THE SUNP AT .OREGONIAN, PORTLAND. JANUARY 12, 1908.
KAIL:
John Bull its' Gobbling
the Peninsula and Plan
ning Large Immediate
Development.
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BY FRANK O. CARTENTETR.
HAVE you. ever heard what some
one said to the Englishman who
boasted that the sun never set
on John Bull's possessions. It was
"that the sun did not dare to set for
fear the old pirate might steal some
thing: more."
As it is now the English own coun
tries In nearly every part of the globe.
They have more land In North America
than we have. They have recently
added to their African colonies, so
that they now own more than one-third
of that continent, and they are slowly
and surely gathering in everything els
that lies loose. One of the latest ac
quisitions Is Arabia. They now prac
tically cqntrol the whole of it. They
have the Sinai peninsula, through their
possession of Egypt, and they can con
trol that part of Arabia along the Bed
Sea through the ports which they are
building on the opposite coast. They
have entered into the closest of rela
tions with the Sultan of Oman, and
they have two uncrowned kings In the
persons of certain of their political
residents and consuls-general, who
control the whole of Eastern and
Southern Arabia. The first of these
Is stationed at Bushlre, In Persia, but
he has made treaties with the various
tribes along the Arabian side of the
Persian Gulf, which give the English
the trade of that region; and the same
la true as to the tribes of Southern
Arabia, who are controlled by the
British resident here at Aden. These
two consuls-general have established
postofflces and postal routes through
their respective spheres of Influence,
and they control not only the mails,
but money matters as well. They are
working In connection with India, and
the moneys used are rupees and annas.
If difficulties arise between the Arabs
and Persians they are brought to the
English resident at Busnlre, and If be
tween the tribes of Southern Arabia.
' they are brought to Aden for adjust
ment. Arabia to Have Railroads..
At the same time, the English are con
sidering the development of the peninsula.
They have proposed o build a pilgrim
age railway from Jeddah. on the Red
Sea opposite Port Sudan, to take the
rreat army of Mohammedan worshippers
" Inland to Mecca.- This would connect
with their new railroad which now
crosses the Nubian desert from Suakim
to the Cape to Cairo route, and would
open up an immense passenger' traffic
from Central Africa and upper Egypt
during the pilgrimage season. If the
Kugllsh are not granted the concession
for that road It will probably be built
by the Mohammedans themselves, and In
any event it will be more or less under
British control, and be a feeder for the
i-'gyptian railway system.
Another railroad project Is to run a
line from Aden into Yemen. The latter
province is one of the richest of Arabia
It has a good rainfall and Is noted for
Its coffee and grain and fruits of various
kinds. The idea is to run the lirus from
Aden almost directly' northward to Sana
one of the chief cities of Yemen and an
important commercial center. The road
will make that town the capital of West
ern and Southern Arabia.
A third and still more ambitious pro
ject is to build a railroad across the
northern part of the peninsula, making
thereby a short cut to India and Persia
and to the rich valley of the Euphrates,
at the head of the Persian Gulf. The
present plan is to start the road at Port
Said and go eastward across the peninsula
to Eusra. on the Euphrates. The most
, of the way will be right through the
desert.- and the distance altogether about
100. miles. 1 understand that the route
is a feasible one, and the probability is
that the efforts . the Germans are now
making to reach the Persian Gulf may
cause the British to wake up and adopt
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Tie Arabian Peninsula.
As to Arabia Itself, 1 doubt whether
It will ever furnish a large traffic for
railroads. There are certain provinces,
such m Yemen, Oman and the Valley
of Mesopotamia, which are fairly well
populated: but the whole peninsula
has altogether not more than 6,000.000.
and these are scattered over a terri
tory one-third as large as the whole
United States. There are not a score
of towns of any eize In all Arabia, and
you can count the cities on your fin
gers. The most of the country is like
that about Aden, consisting of bleak,
bare und rocky desert, with only a col
lection of black tents or thatched huts
to break the monotony, and with track
less sands reaching off Into the dis
tance. And still Arabia has a coast
line 1000 miles longer than the distance
1a .
fir.
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between New York and San Francisco.
It measures about 1500 miles from
north to south and 120tt milee from east
to west. Almost the whole of the Unit
ed States east of the Mississippi could
be crowded into its borders, and a con
siderable part of It Is still unexplored
by white men! It i a mountainous ',
country. It has peaks twice as high
as Mount Washington, and the table
land of Nijd is on the average more J
than a half-mile above the sea. South
of Mecca there are mountains over 8000 .i
feet highland the hills here at Aden
are about as high as the average, ele
vation of the Blue Ridge In Virginia.
Yemen, northeast -of Aden, running
along the Red Sea, has a fairly good
rainfall and climate, The same te true
of. Oman and Muskat. The Valley of
Mesopotamia is watered by the Eu
phrates, and Js as fertile as Egypt, but
the greater part of the peniusula Is as
barren as the Sahara.
The Land of. Mocha Coffee. ,
The very best of our Mocha coffee Is
shipped from Aden to the United' States.
It comes here ori camels from the Prov
ince of Yemen. It Is raised there by
the natives, each family having a few
bushes about Its house,- and producing
only enough for home use and a 'little
for trading. There are no big planta
tions and no coffee factories. The ber
ries are gathered when ripe and dried
In the sun. After this they are put up
In bales, and carried on camejback over
the hills to this place. They are nulled
between millstones turned by hand, and
are then winnowed and sorted for ship
ment. The latter work Is done by the
women, who look over each grain care
fully and take sut the bad ones. Labor
Is cheap, but the coffee has to go
through many hands. It pays toll to
the chiefs of the tribes who own the
country through which it Is carried,
and as a result It must be sold at high
prices. For this reason we have imita
tions of Mocha coffee from all parts of
the world.- During my stay on the plan
tations of Brazil I have seen them label
bags as Mocha; and Guatemala and
other coffees are sold under the same
came. Just now they are bringing
coffee from Ceylon and Java to Aden
and transshipping them here. They lie
In the warehouses for a few weeks, and
then go forth re-marked, and perhaps
re-bagged, as Arabian Mocha.
The English at Aden.
This port of Aden has belonged to John
Bull for something like 68 years. He took
possession of it In 1839. and later on gob-
Died up the island of Perim In the Strait
of Bab-el-Mandeb. That Island is about
a hundred miles -from here, and the two
places practically control the entrance to
the Red Sea and the Sue Canal. As for
Aden, It is the Gibraltar of this part of
the world as well as one of the greatest
of the British coaling stations. Some
thing like 3000 steamers and native craft
call at It every year. The harbor is ex
cellent, and the outer entrance is .more
than three miles wide. ' The inner waters
have been so dredged that steamers of 26
feet can go everywhere, and there is
room enough for all the vessels that pass
through the canal to anchor here at one
time, .
Aden is strongly fortified. The town
stands on a volcanic Isthmus, and it is
guarded by a broad ditch, which has been
cut out of the solid rock. It has a gar
rison of 3000 or 4000 men, guns of the
latest pattern, and no one knows bow
many subterranean 'and submarine mines.
. A Desert City.
I wish I could show you the town as it
lies before me. It is the sorriest city I
have ever seen. There is nothing to com
pare with it except Iquiqui, on the
nitrate coast of South America, and
Iquiqni is a paradise to it. Imagine a
great harbor of sea-green water, the
Bhores of which rise almost abruptly into
ragged mountains of brown rock and
white sand. There Is not a blade of grass
to be seen, there are no trees, and even
the cactus and sagebrush of our Ameri
can desert are absent. The town Is with
out vegetation. It is as bare as the bones
of the dead camels in the desert behind
it, and Its tropical sun beats down out
of -a cloudless African sky. ' Everything
is gray and dazzling white. The houses
on the sides of the hills are white, the
rocks throw back the rays of the sun,
and the huts upon their sides are of the
same gray color as themselves.
The city looks thirsty and dry. It is
dry. There is only a well or so in the
place, and these, I am told, the English
bought of their owners for something
like 1,000,000. Almost all of the water
used is condensed from the .sea, and fresh
water always brings Its price. There are
no streams anywhere within miles. The
town Is situated in the crater of an ex
tinct volcano, and there Is one great de
pression near by in . which some famous
stone tanks were made a thousand or bo
years ago. These tanks are so big that
If they were cleaned out they might hold
30.000.000 gallons of water. As it is, they
have now a capacity of only S.000,000 gal
lons. The water is caught when it rains.
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and Is sometimes auctioned out to the
highest bidder. The receipts go to the
English government, and a good rain
may bring $15.Q00 or $20,000 or more.
The Peoplfe or Aden.
This is my second visit to Aden. My
first was sixteen years ago, when I stop
ped here on my way around the world. I
do not' see that the town has changed and
I doubt whether It has any more people
than it had then. The population Is about
40.000, and it Is made up of all the nations
and tribes common to the Indian ocean.
It contains Arabs, Africans, Jews, Port
ugese and East Indians. There are about
4000 Epropeans, and in this number are
the merchants, officials and soldiers. The
majority of the people are Arabs and the
prevailing color Is black. There are tall,
lean, skinny black Bedouins from inter
ior Arabia, who believe in Mahomet, and
go through their prayers five .times a
day. There are black Mohammedans
from Somaliand and black Christians
from Abyssinia. In addition there are
Parsees, Hindoos and' Indian Mohamme
dans of various- shades of yellew and'
brown. A few of the Africans are woolly
headed, but ' more, of them have wavy
hair, and ' the hair of the women hangs '
down In cork-screw curls on both sides of
their faces. Of these people neither sex
wears much clothing, l.ie men have a raS
around the waist, and th women wear
only skirts which reach to the feet.
The East Indians are everywhere. They
do the most of the retail business and
.tradlrur.' and they are found peddling on
every street corner. They dress accord
ing to their caste and religion. The Par
sees, who are fire-worshipers, wear black
preacher-like coats and tall hats of the
style of an inverted coal scuttle. The In
dian. Mohammedans wear turbans and the
Hindoos wrap themselves . up in- great
sheets of white cotton. In addition there
are many Greeks and Italians, and not a
few Persians. The English' dress . In
white and wear big helmets to keep off
the sun. .
Camels and Caravans.
This Is the land of the camel. Cara ans
are coming In and going out of the city
every day. They bring bags of Mocha
coffee and gums and take out European
goods-and other supplies to the various
oases. There is a considerable trade with
Yemen and also, with the tribes of South
eastern Arabia. There are always camels
lying In the market place, and one sees
them blubbering and crying as they are
loaded and unloaded. They are the most
discontended beasts upon earth, and are
as mean as they look. One bit at me this
afternoon as I passed it, and I am told
that they never become reconciled to
their masters. Nevertheless, they are the
freight animals of this part of the world,
and the desert could not get along with
out them. They furnish tbe greater part
of the milk for the various Arab settle
ments, the people make .; their' tents of
camel's hair, and they are, in fact, the
cows of the desert, and they are of many
different breeds, and they vary as. much
in character as horses. There are some
breeds that correspond to the percheron,
and the best among - them can carry
half a ton. at a load. There are others
fitted only for riding and passenger travel.
The ordinary freight camel makes only
about three miles an hour, and 18 miles
Is a good day's work. The best racing
camels will travel hours at a stretch,
and will cover 100 miles In a day.
Seventy-five miles In ten hours Is pot an
uncommon -journey for an .rablan racer,
and much better speed bas been made.
As to prices, an "ordinary freight camel
brings about $30, but a -good riding camel
costs $100 'and upward. -Have
you ever heard bow the camel
was created? Here is its origin, as told
by the Arabs. They say that God first
formed the horse by taking up a hand
ful of the swift south wind and blowing
upon it. .The horse, however, was not
satisfied with his making. He complained
to God that his neck was too short for
easy grazing and that his hoofs were so
hard that they sank in the sand. More
over, he said there was no hump on his
back to steady the saddle. Thereupon,
to satisfy the horse, God created the
camel, making him according to. the
equine's suggestions. And when the horse
saw his ideal in flesh and blood he was
frightened to death at Its ugliness ana
galloped away. Since then there Is no
horse that Is not scared when it first sees
a camel.
This story makes me think of the Arab
tradition as to how God made the water
buffalo, which, as you know. Is about
the ugliest beast that ever wore horns,
hair, and skin. .God's first creation was
the beautiful cow. When he had finished
It the devil happened that way, and as
he saw it he laughed at the job and
sneered out that he would make a better
beast with his eyes shut. Thereupon the
Lord gave him some material such as he
had put Into the cow and told Mp to go
to work. The devil wrought lfcay and
Some Good
A Needed , Resolution.
THE Rev. William' R.. Huntington, of
New York, said recently that it was
more dangerous to be ' a railway
brakeman than to be a murderer, and
proved hts assertion with statistics show.
Ins that one murderer in 78 was hanged,
whereas one brakeman in JO was killed.
Discussing this startling, fact the other
day. Dr. Huntington, said that the wide'
spread aplrlf of selfishness was no doubt
responsible.
"We Incline." be said, "to put ourselves
too far ahead of other people. We could
all make m better New Year resolution
than to be less selfish. As it is, we are
too much like the art student.
"There wast you know, a poor Vermont
art student who shared a studio-bedroom
wifh a Journalist from Wisconsin.
"The Vermonter went out one morning
to do The marketing, and brought home
two chops. He laid them on the table,
and the cat leaped up and devoured one.
" 'Hang it," he said to his Wisconsin
friend, 'the cat has eaten your chop." "
Conspicuous Economy.
WJllle Hoppe, the billiard champion,
was talking in New York about the con
spicuous retrenchments that the money
panic has caused many millionaires to
make. "
"It-is conspicuous, this economy we see,
on all sides now," said Mr. Hoppe. "It
Is like the economy in the family of Jim
Bartholomew, the pool player.
"Bartholomew's two "boys turned up at
school one morning dressed exactly alike
in suits of very bright green .cloth. It
was a startling costume, and at first the
neighbors were puzzled.- All was clear
to them, though, when they learned that
Mr, Bartholomew, the week before, had
slit .the cloth in a pool game at Mike
Hennessey's."
' ' Stuck. .
A magazine editor ' of New York was
praising Rudyard Kipling.
"I am glad Kipling got the Nobel
jgjDjira
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all night, and the result was the water
buffalo.
I have made inquiries here and else
where as to the Arabian horse. He is a'
comparatively scarce animal and he does,
not run wild in the desert, as some peo
ple suppose. Indeed, comparatively few
of the Arabian tribes have horses, and
the best are kept on the plateau of Najd,
in the cente'r of the peninsula. They be
long to the Anazah tribe, which Is one of
the oldest of all, and which claims to
date back to the flood. It is a wealthy
tribe, and it has been breeding horses for
many generations. The best stock has
pedigrees going back to the time of Ma
homet, and the very, choicest come from
five mares which were owned by the
Stories Told by
Prize,'-' he said.. "I will encourage him.
tie Is in a bad way now.
"You know, he is writing scarcely any
thing. I thought he was idle, lazy, and
in London last year I took him to task.
He said he knew he looked idle, : but in
reality he was trying hard to work;-only
he was stuck. .
"He said be resembled a man who made
a bet, one Summer day at the shore,
that he would swim out a mile and a half
to a certain buoy. The bet was accepted,
the man stripped and plunged In. His
friend retired to the hotel to watch his
progress from the window., -
"From the window, with a field-glass,
the .friend saw the swimmer reach the
buoy in due course, draw himself up out
of the water and sit down comfortably
with his legs dangling over. So" far, so
good. Evidently he was resting, well
pleased with his feat. . . - .
"Some minutes passed, and the swim
mer had not moved. The watcher re
turned to his book. But every now and
then he looked up,-and still the swimmer
sat in the same position on the buoy.
"An hour, two hours went bystill the
swimmer remained. A white, slim figure
seen against the oncoming dark, he sat
on the buoy's edge; his feet dangled in
the sea; he seemed to be musing.
"Finally it began to grow quits dark,
and, thoroughly alarmed at last, the
watcher got a boat and a couple, of
barges and rowed out to his friend..
"Out there the mystery was soon ex
plained. Tbe man was stuck fast to the
buoy, which had een freshly tarred that
morning.1'-
On the ' Move. -
The ftev. A. C. Jeffries, the ' father of
.the noted pugilist, was contradicting
again the rumor that bis son would re
turn to the ring.
"Jim," ' said Mr. Jeffries, "is strong.
When he makes a New Year's resolution,
he sticks to it. Wlien he says he'll do
a thing, that settles It. My boy is never
going to fight again.
"Jim doesn't vacillate like old Eph
raim Caldwell, a quondam friend of mine.
Ephraim vacillated aven in his choice of
a home. He was always on the move.
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prophet and blessed by him. These horses
seldom go out of Arabia. They are owned
by the chiefs, and are not sold, except in
times of the dirept necessity. Now and
then a few get Into Egypt and other
parts of North Africa, and the Sultan of
Turkey Is able to buy some for his
stables.
During my stay In Algeria I saw 150
stallions in the great army stables at
BUdah. Perhaps one-third of them were
Arabian, and they were kept to breed
horses for the' I-'Yench army. The Khe
dive of Egypt has some Arabian thor
oughbreds, and there are a few in Mo
rocco and Abyssinia.
It is only'pccasionally that a pure-bred
Arabian goes to Europe, or the United
and About Prominent People
'In fact, they used to say this of
him:
"They said that-when Eph moved he
tied his chickens' legs together for con
venience of transportation, an4 in time
the chickens got so used to this that,
whenever he entered the henhouse, they
would all lie down on their backs and
hold up their slim yellow legs to be
tied."
The Bearded Countess.
Miss Mary Garden, the famous singer,
talked af a dinner In New York about
he hirsute strength which French women
develop as they ripen In years.
"Once, in Paris," said Misa Garden, "at
the New Tfear season, when such changes
usually are made, I was about to engage
a maid.
"There was .a certain applicant whose
manner I . liked very much. , Her face
seemed somehow familiar.
" 'By the way,' I said at last, 'haven't
I seen you at the Baroness Eve's?'
. " 'Yes,' fhe maid answered. 'I was for
merly in the Baroness' employ.' . -
"'And why,' said I, 'did she dismiss
you ?' . .
"The maid blushed and "faltered.
"" 'Because er I couldn't shave.' ".
The Green Sailor. .
Mark Twain was talking .about a play
that had tailed.
"No wonder it failed," he said. "Its
author was a greenhorn. He knew no
more of stagecraft than young Tom
Bowling, of Harvard, knew of sailoring
when he shipped before the mast.
"Greenhorn Tom, you knefw, being told
to go aloft one dark, wet night, started
up the rigging witn a lantern and an
umbrella."
A Nature One.
"The late Francis Thompson, the Eng
lish poet." said a magazine editor, "had
a great love for birds. He once told me
a pretty story about a swallow.
"Catching, one day in the early Au
tumn, a swallow that nested in his gar
. - AV A
zxiles jlj3ax
States. Two of the best stallions we ever
imported were those which General Grant
brought from Constantinople. This was,
I think, during his tour around the world.
While visiting 'Turke he and the sultan
visited the royal stables together. As
they looked over the horses the sultan
told Grant to pick out the one he liked
best, and he designated a dapple gray,
called The Leopard. "It Is yours," said
the sultan, "and this also," pointing to
a four-year-old colt called Linden Tree.
In due time these two horses arrived In
the United States and were put on Gen
eral Ed Beale's farm near Washington.
They were used for breeding, and they
produced altogether about fifty fins colts.
Aden, Arabia, Dec. 13.
den, he fastened to its wing a piece of
oiled paper liiBcribud with the words:
" 'Swallow, little swallow, I wonder
where you pass the Winter?'
"The next Spring the swallow re
turned to its neut at the usual time. At
tached to its foot was another piece of
oiled paper with the Inscription:
" 'Florence, at the house of CasteUari.
Cordial greetings to the friend in th"
North.' "
Prompt.
A reporter, interviewing ThomaB -A. Ed
ison about his remarkable $1000 cement
house a house that will be molded and
ready for occupancy in a few days
pointed out certain objections to the
structure.
These objections caused Mr. Editon to
smile.
"You have not yet seen my house' he
said, "and you find fault with It. Isn't
that rather previous? You, my young
friend, are more previous than a girl
my assistants have been telling me aboot.
"The first day of let us say 190S New
Year's day a roan proposed to this girl,
and was accepted.
"'But,' she said, 'I must Insist that
our engagement be kept secret a
twelve-month.'
" 'Why?' said the man, in dismay. He
had looked forward to a speedy mar
riage. " 'Because, dear," she answered, 'if is
leap year now,- and people might think
I had done the proposing.' "
The Two Thieves.
Leslie M. Snaw, ex-Secretary of the
Treasury, was discussing the fate of a
corrupt capitalist whom the panic Com
pelled to confess.
"The. man reminded me," said Mr.
Shaw, "of a Vermont thief who broke
into a Norristown house in my boyhood.
"This thief, prowling about In the dark
parlor, fell over a chair and broke his
leg. and had to arouse the family to call
a doctor.
"The capitalist's feelings, before . con
fession, must have resembled those of the
thief, lying disabled in' the dark, before
he decided to call the family up."
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