The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1916-01-11
ALEXANDRIA
GREAT PRIZE
FOR SOLDIERS
Is a Modern City Which is Di-
vided into Two Parts Say
the GeographerS.

WASHlNGlON, jan. " A4S"
ander the Great, like an erratic me-
teor. flashed across the browse of
civilizations WEARY Egypt; and,
perhaps as a memorial of his deitica-
ton in the land of the Pharaohs, he
left behind him the beginning Of a
vigorous Greek city, Alexandria, des.
tined to be the gateway for flow of
western rejuyenation to the worn
valley, and today, with Constantine.
pie and few other places, one OF
teh greatest prizes for the contest
ing army millions in the East" be-
gins a bulletin just prepared by the
National Geographical Society. al
exander built his city in SS2 B. c.
upon the ruins Of an Egyptian town,
Rhacotis. After more0 than 2,OO
years, Alexandria has become the life
of Egypt, its largest port, one of the
busiest ports on the Mediterranean,
and an important world-city
The modern city is divided into
two parts, one Of which. inhabited
by Mohammedans, is listless tangle
of Oriental narrow, crooked streets
and uninviting buildings, while the
other, the European quarter, is sol
idly built and possesses many Of the
essential conventences of the Ameri-
can or European metropolis. 1t oc-
cupies a ridge OF land between the
Mediterranean and Lake Mareotis.
The Rosetta mouth OF the Nile lies
more than thirty miles to the east.
Cairo, the interior metropolis, lies
129 miles by rail to the southeast,
and the Suez canal is more than lao
miles to the east. The city Is linked
by a network OF railway and tele-
graph lines to the other towns of
Egypt, and is in telephone connect
tion with Cairo.
Counting House.
Alexandria is the counting house
and the commission Office of the Nile
valley. The British chamber of COM
MERGE has its headquarters there, and
there, too. are located the head Of
fees Of many of the largest COM
merclal organizations doing business
in the Near East. The value of the
city's trade, in normal times, is
about s24O,O00,0OO year. The
western harbor, designed for mod
ern, first-rank commerce, Is visited
annually by 5000 vessels. The chief
articles of export are grain, cotton,
beans, sugar and rice, and the bust
ness is largely In the hands OF Euro
peans. of whom there are $4,000 in
the total population Of 100000. The
city Is connected by cable lines with
Cyprus, Crete and Port Said. One OF
the interesting phases of Alexandrla's
commerce is that it sends S0,000,00O
eggs each year to London, where
these products retail as fancy fresh
eggs. This large yearly turnover
gives Egypt an intimate relationship
with the Englishman's breakfast la
BILE.
"Dimocrates Of Rhodes, arcitect
and friend to the famous Macedo-
Man, laid out Alexandria. He plan
ned the city as an affair of right an
giles and sharp corners, including thel
whole in parallelogram quadr-i
sected by two main thoroughfares.
this regularity of city plan tina Dino
crates developed was the beginning
of the school of grid-iron city build
ing, of the impersonal, strictly bust
ness city only now waning in popu-
larity.
battle-ground from Start.
"The exotic Grecian city was a
battle-ground from the start. The
East and the West met and fought
out their difference 10 finish there.
Greek learning and Greek philoso-
ply found refuge in Alexandria, and
there antagonized, and finally blend
ed with, the philosophers of the East.
Christianity and Paganism fought
some Of their most bitter battles
there; and the Jews, the Christians,
the Pantheists and the philosophers
fomented many bloody riots, in
which the tickle, violent. loot-hungry
Alexandrian mob ragged in unforget-
able religious tumults. In one such
tumult, the surprisingly beautiful
Pagan priestess, Hypatia, was torn
to pieces to guilt a british populace.
"The famous Alexandria library
was the bridge between the culture
of classic Greece and the cultural
needs Of early Christian and Moham-
medan Europe, Much of its treas
ures filtered through to the Moors
and to the Christians drought the
scholarship of Rome. The library
was destroyed in the war-food, which
followed the rise Of the religion
from the desert; and the burning Of
the great book treasury has been
keenly deplored by scholars Of each
generation succeeding.
an the latter years of the
eighteenth century, the city was held
by the French. 1t had sunk to the
status of a small village under cen
turtles Of Mohammedan misrule, hay
ing a population of less than 1000.
Under Mohemet All, the wise and
cunning Albanian, II regained much
of its prosperity. English control OF
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