Cairo to Kisumu

by Frank G. Carpenter

Besides being a good French scholar, Tewfik Pasha speaks English, and that was the language used in our conversation. In speaking of his life as Khedive, he said:

“I am told that many people envy me my position. They say that I am a young man whose lot must be a pleasant one. They do not understand the troubles that surround me. Many a time I would have been glad to lay down all the honours I have for rest and peace. The ten years of my reign have been equal to forty years of work and of worry. If life were a matter of pleasure I would be a fool to remain on the throne. I believe, however, that God put man on the world for a purpose. Duty, not pleasure, is the chief end of man. I do the best I can for my country and my people, and I feel happiest when I do the most work and when my work is the hardest.”

“In the famous Abdin Palace I interviewed Tewfik Pasha, when he was Khedive of Egypt, and later, in the same audience room, talked with Abbas Hilmi, his son and successor.”

The gorgeous kavass is essential to the official dignity of the representative of foreign governments in Cairo. Besides attending on the person of minister or consul general on state occasions, he also serves as major domo and general “fixer.”

As the Khedive said these words I thought of the thorns which have filled the pillow of his reign. I thought of how, upon his entering manhood, his father Ismail was deposed and he was put upon the throne. I thought of how he boxed the ears of the messenger who came to tell him he had succeeded to that uncomfortable seat. I thought of his trouble under foreign dictation. I thought of the plots and nearly successful rebellion of Arabi Pasha, of the revolution of the Mahdi, of the creditors who to-day are grinding Egypt between their upper and nether millstones, of the danger of assassination, and of the other perils that are ever present about the throne of an oriental monarch. Recalling all these things, I could appreciate why his mouth hardened and his eyes grew sad when he spoke thus to me.

The talk then turned upon the condition of Egypt and its future, but as to these matters Tewfik was reticent. He spoke proudly of the reforms which he had inaugurated in government and of the fact that now, though the taxes were heavy, every peasant knew just what he would have to pay and that the taxes were honestly collected. He spoke of the improvement of the courts and said that the pasha and the fellah were equal before the law. “When I came to the throne,” said he, “the people were surprised that I put the prince on the same footing as other people. Now, there is no difference in justice. The prince and the peasant are the same in our courts, and the former may be punished like the latter.”

At this point, coffee and cigarettes were brought in by the servants of the palace. The coffee was à la Turque. It was served in little china cups shaped like egg cups, in holders of gold filigree, each holding about three tablespoonfuls of rich black coffee as thick as chocolate and as sweet as molasses. There were neither saucers nor spoons. Trying to follow the Khedive’s example I gulped down half the contents of the cup at a swallow. It was as hot as liquid fire. I could feel the top of my mouth rising in a blister, the tears came into my eyes, and my stomach felt as though it had taken an internal Turkish bath. Tewfik Pasha took the boiling mixture without winking and went on talking as though his throat were used to scalding fluids. Surprised to see him refuse a cigarette, I asked him if he did not smoke. He replied:

“No! I neither smoke nor drink. I do not drink for two reasons. I believe a man is better off without it, and, what is of more moment to me, it is against the laws of life as laid down in the Koran. We do not believe it right to drink anything intoxicating and good Moslems drink neither wine nor liquor. I believe that every man should be faithful to the religion which he professes. My faith is that of Islam and I try to follow it as well as I can. I am not illiberal in it, however, for I tolerate all religions and all sects in my kingdom. We have Copts, Jews, and Christians, and your missionaries are at work in the land. They make very few converts, if any, among the people of my faith, but they have schools in Upper Egypt that are doing much in the way of education.”