The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1923-07-13
PORT SAID 'TOPSY
!. CITY or EGYPT
Has Neither Ancestry Nor Tradl-
ton and "JuSt GroWed."
CEASELESS SONG or LABOR

moves uuueT lnc 9PNh " 'f'"N 49,.
ago, Egypt has a city, Port Said, when
possesses no more Of a past than
Topsy writes Maynard owen Williams,
staff correspondent Of the National
Geographic society, from Egypt
port Said Is a city without roots,
whose sand foundations were spewed
up BY dredges and whose buildings and
population were dropped off by passing
ships. 1t has neither ancestry nor ira
ditlon. II Just growed.'
"The city is as nondescript as its
population. The high iron fence which
separates the parade from the canal
marks the boundary line between cool
laziness and feyerish activity.
I'm the harbor, small. powerful tugs
snort here and there amid the tralllc'
white rowboats with plain fiat avn
ings move like pasied shuttles be-
tween gang plank and customs quay
trim cutters from the British memo
war suggest order In the midst OF
chuos, and always the coolies coaling
the liners trot up the steep planks,
singing a ceaseless song of ceaseless
toll.
although these grimy drudges do
not belong to the nobility. Port Sald
owes them much, for this city not only
protects one end Of the jugnlar vein
or hamstring of the empire from en-
vlous wolves but has the more profit
able. II less picturesque honor of being
the worlds greatest coallng station.
I'm such tiny, obscure ports as
Otaru, ships can be coaled IN short
order by machinery. But the day of
coallng machinery in Port Said is just
now dawning.
Coaling and the Cooie.
Before the mail boats are securely
tied up, night-black barges covered
with night-biack men with milkwhite
eyes have attached themselves to their
staunch TANKS and the fuel Is pouring
aboard In an endless line of limp bas-
kets borne on the shoulders Of sweat
ing men, whose limbs, deeply coated
with coal dust, seem made of oxldlzed
metal
1.-THE baskets are not passed from
hand to hand. Each man shoulders
his load and trots with 1t up the steep
plank, soon reappearlng to jump down
into the dusl1y depths Of the barge.
Steamer TO barge barge to pile, pile
to barge, barge to leviathan or tramp
one would think that half the sooty
fuel would be lost through frequent
handling. But no one can teach Port
Said anything about coaling-unless it
be the cO0lie.
During night coalng, plank With
six coolies on 1t dropped with a thud
to the barge deck and for weeks the
coolies refused to coal at night, ex-
cept those ships that have side ports.
"Thls was an awful sacrilegel 1t Is
even limited that the mail was de-
layed But the p. and o. liners have
side ports and 1t was not one OF them,
40 JOve withheld his thunderbolts
The coolies gave the excuse that they
were tired.
Never Hurry--Except for Drinks.
"But that takes you to the other
side Of the iron fence. There the peo-
pie are always tired. Tennis is game
in which the ball hovers in the air
like a white-breasted gull, Bathing is
even less strenuous, being conducted
according to Graeco-Roman rules. Golf
moves with dignity rather than lncan-
descent language. But the drink
steward has developed winged heels
while carrying libations to the gods Of
the veanda.
'@The main attraction of Port Said,
aside from the lighthouse whose beams
sweep the shipping safe to port and
the shops where cigarettes, novels by
HIchens and Kipling, ostrich feather
fans, kimonos, sun helmets. Japanese
and Syrian damascene, Oriental silks.
Partisan post cards and cosmetics, and
Abyssinian weapons Is the De Les
seps monument, situated near the in.
ner end of the western breakwater
"A canal service dredge in action
develops a squeal that reminds one Of
Circe's captives, frantic with remorse
and homesickness. But the humble
and complaining dredge Is the pro-
tector OF traffic and as long as the
squeal continues the procession will
go by.
at is thought that when Kipling
wrote of thirst culture and the equality
Of man east of Suez' he misplaced
Port Said, for the only thing the curlo
dealers do not keep, nor their Gus
toners ask for. are the Ten Command
ments. And when the missionary
ashore from China boat deploreS con.
dltlons In his sociological discussions
with a red-capped NJ. p, that weary
individual to whom even murder would
be a relief, duly answers:
"'You think Port Said is bad? You
ought to have seen 1t before the warr"
Woman Wins Election From Husband.
Running against her husband for
school trustee in Knox township Ill.