CHAPTER II

THE GATEWAY TO EGYPT I AM again in Alexandria, the great seaport of the

valley of the Nile. My first visit to it was just be¬ fore Arabi Pasha started the rebellion which threw

Egypt into the hands of the British. I saw it again seven years later on my way around the world. I find now a new city, which has risen up and swallowed the Alexan¬ dria of the past.

The Alexandria of to-day stands upon the site of the greatest of the commercial centres of antiquity, but its present buildings are as young as those of New York, Chicago, or Boston. It is one of the boom towns of the Old World, and has all grown up within a century. When George Washington was president it was little more than a village; it has now approximately a half million in¬ habitants.

This is a city with all modern improvements. It has wide streets as well paved as those of Washington, public squares that compare favourably with many in Europe, and buildings that would be an ornament to any metropolis on our continent. It is now a city of street cars and auto¬ mobiles. Its citizens walk or ride to its theatres by the light of electricity, and its rich men gamble by reading the ticker in its stock exchange. It is a town of big hotels, gay cafes, and palaces galore. In addition to its several hundred thousand Mohammedans, it has a large popu-

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