, measuring the lack or abun-
dance of water for the overflowing of
the thirsty Delta. When Napoleon found
that the Mamelukes were accustomed
to fixing the tax rate the moment the
Nilometer register indicated a good
supply of water. he ordered his en-
gineers to Investigate the system.
They dug down and unearthed a
fraudulent device for manipulating the
gage in the interests of higher taxa
tion.
Only the few with more advanced
minds. however. welcomed the labors
Of the scientists from France and the
laboratory, the Egyptian institute and
tire library which they established. The
multitude hated everything that was
new.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-08
Napoleonic Cairo Today

Knowing that the Cairenes would be
emboldened by Nelson's victory, he has
tened back to his headquarters in the
home of Elf Bey by the shore of
pond at the edge of the old town. That
pond is now the principal square of the
city, the EzbelSiyeh, which is the very
heart of modern Cairo.
Tourists, rejoicing in their first white
helmets and smoking their Egyptian ci-
garettes In wicker chairs among the
palms on the broad porch of their hotel.
while they watch the passing show of the
Orient, have the romantic sense that
they are characters In some one of the
many six biggest sellers whose authors
have worked up this scene on the terrace
at Shepheard's. Probably few of them
are aware that the first party of tour
lists to find quarters where this hotel now
stands was personally conducted by Ma
poleon Bpnaparte and that where a
European bookseller has his shop nearby
the palace walls of Elf Bey rose when
Egypt was ruled by the Little Corporal.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-08
In a Sea of Sand

Indeed a real sea wall feet high is
necessary for the protection of the road
as it approaches it's destination and is
all that saves it from being submerged.
Its last section is no more than a pier
or diked causeway, with a big hotel
and pretty garden rising at the end
like a pier head out of an ocean of
sand.
There still remains a long. steep
climb to the pyramids in walled and
paved trench with the burning sun
above and the burning sand all about.
But the automobiles and trolleys stop
at the hotel and deliver their passen-
gers over to the mercies of the desert
and its children, tribe of bowling
Arabs with herd of camels and dom
keys.
For the rest of the journey the vis-
itor has hard choice of conveyance.
He may board plunging ship of the
desert and complete the illusion by
becoming seasick or be jerked along
OH the back of goaded and bewildered
donkey. Escape is impossible. You will
be deafened If you do, and deafened
Ii you don't accept the services of the
clamorous and persistent mob-unless
you buy their sheik to beat them off
and then buy him all over again to go
away himself and leave you alone with
the 40 or so centuries which saw the
Army of Napoleon coming out of the
north.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-08

four footmen to serve him, were drawn
their shirts of steel and their gay. orr
entail accoutrements glistening in the
sun. Behind this line of brilliant cav
airy there were thousands of janissa-
ries, while within the earthworks of
Embabeh there were gathered more
thousands of raw conscripts with many
cannon.
But the Mamelukes in their self
confidence relied on themselves alone
beneath their horses hoofs. Macauley
says that their commander, Mourad
Bey. could not believe that his little
antagonist who rode like a butcher
was the greatest warrior in Europe,
while the Mamelukes felt nothing but
contempt for infantry. man was no
soldier in their eyes who did not have
horse, and they laughed as they saw
Napoleon's troops trotting toward them
like dogs
When the French came within strik-
ing distance the Mamelukes, with their
weird war cry, dashed at the foot SOL
diers of France to find themselves
beating against solid squares of steel
and fire. Dazed at first and then en-
RACED they rode again and again to
the slaughter.
But when they saw their army
broken into two parts and the irresis-
tible French squares wedging in be-
tween, they fled in mad panic One
division galloped over to the Pyra-
mids and vanished into the desert,
while another raced into the village
of Embabeh, from behind the guns OF
which they sailed forth once more
only to fall before the unwavering
squares like grass before steam now
ing machine.
Those who escaped from the French
leaped from their useless horses into
the Nile. along with mob of other fu-
gitives. Most of them swan to safety;
but history makes the grewsome record
that after the victors, had finished rob-
bing the thousands of dead bodies that
bestrew the plain they amused them
selves for days in angling for the
drowned, who numbered 1900 The char
acter of the conflict is established by
the number of French killed. which
was 80.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-08
To the Pyramids by Trolley

I went at once on my arrival in Carlo
to join the gazing cycles at Ghizeh.
You no longer ferry down the Nile and
go out to the pyramids on camels or
mules. They are now only a Commute
spin in an automobile or 40-minute
ride in the company of sheeted Egypt
ians aboard a trolley car, with cur
tained section for the yelled dark eyed
sorceresses of the Nile.
Handsome bridges bore me across the
most historic of rivers, the veritable
stream of time, first to a parklike
island, and then to the farther bank,
where the town of Ghizeh sprawls in
the sun. Beyond Ghizeh a broad, al
most straight avenue, five miles long,
with the trolley tracks running be-
meath row of shady lebbakh trees,
stretches across a plain, where little
irrigating rivulets run about to refresh
the soil in it's never ending hand to
hand struggle with the desert. The
road itself is Bonapartist, it having
been laid out by the Khedive as an
honor and convenience for the Empress
Eugenie at the time she visited Egypt
to open the Suez canal.
Buffalo were by the roadside as 1
passed and little white herons were
flying over a mud village of the fella-
hin. Beyond that clump of huts the
pyramids lifted their mournful bulk
above the billows of sand which have
beaten against their foundations near
1y 5000 years and which rolled toward
me like the engulfng waves of the sea.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-08
"The White Mans Burden"

Napoleon, 1t should be remembered.
was the first to undertake the heavy
and thankless task of cleaning up and
stirring up the slothful east. The easy
going, disorganized Egyptians were ex-
asperated by his passion for cleanli-
ness order, precision and efficiency.
They longed for the return of the
barbarous and burdensome but loose
rule of the rapacious Mamelukes, who
had not cared how they lived or died.
Every innovation for the purpose of
Improving their lives and easing their
labors was resented and resisted.
Workmen who were engaged to car
ry bricks on public construction in
dignantly rebelled against the wheel
barrow as If it were the vehicle of evil
The Egyptians had carried their bricks
on their heads since the strike of the
children of Israel, and any other meth
cd was to them an invention Of the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-08
Nanolenn Marooned

1t was more than week after the bat
tie when Napoleon himself crossed the
river. He had no more than established
his headquarters in the midst of an un-
friendly city, cowed by fear in the pres
ence of ''the sultan of fire." than he was
called away to the desert to beat back
the Mamelukes who were gathering again.
There, while in Marmont's tent on the
dreary waste, the staggering news came
to him that the French naval fleet which
conveyed him to the east had been ut
tcrly destroyed In the battle Of the Nile.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-08
Irving to Dazzle the East

Over beyond the Ezbekiyeh. where
the FLASHING of the waters among the
tall palms is drowned by the clangor of
trolley cars, there was an open field in
other days. There Napoleon planned a
grand balloon ascension to distract and
impress the public mind for he had
brought from France the first balloon
ever seen in Egypt. But the air like
the sea failed the conqueror of the
land The amazement of the Egyptians
was quickly succeeded by amusement.
their exclamations of awe by shouts
of derision as they saw his gasbag
collapse and tumble to earth.
He tried also to move the shieks
and wise men to wonder by an exhi-
bition which his French scientists gave,
of electricity, chemistry and other
strange experiments In natural science.
He succeeded with the more advanced
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-08
IIHE [KR9IZLDS EPOw C4L3PO
<aaIgo sy g. Z6taEGns~ s. Go, ca<~o)

devil, an impiety which they refused
to endure.
Religious differences were the most
prolific source of trouble. Napoleon
had done his best to avert them by all
manner of filtration with Mahometan-
Ism. He promoted and participated In
the fete of Mahomet; he even ordered
an Oriental costume for himself and
did everything short of becoming a
Mahometan, as some historians have
accused him of doing.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-08

minds in his audience, but many of
his guests viewed the demonstration
with stold indifference as unequal to
the Inarvels of eastern magic.
Let them make me be in Morocco
and here at the same time" was a
challenge which one of the sheiks
gave. When the scientific men told him
such o thing was impossible the shiek
stroked his beard and turned away
with contempt for the sorcerers of the
west who could only do tricks with
bottles and wires but could not make a
man be in two places at once.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-08

hands were to be killed, every house
form which stones were thrown into the
streets was to be set afire. and all men
found in the mosques which were the
breeding places of revolt. We're ordered
TO be shot. This latter command was
given only for effect. But the more tur-
bulent were not spared when they fell
into the hands of the French, who cut
off dozen heads nightly and cast the
bodies into the river
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-08
In the Path of Alexander

Thus at %, Napoleon was alone with
his heavy responsibilities and his youth
full ambitions in the vast alien world OF
the east. If he turned back 1t was only
TO look across 1850 miles of sea, with
Britannia ruling the wave If he stood
still in Egypt It was only to give the
Turks. in alliance with the British. an
opportunity to swarm down upon him
and overwhelm him at their leisure He
must hasten into Asia and surprise the
Sultan before he could marshal his
hordes or else be caught I'm trap.
The old caravan route to Syria Is
marked at every step by footprints in
the sands of time. As Napoleon set out
upon it in February. l79S he was thrilled
by the thought that at last his feet were
in the path of Alexander.
Notwithstanding the disappontments
that had crowded upon him since the
day he landed on the shore of the orient
he still cherished the dream that this
might be his own pathway to an eastern
empire which would rival the great Naess-
domains and make him the master uf
the world from the Ganges to the Seine.
Although he was entering Asia with only
little band of 120o0 men he was not
without a glimmer of hope that after
whipping the Butcher of Acre, he might
be able to march across Persia. conquer
England in India and still take Europe
in the rear"
Next Sunday-"In the Path OF Napo-
leon across the desert and through tho
Holy Land along the great highway OF
history, where the mighty men of old
fought and wrought. No other back
ground in the world appeals so power
fully to the Imagination of men as this
which Mr. Morgan viii sketch next SUM-
day
Copyright 1918. 1914, by James Morgan)
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-08
Napoleon's Dream

In Egypt found myself free from the bands of hinder
ing civilization dreamed strange dreams created
lgon fancied myself the way to Asia elephants
back. turban on my head and in my hand Koran
composed by
Quoted by Nine de Remusat.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-08
"A Great Grandstand

But the visitor is well rewarded for
his momentary trials. Surely Cheops
Is the most wonderful grandstand from
which a battle ever was seen or a
battlefield reviewed. Overhead bends
the splendid blue vault of the Egyp-
tian sky. Behind rolls the tempestuous
cesert Below flows the Nile. Beyond
the river, the domes and minarets of
Cairo rise toward the cloudless heav-
ems in white and gold against back
ground of bare yellow hills. These
stand out on the eastern horizon like
v:Gettes guarding the green and slen-
der Valley from the oncoming sands of
Arabia, forever striving ito join forces
with the sands of Lydia and bury val
Icy and city and river in one vast and
desolate waste.
Off in front some eight miles away
there is a cluster of date palms about
the village of Embabed by the river
side. At the edge Of that little grove
the celebrated Battle of the Pyramids
was fought. There the west met the
east In combat for the first time in 500
years when the Mamelukes made their
one and only stand against the ad-
vancing French.
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-08
ar xE 51H1mx -,
lxrren~~ . a.. e/

and everywhere, that sword of his was
only the highly efficient instrument of
the great revolution, whose red anvil
it was forged, for opening the way to
new institutions and the unity of man
kind,
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-08

Mr.. Morgan sketches today one of
the most interesting battle grounds in
the world, as he saw it from the Pyra-
mids of GhiZeh, with the Nile flowing
by and the Minarets of Cairo on the
horizon. 1t is a story of a great VIC
tory and greater disaster that befell
Napoleon in Egypt. In one he con-
quered the land of the Pharaohs, but
IN the other his ships were sunk by
Nelson, leaving him marooned on the
sands OF the Orient. We see the young
general of 29, completely cut off from
Europe as he took up "the white
mans burden" for the first time. pried
open the long sealed east and started
modern civilization on its tour of the
earth. 1t is fascinating and signifi-
cant view of Napoleon struggling with
adversely amid strange and pictur-
esque surroundings.
DATES AND EvENTS-AGE 29-29.
July 21, 179S-Battle of the Pyramids.
July %, 179S-Too< Cairo
August l, 179S-Battle of the Nile.
August II. 179S-Fighting in the
desert.
September II, 17ss-Turkey declared
war
+, October 81, 179S-Revolt in Cairo.
+ February 10, 1799-Started for Syria.
/ While Napoleon with his army of 90
900 marched up the Nile from Alex
andria to the conquest of the Egyptian
capital, the streets of Carlo resounded
night and day with the shrill pipes and
monotonous drum beats of the Der
wishes, made familiar to us by mid
way limitations At the first warning of
the enemys advance the Ulema, or
wise men, marshaled the children in
long professions, and led them again
and again through the narrow, winding
lanes of the city, while their young
voices chanted an appeal for divine
.deliverance from the unbeleving hosts
of France.
Napoleon, on the other hand, invoked
neither Allah nor Jehovah, but the
spirit of the ages, when he remlneded
his troops that from the Pyramids of
Ghizeh 40 centuries looked down upon
them. What a wonderful view point
those centuries enjoyed atop the great
,cairn of Cheops, that memorable July
morning in the year 1898, what well
chosen reserved seats
The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-08
Easy to Find

From the Philadelphia Public Ledger
MY brudders." said waggish dar-
key to a crowd. lin all afflictions, in all
oh your troubles. dar is one place you
can always find sympathy"
'"Whar? Whar' shouted several of his
audience.
'In de dictionary" he replied. rolling
his eyes skyward.