FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   422   423   424   425   426   427   428   429   430   431   432   433   434   435   436   437   438   439   440   441   442   443   444   445   446  
447   448   449   450   451   452   453   454   455   456   457   458   459   >>  
fa. They had little to hope for. Because after many appeals to the sympathies of New England, made by strangers of Boston, through the newspapers, and after the establishment of an office there for the reception of moneyed contributions for the Jaffa colonists, One Dollar was subscribed. The consul-general for Egypt showed me the newspaper paragraph which mentioned the circumstance and mentioned also the discontinuance of the effort and the closing of the office. It was evident that practical New England was not sorry to be rid of such visionaries and was not in the least inclined to hire any body to bring them back to her. Still, to get to Egypt, was something, in the eyes of the unfortunate colonists, hopeless as the prospect seemed of ever getting further. Thus circumstanced, they landed at Alexandria from our ship. One of our passengers, Mr. Moses S. Beach, of the New York Sun, inquired of the consul-general what it would cost to send these people to their home in Maine by the way of Liverpool, and he said fifteen hundred dollars in gold would do it. Mr. Beach gave his check for the money and so the troubles of the Jaffa colonists were at an end.--[It was an unselfish act of benevolence; it was done without any ostentation, and has never been mentioned in any newspaper, I think. Therefore it is refreshing to learn now, several months after the above narrative was written, that another man received all the credit of this rescue of the colonists. Such is life.] Alexandria was too much like a European city to be novel, and we soon tired of it. We took the cars and came up here to ancient Cairo, which is an Oriental city and of the completest pattern. There is little about it to disabuse one's mind of the error if he should take it into his head that he was in the heart of Arabia. Stately camels and dromedaries, swarthy Egyptians, and likewise Turks and black Ethiopians, turbaned, sashed, and blazing in a rich variety of Oriental costumes of all shades of flashy colors, are what one sees on every hand crowding the narrow streets and the honeycombed bazaars. We are stopping at Shepherd's Hotel, which is the worst on earth except the one I stopped at once in a small town in the United States. It is pleasant to read this sketch in my note-book, now, and know that I can stand Shepherd's Hotel, sure, because I have been in one just like it in America and survived: I stopped at the Benton House. It use
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   422   423   424   425   426   427   428   429   430   431   432   433   434   435   436   437   438   439   440   441   442   443   444   445   446  
447   448   449   450   451   452   453   454   455   456   457   458   459   >>  



Top keywords:

colonists

 
mentioned
 
Shepherd
 

Oriental

 

Alexandria

 

newspaper

 

stopped

 

England

 
office
 

general


consul

 

received

 

credit

 

disabuse

 

written

 

rescue

 

European

 

completest

 

ancient

 

pattern


costumes
 

pleasant

 
States
 

sketch

 

United

 

survived

 

America

 

Benton

 

stopping

 

bazaars


Ethiopians

 

turbaned

 

sashed

 
likewise
 

Egyptians

 

Stately

 

Arabia

 
camels
 

dromedaries

 

swarthy


blazing

 

crowding

 

narrow

 

streets

 

honeycombed

 

narrative

 

variety

 

shades

 

flashy

 

colors