South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1922-04-16
REAL EGYPT ONLY
NARROW RIBBON OF
LAND ALONG NILE
New Ruler Becomes First
King of Egypt Since the
Ptolemaic Regime.

WASHINGTON, d. c., April ID
King Fuad succeeds Cleopatra.
when Great Britain abandoned
its proteotorate over Egypt, and the
Sultan Of the Nile country changed
his title TO king, he became the first
king Of Egypt since the Ptolemanic
regime" says a bulletin issued from
the Washington. d. c., headquarters
of the National Geographic Society.
The old Egypt Of millenniums
ago is in many ways more familiar
to the world at large than the Egypt
Of today" continues the bulletin.
Pictures Of it's great pyramids and
sphinXes, its columned temples and
rock-hewn tOmbs fiji histories and
encyclopedias; and inevitably the
readers attention is centered, not
on the problem of today. but rather
on the evidences Of dead civiliza-
ton.
But aside from the fact that
mummy hunting was for many years
one of the leading private indus
tries of the country; and that now
convicIs, instead Of building roads,
eXcavate tumbs and temples for the
government, the old monuments are
merely a background for a life hard
enough TO center local thoughts
mostly OH daily bread-winning.
"Superfcially Egypt seems a largo
country. The eye sees its color
spread over a considerable part OF
the northeastern quarter of the map
of Africa. and statistics credit IL
with an area of more than ESQ. 600
square miles. But the real Egypt
the habitable parts like a cord
with a frayed end; the narrow val
ley and haring delta of the Nlie.
Except a Few scattered cases. most
OF the rest of the nominal Egypt il
Parched desert sand, gravel ana
rocky hills OF its more than
third of a million square miles ot
territory about ! , 900 are estimated
TO be capable Of cultivation, anad a
considerable part of this has not
yet been actually titled.
Figure From Carvings.
'In comparing the Egypt Of today
with that of the dawn Of history
one is divided between wonder at
the marked changes on the surface
and the lack Of change i'm some
fundamentals. The Egyptian OF to-
DAY does not speak his old tongue.
but instead, Arabic; his old gods
are forgotten. and he has--with the
exception Of a small minority
adopted the religion OF MChammed
But in spite Of numerous invasions.
the blood Of the great majority Of
the population has been altered
hardly at ALL Practically the fella
! hcen, or peasants. might have step
/ ped from the ancient carvings. they
are but a fresh generation Of the
men who dragged the great blocks
( OF stone into place TO build the
artificial mountains Of the PhaFaOhs
or who dropped seeds into the mud
( Of the reoeding Nile thousands Of
years ago. even as they are dropped
today.
"Egypts resources are almost
wholly agricultural. and i'm the agri-
cultural scheme the millions Of
/ fellaheen arc the ultimate units.
They work long hours scratching the
soil with crude implements. or ted
iously raising water in skin buckets
attached 70 pivoted poles that the
thin stream may save their plants
I from parching. Taxes are heavy,
and il is the lcwly fellaheen who
keep the treasury supplied. Living
conditions are very poor. mud huts
I house most Of Egypt's thirteen mill
+ ions. In the fields they wear little
more than a loin cloth. and the
I younger children of the villages go
naked When the feilah is dressed
up' he wears a rough shirt and
loose trousers.
One of Earliest Governments.
There is little cause 10 marvel
Al Egypt's checkered history. A
simple reason is that she began
carly. Here is one Of the earliest
/ places in which man lived an order
\ ed life and left records Of his &C
I tivities Some anthropOlcgists, in
I fact. look upon central Africa as the
place OF origin Of man. and upon
| Egypt as one Of the first way-sia-