THE WICKEDEST SPOT ON EARTH.

Otago Witness, Issue 2516, 4 June 1902, Page 66

THE WICKEDEST SPOT ON EARTH.

The Suez Canal having become the watery short cut to India of vessels of every Jiation in the world, Port Said has become ji. sort of boundary between the eastern and Western hemispheres, and to it have gravitated the rag, tag, and bobtail of the Old JBWorld and the New — Greek, Arab, Italian, and Turk fraternise with the tSlalaj-, Egyptian, Zanzibari and, to the jtehame of the Anglo-Saxon race be it said, fthe American, and the Briton, of course, with the übiquitous Jew — a polyglot of the "worst specimens of their respective nafcons. ' As a gentleman observed recently who •went ashore there while a P. and O. liner Iby which he was a passenger was coaling, *he place is "a veritable hell upon earth." ' Of -course, it is not intended to aver that there are not some eminently respectable people -who reside in Port Said, for fthere are a goodly few. Yet these, if jquesrioned, often declare that a year ox* jbo compulsory residence is equal to a considerable time in purgatory, it being absolutely the worst spot for an honest man <to fall into.

! An extract from the letter of a recent voyager to the East will tell in its vivid conciseness more than a column of description will do: — "At Port Said ■*& went on chore en masse. Time, 2 a.m., and it was as lively as London in the daytime. . " The casino was in full swing, and the band, composed of 60 'ladies,' was playang, and the El Dorado was ablaze with light. All the shops in the place were open, and gambling saloons* abounded everywhere. We entered one, and took seats at' a roulette table. Behind our table /the wall and window were riddled with shot holes. We learnt that just prior to ■our arrival two Greeks had been carried away dead. They had quarrelled and (hacked each other to death with flmives, in the midst of a number of interested ( !) spectators. Going back to the tehip we nearly lost our way in the filthy, Jdimly-lighted streets, and "saw sights beyond anything I have ever heard of. A •man going to see the place by himself would have a poor chance of ever seeing /his ship again, as evil-looking characters .thirk in every dark corner, ready to murder ■anyone for a dollar. Life is very cheap at •Port Said, and the whole place is a mass of corruption — morally especially, and right Vlad were we to get back to the old Gimilaya safe and sound again."