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- -it f :"r, M THE KEWS LNT OBSISBVEH. SIHSiDAY, SJEPTJBMBEB. 8, 5 4 T By FRANK. D. CARPENTER. ALL ABOUT THE BIG CITY AT THE i HEAD OF TIIE XILE DELTA. It Has More Than a Million People, .. and is Leading the Mohammedan World A Look at Its Mosquea and Their Pious Worshippers The Ba zars and Their Queer Customers How Cairo Women Dress The Xew European Section Wliere Land is Bringing $30 a Saarc Yartl Tiic Big Hotels and Wliat It Costs to Stay at Them Thirty Tliousand Tourists Who Spend $10,000,000 a Yew. (Copyright, Car- 1907. by Frank G. penter.) CAIRO. Stand with me on the Hill of the Citadel and take a look over Cairo. We are high above the River Nile, and far above the minarets of mosques which rise out of the vast plain of houses below. We are as high up as the tops of the Pyramids, ?whlch ftand out upon , the yellow desert away off at the left. The sun is blazing' and there is a smoky haze over the Nile valley, but it is not dense enough to hide Cairo. The city, which lies right under us, is the largest on this continent and .one of the mightiest of the world. It now contains a million inhabitants and, in size, it is fast approximating. Helio polis and Memphis in the height of their glory. Of all the Mohammendan c4tle of the world. Cairo Is now growing- the fastest. It already has only 100,000 less people than Constantinople. It Is four times as big as Damasque, eight times, as big as Bag-dad and fifteen or twenty times the see of either Mecca or. Medna, where the Prophet Mohammed was born and, V -C If FRANK G. CARPENTER. died. It ha more than doubled its population since I last visited it. and with my glass I can now see the scaffolding- about the new buildings which are rising here and there overf the . plains. The towai ; now covers an area equal 1 o fifty quarter-ectIon farms; and Its buildings are so crowd ed together that they form an almost continuous structure. The only trees to he seen are those in the new French charter, whfch lies on the out skirts. Mohammedan Cairo. The most of the city is df Arabian architecture. Jt is flat roofed, and v ta made up of yellowish-white build ings so crowded along narrow streets that they can hardly be , seen at this distance. Here and there, out of the field of white, rise tall., round stone towers with galleries running about them. They dominate the. whole city, and under each is a mosque. Those mosques are the . Mohammedan churches. There are hundreds of them in Cairo, and not a few have . been recently erected. Every one has Its worshippers, and upon every tow er, five times a day, the shrill-voiced Arabian priest calls out for the peo ple to come to prayers. There is a man now calling from the mina ret -of the Mosque of Sultan Hasan, which is Just under us. The mosque itself covers more than two acres, and the minaret is about half as high as the Washington monument. The priest is standing on a gallery, with scaffolding above and below him. His mosque " is being repaired, and $200, 000 will be spent upfcn it when the present plans are completed. Just next it is another mosque, recently begun, and all about us we can see evidences that Mohammedanism is by no means dead, and that these people worship God with their pockets as well as with their tongues. In the Alabaster mosque, which stands at my back, fifty men are now praying, and in the courtyard a score of others are washing themselves be fore they go in to make their vows of repentance to God and the Prophet. Not far below me I can see the mosque cT-Azhar, which has been a Mohammedan university for more than a thousand years, .and where something like 9,000 students are now learning the Koran and Koranic law. During my stay in Tunis the Mo hemmedans were celebrating their Lent or Ramadan, and not a, one 'of the vast population of -Tunisia, who believe in the Prophrc. would take a bite to eat from sunrise to sunset, and the more devout would not even swallow their spittle. Here at Cairo I have seen rhe people preparing to take their pilgrimage to Mecca, rich and poor starting out on that long journey into the Arabian desert. At present many go part of the way by water. The ships leaving Alexandria and Suez are crowded with pilgrims, and there is a rejrular exodus from Port Sudan and other places on this side of . the Red sea. They go acros? to Jeddah and there lay off their costly clothing and make their way inland. cad only in aprons and a pirte of cloth over the leit shoulder. This is so of the rich and the poor. Many of the former carry gifts and other offerings for the sacred city, anki such gifts cost the Egyptian gov ernment alone a quarter of a million dollars a year. Notr only the khedlve, but the Mohammedan rulers of the Fudan, send gifts, and I understand that the new railroad which has been recently completed from far up the Nile to the Red sea is now giving special rates to pilgrimage parties" it Is by no means safe to look, upon Mo hammedanism as a dead religion. A Religion of the Lips. And' still I sometimes wonder whether this Mohammedanism is not a religion of the lips rather than of the heart. These people are so ac customed to uttering the -words ' of prayer that they forget the sense. The use of the word God is heard everywhere in the bazaars. The water carrier, ! who goes about with a pig skin upon his back, jingling- his brass cuds to announce his business, cries . out: "May ? God recompense met" and his customer renliestas he drinks by giving him a copoer In the name of the Lord.i, The lemonade peddler, who carries a glass bottle as big as ia four gallon crock, does the same, and I venture the name of the. Deity is uttered here more frequently than to any other part of the world. It is through this custom of religious pre text that I am able to get free of the beggars of the city. I have learned two Arab words, "Allah yatik," which mean: "May God give thee enough and to spare." When a beggar pes ters me I say these words gently. He looks upon me in astonishment and then touches his forehead in a polite Mohammedan salute and goes away. A City of the Egyptians. The tourist who passes through Cairo and stavs at the big hotels is apt to think that the city is fast be coming a Christian one. He Us told that the British are its real govern ors, and as he drives over aspnait streets lined with the fine buildings of the European quarters it seems al together English and French. I If he is acquainted with many foreigners he finds them living in beautiful vil las, or it may be in apartment ; houses such as would not be out of place in any city of Europe or of the United States. He does his shopping in mod ern stores, and gradually comes to the conclusion that the Arab cltv'is fast passing away. This is not soJ Cairo is a city of the Egyptians. Not one tenth of its inhabitants are Christians, and it is the eight or nine hundred thousand natives who make up the life blood of this municipality. They are people of a different world from ours, as we can see if we go down and stroll through the city. They do business in different ways, and they trade much the same now as thev have been trading for generations back. Their stores are crowded along narrow streets which wind this Way and that, so that one might lose him self in them. Every branch Of busi ness has its own section. In ohe place there are nothing but saddlers. In an other shoemakers, and In another the workers in copper, silver and brass. The booksellers and bookbinders have a street of their own; and so have the clothiers and tailors, t Nearly every store is a factory as well, and most of the goods offered you are made in the shops. I have been in most of the great ba zaars of the world, and I know of none more interesting than those f of Cairo. In them thousands arej buying and selling, and each narrow street has a stream of color which flows back and forth all day long. From the; top of one's donkey this stream is red and white unon a bed of black and. blue. The red is the fez caps and the white the turbans, while the blacks and blues are the gowns of the people; be low them. The sides of the I streets are bright with the goods hanging out of each little shop, and the whole is like wandering through a world's fair in which -t ha exhibitors are dark faced, turbaned,- long-gowned men, who sit cross-legged on -carpets, with all the treasures of the orient piled about them. The Cairo of the Arabian Njghs. Although the foreigner -and i hUi in novations are almost everywhere in evidence. . native Cairo is much ) the same now as It was in the days of the Arabian Nights. - These people ! be lieve the same as they did then; they wear the same costumes; the women are as closely veiled, and all the char acters of the days of Haroun Al Ras chid are to be seen. Here the vision ary Alnascher quats in his narrow, cell-like store, with his basket f glass before him. He has a long water pipe in his mouth and is musing on the profits he will make from peddling his glass, growing richer and f richer, until the khedlve will be glad; to of fer him his daughter in marriage, and he will sBurn her as she kneels before him. We almost expect tq see the glass turned over as it was In the story, and his castle in the air shat tered with his kick. Next to him is a turbaned Mohammedan who reminds us of Sinbad the Sailor, and a little further on is a Barmecide, washing his hands with invisible soap in in visible water, and apparently inviting his friends to come and have a great feast with him. Here two long-gowned, gray-bearded men are sitting on a bench drinking coffee together; and. there a straight, tall maiden, robed in a gown which falls, from her head to her feet and with a long black veil covering all of her face but her eyes, looks over the wares of a hand some v young Syrian, reminding us of! how the houris shopped in the days of the past. Donljeys and Camels. N Oriental Cairo is a city of donkeys and camels. In the Frenchquarter you may have a modern cab for 15 cents n ride, or you may jump on the elec tric street cars and go a long distance for from 2 1-2 to 5 cents, or you may even hire an automobile to carry you over the asphalt. The streets of the native city are too narrow for such things, and you are crowded ; to the wall again and again for fear that the spongy feet of the camels may tread upon you. You are grazed by: loaded donkeys, carrying grain, bricks; or bags on their backs; and the .donkey boy who is trotting behind an animal ridden by some rich Egyptian orchis wife calls upon you to get out -of the way. The donkey is the best means of getting around through the na tive city and the cheapest. You may hire one for two hours for 2D cents, for a half day for 50 or 60 cents, and all day for a dollar. Every ridjng ani mal Is numbered. My donkey of to day was named "California," and the number on his saddle was 977. to see whether heir skins are white, black or brown. They are by no means good looking as they walk through the streets. Those of the better classes are clad In cloaks of black bombazine made so full that they hide every outline of the 'per son. Some ' have then- cloaks tied in at the waist, and .they look like black bed-ticks walking off upon legs. Here one raises her skirts, and you see that she has on zouave bloomers which fall to her ankles; they n.uke me think of the fourteen-yard breeches worn by the girls of Algiers. The poorer women wear gowns of blue cotton, and a single gown and veil make up a whole costume. Some of them carry babies astride their hips or their shoulders, and the babies are often as naked' as when they were born. Not a few of the ladies have eunuchs to go about with them. The latter are as black as my hat, and as sour as the Sphinx. They are to keep the young women from flirting, as they shop in the bazaars. Nearly all of the women have their faces covered. In the oriental quar ters you will not meet any. except the very-lowest of the peasants, who has not a long veil of black crepe six inches wide reaching from Just below her eyes to her ankles. This is stitched at the corners to her head dress, and fastened m the center by a brass spool four inches long, which covers the bridge of the nose. The eyelids of most of the women are blackened with kohl; they have thick black eyelashes, and one often imag ines them beautiful until the wind blows away a veil and you find out the contrary. The New Cairo. 1 In striking ' contrast with Egyptian Cairo is the new European section which has grown jup off its edge. That part of the city is having a boom: and lots which sold for $10 a square yard two years ago are now bringing $30. There are instances where ground is selling for eighteen times as much as it did in 1905. Property is going up all over this sec tion, and an enormous amount of building is being done. Rents are so rising that the poorer Europeans are moving out into the suburbs, and this city promises to have a suburban de velopment Just as we have about our American towns. European Cairo is a city of wide streets, paved with asphalt. It is a city of electric lights and sanitary im provements. It has fine residences, surrounded by gardens filled with tropical plants and trees; and its better stores carry goods which would sell readily in Paris or New York. One can buy almost anything from any where in the world at these stores. This is especially so of such wares as are in demand by the tourists and the rich do-nothing class. The peddler of antiquities and fine china, of jewelry and of oriental rugs is also here in all his glory, and during the season he does a big business. Cairo has many doctors and den tists. The doctors charge $5 a visit whether you see them at their of fices or at your hotel. The dentists are mostly Americans, and they are not he for their health- The town is one of newspapers, libraries and clubs. It has its daily journals, in which you can read the telegrams in French, English and Arabic; and it has its loud-mouthed - newsboys, who cry thf papers on the streets. My shoes are blacked every morning by a boy wearing a turban, and hla charge is two cents a shine. Cairo has a good postal system, with a letter delivery several times a day, and it has hundreds of police men, both on foot and on horseback. A policeman stands in the center of every street crossing to see that all carriages go to the left instead of the right; and there are enough police in every section to make life and property safe. Cairo's Big Hotels. Cairo is one of the winter resorts of the world. It is thronged during the season with Europeans and Amer icans. There are thousands of our rich citizens here every year, and they leave millions of dollars . in Egypt. Thirty thousand tourists visited the valley of the Nile last winter, and it is safe to say that they left upwards of $10,000,000. The hotels of Cairo increase In size and number every year. They are run by syndicates with large capital and they pay big dividends. Shephcard's, which is so well known everywhere, has 400 beds. The Savoy has 180. The Hotel Continental 300, the I Ghezireh Palace can accommodate ! 400 guests at one time, and tl 3 Mena j Hotel, right under the Pyramids, has '180 rooms. All these hotels have modern improvements and they charge roundly for them. At Shep l heard's I pay $8 a day for a double ' bedded room for myself and son. and ;in addition there is a charge of 10 i cents a day for electric lights. If I I have my breakfast in my room that j is an extra, and if I am ' not in the dining room, at just the moment when 1 dinner begins, I find the doors closed, and have to go to the grill room and pay extra for whatever I order. Four or five dollars per person per day for room and board is the usual price nt the nrstclass Egyptian hotels, and this is so at Alexandria and all up and down the Nile valley. The prices are somewhat less during the summer prd fa'l: but at such times many of the hotels are closed, the most of i them running only during December, January, February and March. ! Many people come here to spend the winter, and many find It so 'cold that they have to leave. It seems to me that the advantages of Cairo as a health resort have been greatly overrated. For the last year or so the city has had an epidemic of dengue or breakbone fever during the winter, and there is scarcely a man, woman or child who has escaped. The climate is better farther up the Nile valley. FRANK G. 'CARPENTER. i i ,. 1 . . ... . ,. i i We prepay carriage on all Cash Mail Orders! of $5.00 or more to any point in North Carolina , . v. trie 11 ii PPM I I We give VD. & F.'s" Cold Trading S!zn:p:- good as gold wiih every cssh purclir.: one stamp with every 10 cents . 123-12 S FA YSTTEVBLLE ST., RAILEIKSM, CJ. I I 1 1 ( J i j Lr r. r CD), f -. L VIGOROUS BEGMMG OF THE SECOND MEK, 9 4h 4fta Mrfb im ; i H ft 1 iM,yriLini LaL3 IRRESE STABLE NEW ; Jll?GliVO -Housekeepers' j Requirements can bs nowhere so advantageously filled as here in this great sale, j The Bargain prices are fully J3 less than the regular f all j and winter prices. This sale with its unusually lore0 number of wanted household articles at bargain prices offers the housekeeper a greater opportunity than ever to save money. We advise a visit to the store,' for there are co many things a housekeeper needs at money-saving prices that a isit, even if one hzz to come many miles, will fu'ly fully repay railroad fares and all travelling expenses bat if one can not come personally, just telephone for what you. want, are csiid ycur crdcr by mail, and you will receive the same attention and the same just treatment that you would if you come in persdn. ' J : N4l IT'S i Whether you buy now or later is a question of greatest Im portance for the saving in this great September Sale of Carpejt, Rugs, l Art ISquares, Mattings, Bed Quilts, EMer Bownj Quilts, Bed C0mfdfts,r Bed Spreads,- Crochet Bed Spreads,; Curtains, Draperies, "Sheets, PilloW Cases, Table Linens, Da!masks and Hapldns, Tox7els, Crashes, and alljallieddines of Housekeeping Dry Goods is too great not to be fully considered. Coine at once. is PEClMMl i i ' I - UllL.. GOO Pairs iLape .GurtGino-A superb selection embracing the surplus stock of a prominent mill. Ho old, obsolete styles, ;but . the season's choicest patterns and weaves at less than cost of production. A great big sec tion right at our entrance is given toi the display of r these Lace Curtains. A great Curtain u ' u i .1 i opportunity. , Some Queer Citizens. The characters of these bazaars are odd to an extreme and one most have an educated- eye to know who they are. Take that man in a gfen tur han; ne is looked to by his fel lows. Your dragoman will tell you that he has a sure passporr to heaven Dearest Gertrude: I have found tut best tiling in the world for a dry sham poo. It is "Vegerub" a coarse powder. Just rub it through the hair and it and that the turban Is a sigm that he .,,. .. i., , ., has made the pilgrimage t Mecca cleanscs ll perfectly, then can be easily and thus earned the right 4o: the col ors of the prophet. Behind htm comes a. fine-featured, yeHow-facedT man in a blue gown wearing a turban of hlue You ask your guide who heL may be and are told, with a sneer, that he ia a Copt. He is one of the Christians of modern Egypt, and Ha descended from the fanatical band which 1 Charles Kingsley describes i in his ; novel Hypatia." Like all of? his class; he is Intelligent and like most of them ! well dressed. The Copts are 'among ! the shrewdest of the Duslness ' Egyp- I tians and with the . prosperity now! common in the valley of the Kile, they are growing in wealth. They j are j money lenders and are also land J speculators. Many of. them have l offices under the government, and not a rew nave amassed rortunes. some of them Are very religious, ind ome can recite the Bible by heart. They are different .from their neighbors In that they believe in having only one wife. . Tlie Girls of Cairo But the crowd In theae streets is hy no means all men. Therf are wo men scattered here and ther through it. and such women! Talk; about your peek-a-boo waists! TheiQMro jgirla nave peek-a-boo . veils. I All their bodies with the exception - of T their eyes are hidden, and, one has to look. shaken out. No bother about waiting for the hair to dry. Try it, dear; it's only 25 cents at any drug store. Your devoted MARIAN. For Sale by H. T. I1ICK.S & CO., Ilaleigh. N. C. Cut Flowers Fresh, fragrant and, beauti ful. All varieties in season. Telephone orders given prompt attention. J. Li. O'Quinn Telephone 14 fV UAXKIQH, N.C. Qff C-Oe Notice! All persons having claims against he late Albert C Lehman, will pre vent same to me. 500 Atlantic Trust Hunaing, jNonoiK, v a- UYING A Tjiere is only one safo plan to follow when you tink of buying a PIANO. Qo to a good : reliable liiruse. place yourself, in the hands of a competent salesman and be gov eriicd by hls advice. Tliere are many reliable ftrfus selling Manos there can be oiily one IEST whether l we or sbme other firut is that liEST is for you to decide. If lace yourself : In our hands and yon will decide. Darnell & Thomas RALEIGH, sr. c CHICHESTER'S PILLS l hl-cfc-tor's WMnm4 lirmnd. IMIla is Kc4 Ud Vtli tet&UL? boxac. Mated vitK Blua Rlbboa. I an . stay mr rmri liAilD BHASB WlXa. for . raws kaawa Bat. ismtat. Always RclUbl SCID BY KgGGSB EIRER For ISlGESTlQSf i-Ha jUceiJ remedy ia I Uk So6a Wfti) C f auras Jit 2xaff4sV'ef7wlflr too md twaov XOncH OF BOND SALE. t. i: Notice la hereby given that sealed bids will be received by the Board of Commissioner? or nobeson county Robeson until 2 o'clock p. m; October 7th. 1907, for the fsale of rSO.OOO of Rob eson county jcourt nouse bonus. Said bonds to run '' for thirty years and to bear interest: at the rate of 5 1-2 per cent per annum, interest payable semi-annuallyj;. bonds to be Issued In denomination of $500. Bids may be filed with E. j. Brltt, attorney for the board, Lumbtftton, ii. c, or with J. W, Carter, chairman of the board. Max- ton. N. ; C. AU bids to;be sealed bid and to be accompanied by certified check for two per cent, of amount bid. check made payable to J. W. Car ter chairman of board Of commission. era of Robeson county. The board of commissioners reserves the right to reject any or; a" bids. This Sept. ii IsOT. U J. W, CARTER, : Chairman ' Board Commissioners. 9-6-30d. H; Beauif ul fjome For Sale on M Newbern Avenue f 1 Tenirroomed, jearccptionaUy ; well built brick venewk$houso Iwltb modern conveniences. H pearly r one aero ,1 with seventeen largo q oaks, cnolce fruit and fine" garden.:; S. P. Wait, lP ETHEL, N. C. r DEALER III Drugs, Modlclncs, Chemicals, Per:: , Tolloit Articles, Combs, Cruz!: Drug Gundrlcs, Flno Candles, Etc I!anuf2r2r cf f!2:f. p f s' All Orderai Receive Prompt Attention 1 j Capacity: Two Million. Prices Gladly Furnished Special Prices to Ccr.tr. BETHEL, NOlt Til CAROLINA : " I -I mm RALEIGH MARBLE V0RKS, Coopzr Bros. Catalogue on request j close through the slits In their veils! i aw w . ! ROBERT G. LEHMAN. ' ! Mi'' i .. 'V ' 1 -
The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.)
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Sept. 8, 1907, edition 1
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