White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1932-08-25

| These keleks come down to Baghdat
in hundreds from Mosul, bringing wool
pottery, grain and skins.
The present custom house at Bagh
dad is wing Of the old palace O
Harum-al-Rashid; yards Of scrawlin.
Arabic characters, cut in marble pan
els, still adorn it's historic walls.
Baghdad arteries Of traffic are mere
alleys, often so narrow that two don
keys cannot pass. Once Turkish sol
diers tried to move artillery through
Baghdad. The streets were so narrow
the horses had to be unhitched, anG
men moved the guns about by hand.
A great wall encircles Baghdad, with
guarded gateways, as in medieval
days. Flat-roofed, huddled Moorish
houses, many almost windowless and
each surrounding it's own open court
are distinct feature of the older
parts of Baghdad On these fiat roofs
Arabs spend the summer nights with
tom-toms, flutes, water-pipes, and
dancing women. Facing the river, re.
moved from the Arab town, are built
the imposing foreign consulates, mer-
camille Offices, and the sumptuous
homes of rich Jews, Armenians,
Greeks and Syrians-the men who
make New Baghdad.
But the Baghdad Of Ali Baba's day,
with the splendor of Aladdin's en-
chanted age, is gone forever. The pal.
aces, the mosques, and minarets are
mostly in ruins. Even the tomb of
lovely Lady Zobeida, favorite wife OF
Harun-al-Rashid, is tumbled down and
decayed. 1t is into modern monuments
to New Baghdad-into roads, bridges,
public buildings, irrigation works,
army organization, dredging the Tigris,
etc.-that the Young Turks put their
money.
Modern Baghdad is In safer hands !;
no dissipated royalty guards it's gates.
Sober, clear-headed men, drilled in the
best schools of modern Europe, able to
hold their own anywhere, administer
it's affairs. AS late as 1880 the Tigris
overlooked it's banks, swept through
Baghdad, and drowned $4,000 people
in one night.
Till lately Baghdad, more than any
other city in the Near East, has been
slow to yield to Europe's influence.
For centuries Baghdad kept close to
the Bedouin life, under the sway Of
nomad customs. Even now Baghdad's
famous bazaars, despite her evolution
in other ways, are conducted as they
were thousands years ago. These
Arab trading places have changed not
one whit since Abraham's time. Here
is barter and sale as Marco Polo
found it, as it was in the days of the
Three Wise Men who bought gifts for
Bethlehem.
Basra is situated on the Shatt-el-
Arab, a river formed by the union of
the Tigris and Euphrates. Smaller CEN
ters of Importance, such as Kut and
Amara, follow each other at intervals
the entire length of the valley. Most
Of the inhabitants are Mohemmedan
Arabs, though in the cities are many
Jews, while in the mountainous north
are settlements Of HISTORIAN Chris
tians dating from very early times.
Arabs Who Work in Factories.
City Arabs have taken readily to the
ways of civilization and seem glad for
the chance to work in ice and cotton
cloth factories. and upon engineering
md public works. Much agricultural
and has been reclaimed, the date PALM
If which more than sixty varieties are
Known, being the chief product.
Wheat, barley and rice are also grown,
Ind experiments with cotton are be.
ng made. Flowers. pumpkins, and
vegetables are planted In the date
where the palms protect ten
Ter leaves below from the scorching
ummer sun. These green spots are still |
hiefy confined to the regions Of the |
liver banks. The rest Of the lower
alley Is swamp or treeless plain.
In the spring months when SHOWS
re melting on nearby mountain
anges the Tigris and Euphrates be-
ONE swollen torrents and often over
ow their banks and inundate the sur
ounding country. just as they did in
ne days Of Noah. The new regime
taking active steps in flood proven
on by strengthening river banks in
wv places and damming up the flow
headwaters There has been no
.rious flood since 1919 when the
igris rose to within a foot of the
vel Of Baghdad and the lower valley
ecame one vast lake wherein man
nd beast vainly sought for sofety.