no doubt chiefly
responsible for much of this flourishing state of affairs in Alexandria,
and the withdrawal of his peace--insuring presence could not fail to
operate adversely to the city's good.

The many groves of date-palms, rising up tall and slender, vying in
gracefulness with the tapering minarets of the mosques, and with their
feathery foliage mingling with and overtopping the white stone buildings,
lends a charm to Alexandria that is found wanting in Constantinople
--albeit the Osmanli capital presents by far the more lovely
appearance from the sea. Massive marble seats are ranged along the
Khediveal Boulevard beneath the trees, and dusky statues, in the scant
drapery of the Egyptian plebe, are either sitting on them or reclining at
lazy length, an occasional movement of body alone betraying that they are
not part and parcel of the tomb-like marble slabs.

The tall, slim figures of Soudanese and Arabs mingle with the
cosmopolitan forms in the streets; Nubians black as ebony, their skins
seemingly polished, and their bare legs thin almost as beanpoles, slouch
lazily along, or perhaps they are bestriding a diminutive donkey, their
long, bony feet dangling idly to the ground. All the donkeys of
Alexandria are not diminutive, however. Some of the finest donkeys in the
world are here, large, sleek-coated, well-fed-looking animals, that
appear quite as intelligent as their riders, or as the native donkey-boys
who follow behind and persuade them along. These donkeys are for hire on
every street-corner, and all sorts and conditions of people, from an
English soldier to a lean Arab, may be seen coming jollity-jolt along the
streets on the hurricane-deck of a donkey, with a half-naked donkey-boy
racing behind, belaboring him along. The population of Alexandria is
essentially cosmopolitan, but, considering the English occupation, one is
scarcely prepared to find so few English. The great majority of Europeans
are Germans, French, and Italian, nearly all the shopkeepers being of
these nationalities. But English language and Bullish money seem to be
almost universally understood, and probably the Board of Trade returns
would show that English commerce predominates, and that it is only the
retail trade in which the foreign element looms so conspicuously to the
fore. An English evening paper, the Egyptian Gazette, has taken root
here, and the following rather humorous account of a series of camel
races, copied from its pages