The Wickedest Spot on Earth.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXXVII, Issue 11713, 16 August 1902, Page 7

The Wickedest Spot on Earth.

The Suez Canal having become the

watery short cut to India of vessels of every nation in the world, Port Said has become a sort of boundary between the eastern and western hemispheres, and to it have gravitated the rag, tag, and bobtail of the Old World and the 'New—Greek,

Arab, Italian, Armenian, and Turk frater

nise with the Malay, Egyptian, Zanzibari, and, to the shame of the Anglo-Saxon race bs it said, the American and the Briton, of course with the übiquitous Jew —a polygot of the worst specimens of their respective nations. " . *' As a gentleman -observed who went asliore there while a P. and O. liner by .which lie was a passenger was coaling, the ; place is a "veritable hell upon earth." Of course, it is not intended to aver

that there are not many eminently respectable people who reside in Port Said, foa> there are a goodly few. Yet these, if questioned, often declare that a year or sci compulsory residence is equaJi to a considerable, time in purgatory, it heing ata solutely the worst spot for an honest man to fall into. An extract from a 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 we went on shore en mass. Time, 2 a.m., and it was as lively as London in the day time."' "The Casino was in full swing, and the band, composed of 60 'ladies,' was playing an dthe El Dorado was a blaze of .light. All the shops in the place were open, and gambling saloons a&oundied everywhere, we entered one, find took seats at a roulette table. Behind oxvr table the Avail and window were riddled with shot-holes. We learnt that just prior to our arrival two Greeks had been carried out dead. They had quarrelled, and hacked each other to death with knives, in the midst of a numbed of interested spectators. Going back to the ship, we nearly lost our way in tho filthy, diinlly-lighted streets, and «a.w 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 lurk in every dark corner, ready to murder anyone for a dollar. Life is very cheap at Port Said, and the Avhole place is a. mass, of conniption—morally especially—and right glad were we to'gob back to the old Himalaya safe and isound again."