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The National Geographic Magazine 



important and determining as interior 

 transportation improves and steam dis- 

 places animal traction and human porter- 

 age. In its municipal functions the fu- 

 ture divisions of Khartum are also even 

 now clearly outlined. The 'administra- 

 tive headquarters, military and civil, will 

 inevitably continue where they now are, 

 in the city proper, the residence of the 

 governor general and commander-in- 

 chief and of all the principal subordinates 

 and heads of departments ; the railway 

 terminal, and particularly the freight 

 depot and dock yard, will remain on the 

 opposite side of the river, at Halfaya, or 

 Khartum North, insuring great conven- 

 ience in handling and transshipment by 

 water, both receiving and dispatching, 

 while the vast native population, with its 

 wholesale and retail markets and all its 

 myriad activities, will be accommodated 

 as now, at Omdurman, the Mahdi's city, 

 seven miles away and just below the 

 junction of the Blue and White Niles. 

 Here will center the traffic of the western 

 and southern Sudan, for it now holds, in 

 spite of every effort to dislodge it, the 

 gum market of the world ; and here also 

 must continue the headquarters of the 

 retail trade of the province. Within the 

 Khartum military district as it is now 

 constituted, and comprising the three 

 above named centers, are probably 70,000 

 inhabitants, of whom more than half live 

 in Omdurman, possibly a tenth in Khar- 

 tum proper, the latter including all told 

 not over 300 British army officers 

 and civilians, the remainder occupying 

 Khartum North and the environs be- 

 tween the two Niles. Do you wonder, 

 after these figures and after what has 

 happened, that the British flag every- 

 where fronts the Egyptian, and that 

 nearly all the field officers of the Sudan 

 regiments hold also commissions in the 

 King's service? Even now they are 

 talking of the time, soon to come, when 

 there will be but one flag, and there's no 

 doubt which. 



GORDON MEMORIAL COLLEGE 



No sketch of Khartum, "the Phcenix 

 City," would be in any degree complete 



or adequate without a description of 

 Gordon Memorial College, now about in 

 the middle of the second year of practical 

 work, and which represents the very 

 latest and closest application of educa- 

 tional theories put to practice. Some idea 

 of the part which Gordon College is ex- 

 pected to play in the regeneration of the 

 Sudan may be gathered from the fact 

 that King Edward is its patron, Lord 

 Kitchener of Khartum its president, and 

 Lord Cromer, the Sirdar, Sir Ernest 

 Cassel, and Lord Revelstoke, and men 

 like them, among its trustees. Director 

 and at the head of its teaching force is 

 James Currie, a Scotchman with the 

 courage of his convictions, who has 

 tackled his job with that sturdy common 

 sense which characterizes his canny race,, 

 and who has but one motto, "Success." 



Arabs are taught in Arabic, English 

 being optional, and no attempt is made to' 

 interfere with the Mohammedan religion. 

 Classes meet on the Christian Sabbath as 

 on other days, and the teachers, many of 

 them natives, are not disturbed in matters 

 of conscience. The chief effort at the 

 present time is to train a body of young 

 men who will be able to exercise among 

 their own people the function o.f minor 

 civil magistrates, according to European 

 standards and ideas, and to this end 

 about 150 young sheiks — many from the 

 desert and personally selected by Sir 

 Slatin Pasha, whose acquaintance, more 

 thorough and accurate than that of any 

 Other man, was gained by ten years of 

 peril and terror under El Mahdi and El 

 Khalifa — are now under instruction with 

 most encouraging promise. 



EDUCATING THE ARABS AS MECHANICS 



There is also a manual training school 

 in mechanic arts and a research labora- 

 tory bearing the name of its founder,. 

 Henry S. Wellcome, of London. Forty 

 young men are now being instructed in 

 the training school, and unless one could 

 see and handle their work — tools 

 wrought through all the processes, smelt- 

 ing, forging, and finishing, from the ore ; 

 pumps in operation, built and installed 

 with electric motors and lights ; cotton 



