A Costly Breakfast—Ismailia—The Palace of the Khedive—On an Egyptian Railroad Train—Rolling Through the Desert—The Delta of the Nile, What Is It?—The Garden of Egypt—Cairo—The Mighty Pyramids—Life at an Egyptian Hotel—Sights of the Capital—Cairo of To-Day—Occidental Progress and Oriental Conservatism—Burglaries and Other Modern Improvements—Cosmopolitan Costumes—A Harem Taking an Airing—A Daring Robbery—The Battle-Field of the Pyramids—Slaughter of the Mamelukes—Singular Escape of Emir Bey.
WE breakfasted at the only hotel in Ismailia, paying a frightfully high price for the meal, and then we hastened to the railway station to take the train to Cairo. We had no time to look about the town, but the little we saw was pleasing. The houses were embowered in trees, and there were pretty gardens here and there, some of them very tastefully arranged. There was a broad avenue from the landing place to the railway station, and there is a well-built quay, more than a mile long.
The Khedive has a palace here that looks, from a distance, like a comfortable and cozy residence, and there has lately sprung up a sea-bathing establishment on the shores of the lake. Port Said and Ismailia are the urban results of the canal; the former is practical and the latter is both practical and beautiful.
We waited at the station nearly an hour, the train being somewhat late in coming from Suez. Finally it appeared and we entered it.
The coaches were not attractive in the way of cleanliness and comfort, and we were rather more crowded than we liked to be. We moved off at a dignified pace, along the banks of the Sweetwater Canal, and with the desert stretching out around us.
There is very little to be seen on the railway journey from Ismailia to Cairo. Part of the way we were in the desert, and a part of the way we skirted the rich delta of the Nile.
We passed towns and villages in great number, and saw fields bright with verdure, although it was midwinter. Men were at work in the fields, with no abundance of clothing, and half-naked children were playing out-of-doors as they might play in New York in August.