Fort Mill times. [volume] (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, 1922-04-27
GREAT CITY ON NILE.
Cairo Now Whirlpool of World
Cultures.

gone Dv, NalfO is today. just as
the mantle of Rome passed west
to London and New York. so the
mantle of the metropolis of the
Arabic speaking world has passed
west and has fallen on the great
city of the Nile, which has taken
OH new interest with the emer
gence of Egypt as kingdom,
says bulletin of the National
Geographic society.
Cairo is living kaleidoscope I;
its cOlOred fragments are tumbled
into place not merely from East
and West, but from North and
South as well. White-rObed Be
douin, ill-clad fellah, shiny-black
Soudanese and central African
negro, swarthy Turk, Persian,
Hindu, Mongolian, dusy Moor.
Italian, Greek, Armenian, and
the whittier folk from Europe
America and the antipodes-all
are jumbled together in Cairo,
their various tongues making a
babel that can hardly be duplicat-
ed at amy other spot OH earth.
1.-The life in Cairo is almost
what you will. DO you want the
finest of European hotels with the
last word of luXuryY They are
there. DO you long for the ba-
zaars of the true East? You will
find them Just around the corner.
Would you see the primitive life
of the humble city dweller, the
inn OF the desert wandercr, stu
dent life among MOhammedan
youth, the crowds about tn.
mosques, the palaces of Eastern
potentates-they are all within
easy reach. And if you would
journey swiftly and cheaply into
the past you need only board an
electric trolley car and be whisked
through few miles of sand to
the pyramids of Gizeh and the
sphinx.
"The life that GIBBS and flows
along some of the streets of Cairo
is like nothing so much as a cir
Gus parade back home. Deliber-
ate camels move along with
brightly dressed riders perchcd
upon them or with suspended cars
i'll which are yelled damsels,
while drummers thunder their
rythm and fife blowers emit their
shrill notes. Snake charmers pass
along with their bags of snakes; /;
magicians perform in some nook !;
bullock carts and laden donkeyS
compete for space with shining
limOuSineS
"The al fresco cafe is one of
the most characteristic marks of
Cairo. 1t is not the more Or less
well ordered affair of the boule-
wards of Paris. Sidewalks and
streets oevrflOw With seemingly
innumerable chairs and tables
until often a single file of pcdes-
trians can hardly force its way
through. One gets the impression
that few people need to work in
Cairo. Even in the mornings the
chairs are filled with apparently
prosperous men slipping coffee or
sweetened water, putting cigar
cites and talking. Toward noon
they disappear for their siestas,
but again at 4 or o'clock they
are out in force and remain far
into the night. Among them cir
culates n stream of peddlers Of
fering. for sale almost every con-
ceivable ware from swcetmeats to
mouse traps and underwear.
"The dweller in Cairo who has
no servant or his group of serv-
ants is low indeed i'll the economic
scale. These serving men carry
tiny bundles for their employers,
masters, one might say. They run
ahead of carriages to clear the
way; they fan away the flies, and
one after another they come in
troops into the presence of the
prosperous to bring smoking ma
terials o. to offer bewildering
succession of drinks and foods.
Life is hard and few cents a
day satisfies them. Even the por-
tcrs who carry heavy bundles and
the bOatmen who laboriOusly pole
the Nile craft against the current
work II or 12 hours for little
more than as many cents"