THE BUILDING OF EGYPT. 



HOW A GREAT IRRIGATION ENTERPRISE IS DE- 

 VELOPING THE RESOURCES OF THAT COUNTRY. 



BY 



WILLIAM E. CURTIS, 



SPECIAL COK RESPONDENT OF THE CHICAGO " RECORD-HERALD." 



IT is a disputed question what the 

 average Egyptian thinks of the 

 amazing improvements that have been 

 made in the material condition of his 

 country during the last few years and 

 how they have affected his character. 

 Many people believe that he scarcely re- 

 alizes them ; that they have not touched 

 his soul or even his consciousness at all, 

 and that he still retains his mediaeval 

 conservatism in spite of the public order 

 and security, the relief from taxation, 



the even hand of justice, the means of 

 education, and the higher wages that 

 have been brought to him by the Eng- 

 lish administrator. It is true that the 

 oriental soul is very different from that 

 which inhabits the body of the white 

 man. His ideas are not our ideas, and 

 his religion, his social habits, his im- 

 penetrable reserve, his serene contem- 

 plation of fate, and other peculiar char- 

 acteristics, whether good or ill, have not 

 changed since the middle ages ; and 



^ 

 .**( 



CONSTRUCTION OF THE ASSUAN DAM AT AN EARLY STAGE. LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS ON 



BED ROCK. 



(71) 



