The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1923-06-29
PORT SAID 'TOpSY
CITY OF EGYPT
Has Neither Ancestry Nor Tradl'
ton and "Iust GrOWed."
CERSELESS SONG OF LABOR

moves under the SpClI Oi DOW J'"'"
ago, Egypt has a city, Port Said, which
possesses no more OF a past than
Topsy. writes Maynard owen Williams
star correspondent OF the National
Geographic society, from Egypt
Port Said IS a city without roots,
whose sand foundations we're spewed
up by dredges and whose buildings ana
population were dropped of by passing
ships. 1t has neither ancestry nor ira
dltlon. 1t Just growed.'
"The city Is as nondescrlpt as its
population. The high iron fence when
separates the parade from the canal
marks the boundary line between coOl
lazlness and feverish activity.
'In the harbor, small, powerful tugs
snort here and there amid the traihc'
white rowboats with plain fiat avn
ings move like palsied shuttles be-
tween gang plank and customs quay
trim cutters from the British memo
war suggest order in the midst OF
chaos and always the coolies coallng
the liners trot up the steep plankS'
singing a ceaseless song OF ceaseless
toll.
although these grimy drudges 40
not belong to the nobility, Port Sald
owes them much, for this city not only
protects one end of the jugular vein
or hamstring of the empire from en-
ylous wolves but has the more profit
able, If less picturesque honor OF being
tho 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
coaling machinery in Port Said is just
now dawning.
Coaing and the CooIe.
Before the mail boats are securely
tied up, nlght-black barges covered
with nght-blaek men with milk-White
eyes have attached themselves to their
staunch TANKS and the fuel Is pouring
aboard i'm 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 oXidi2ed
metal.
1.-THE baskets are not passed from
hand to hand. Each man shoulders
his load and trots with Ii up the steep
plank, soon reappearing to jump down
into the dusky depths of the barge.
STEAMER to barge, barge to pile, pile
to barge, barge to leyathan 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 II
be the co0lie.
During night coaling, plank with
six coolies on 1t dropped with thud
10 the barge deck and for weeks the
coolies refused to coal at night, eX-
cept those ships that have side ports.
'This was an awful sacrllege! 1t Is
even limited that the mail was de-
layed. But the T. and Q. liners have
side ports and It was not one of them,
so 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 a game
in which the ball hovers in the air
like white-breasted gull. Bathing Is
even less strenuous, being conducted
according to Graeco-Roman rules. Golf
moves with dignity rather than mean.
descent language. But the drink
steward has developed winged heels
while carrying llbations to the gods OF
the veranda.
"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
llchens and Kipling, ostrich feather
fans, kimouos, 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 brcakwater.
"a canal service dredge in action
develops a SQueal that reminds one of
Circe's captives, frantic With remorse
and Inconsistencies. But the humble
and complaining dredge Is the pro-
rector 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.
litions In his sociological discussions
with n red-capped NJ, p, that weary
individual TO whom even murder would
be a relief, duly answers:
"'You think Port Said Is badP You
ought TO have seen It before the war d."
Woman Wins Election From Husband.
L,