1955-04-21 — Page 4

Page

THE CHINA MAIL, THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 1955.

THAT EXPRESS FROM ASWAN

ARRIVES IF YOU'RE

Cairo.

F ever you "need to

know the time of trains

at Cairo's main station

By David Burk

PATIENT

day,

זרץ

curtain

(Patience, patience).

occasions.

Finally, he looked at a sheet of paper beneath his glass desk- top, and stated a time that hadn't been mentioned before.

"You're sure

"Perhaps."

I advise you to seek out a section, and gradually narrow As I entered, he leapt chap with

smartly to his feet, to reveal a pock-marked your beam by elimination.

Platform Ope

and Aswan train?” seemed hot elegant riding beats brown face wearing what

favourite for the Aswan train, breeches beneath his well-cut looks like circus-style win. At the barrier was ticket blue tuale,

a

and slapped ten woollies.

conectar, I said: "The traip tarboush on his head. I didn't know his name from Aswan, at what hour. it but he will probably be arrives?" He said: "It isn't come carrying a crate of oranges yet." This is a standard Arable reply, applied freely to people, or a sack of beans on his things, overdue cups of coffee etc. much-used, willing and handy phrase.

hend.

I picked up this wrinkle

I said I hoped he could tell the hard way when I had to

me when it was due. He turned meet someone off the ex- to tell some chips in night- press from Aswan, Upper gowns it was forbidden to use Egypt.

certain door (forbidding

thing

a

I

he

He spoke a bit of English. asked about the Aswan train,

Tea, coffee or coco-colas said. Egyptiang hospitable, especially in their ances

"Nothing thank

you.

very

that's the

. I had to be sure," I said.. Thei officer excused himself, saluted and left the room. I followed eyes lato the him with my station Hall. And whom did he

Address?

Right! Pock-face, now with a sack on his head.

I The officer returned, and merely want to know what said: "Eight-thirty." time the train arrives.”

I had coffee

At eight-thirty I was back on Platform One. I waited until nime thirty.. No fan. Then I arw Fock-face squatting a few yards away munching an onion sandwich (part of the staple diet).

Cairo "main station is called Bab el-Hadid, which

means Platform "The Iron Gate" Judging from Along came the man with the seeps from its official quarters, collector asked him about the the amount of information that pock-marked face. The ticket

train. "Eight-thirty," the Iron Gate and the Iron Cur Aswan

trains about

from Pock-face (he was nothing tain bate

deal in said great 1

Aswan, (Europeans Dre SC balancing a crate of oranges. on common.

his grizzled head with a look impatient). man-no-hands nonchalance).

is a popular Egyptian "PLEASE...a Uittle cup of coffee. ," to refuse would then Jooked down

be insufferably rude. Coffee was One

crdered and we obeyed another

of,

such conduct, for

This train from Aswan," I occasions we discussed Egypt, said tentatively Eight thirty." rule Britain, tourism, the weather, he breathed richly, "tomorrow

morning."

My error

T first I made the radical error A of imagining that this was merely Cairo's version of Water-. loo or Victoria. I should have known better. Cairo. is an original city. There is no such thing os a "Cairo version" of anything.

I wandered around scanning wall notices for a lime-table,

Some probably were time- tables. But all were in Arabic, which bears a deceptive, Arst glance likeness to shorthand."

Funnily enough, he was right. After coffee the trains came. The train was due at eight-;

from thirty next morning. The express The ticket collector repeated Ah, yes.

The fact this. I was a trifle sceplicat Aswan." Yes, it comes to this that it didn't turn up till 10.14

There is one every is beside the point, (bad manners in Egypt), and station. asked if he was sure.

This brought another reflex! into play (no Arab_is ever sure of anything). He said: "Installah" (It God wills).

This platform?" I asked. "Insh'allah."

Little groups RETURNED to the station hall.

*

E

"OF COURSE THE CIRCUMSTANCES WERE QUITE

DIFFERENT.....

DID IT HAPPEN?

ARLY in May, 1898, nearly four months after my fifteenth birthday, I found Around the walls and by plat-

myself most agreeably alone in our West Kensington house. At least, not forms sat little groups of men,

completely alone, because I was being looked after by a pretty parlour-maid, women and children in the na tive dress of Egypt's lower

an extremely pretty parlour-maid called Mary. men in nightshirts

My father was on tour with his company. orders-the

My brother and eldest sister (valab (galabiyehs, they're called), the were away at boarding school. My mother with my two youngest sisters, their

squares I got a variety of answers, of ribbed cotton the size of governess, our cook and our housemaid, were down in Hampshire, where my mother from "Tomorrow morning" and double-bed sheets, the little was engaged in superintending the transformation of a small country cottage into

Here and there I found a man, in railway uniform. In my best colloquial Arable I produced: The train from Aswan, at what bour it arrives?"

women swathed in black

every

largish "Six o'clock" to "Maybe eight boys in pyjamas, and the girls &

in square-cut cotton print frocks, and a quarter, Platform One."

house, to Colourful assemblies This demands a brief pause

they for explanation. In the Arab make, squatting round big reed which I went world, no one ever says "I don't hampers that held their worldly down

and the

food for the Friday night, know." That might cause dis- wealth

they are about to pleasure and disturb Hife's even, expeditions

They are all of returning on Jazy tenor. So you can always undertake.

Sunday even- depend on an answer, even if course, waiting for trains. it's wrong, as it often is.

Some certainly spend days in Uniallated

motorists

have the station. Others certainly get been known to drive for hours into the wrong Sains, leaving akng axoad that metely led them at remote halts with walls for Fortunately, because they and abuse. into desert-b

dire them, time is not even relative. wayside peasant

town. The Suddenly 1 was outside a

and office with a "Tourist Police" right are more or less inter- sign. Inside, a very near young man with handsome moustachios, changeable does not help.

So I did not accept the first a military haircut, and a distant glass-topped desk of answer tendered. It often helps "air sat at to get several, work on a cross- senior, executive proportions.

deeper

asked

1

tions to a nearby ic"

that in

"This

Headache

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MY PRETTY

ing to be ready for the bor ing business of attending St Paul's School on Monday morning. Therefore, at week-ends, Mary was tirely alone in the house.

er-

At that date the Earl's Court Exhibition was in its prime, and with a season ticket which cost half a guinea and lasted, as ! remember, for six months, I spent every evening in enjoying the music and the promenading people, the stalls and the side shows, until closing time at 11 o'check.

was

Mary took as much advantage as I did of that Liberty Hall and gave herself an

evening out every day. We used to forgather for supper in the kitchen when we got home, and she used to tell me of her adventures with hand- some strangers of whose inter- tions she expressed profound mistrust. And I

not sure prised, for she looked very smart. as well as very pretty in a dark- green....but it's useless for ma to attempt a description of Alary's dress because my women friends have assured me for years that I am incapable of

attire. describing feminine remember, however; that it had a long line of buttons down the front and that she wore a sort of cavalier's hat with

an ostrich plume.

A. headache

MAID

by

Sir Compton Mackenzie

SIR COMPTON MACKENZIE (he was knighted. in 1952) comes from a stage family?' Hà sistes Pay Compton, the actrats, and both their parenti were on the stagna

When I

came down to the basement found Mary gather- ing up clothes in the passage.

"They've taken the trunk," she said. "What a nerve!"

The

Saint Anthon

beset by devits

SETTLING IN....

Tomorrow

?

of the silver. I know that the insurance company paid some- Yes, the burglars had half- thing like £500, so there must

tunk, have been a lot of it.. emptied that Saratoga lugged it up to the front-hal, That evening Mary told me wrapped up their loot in the that the police suspected her of clothes they needed, and carried being in league with the burglars. it out of the front door. retired colonel next door had watched their exit while he was dressing, but it never occurred to him that the large man and the Kale man carrying that heavy Saratoga trunk between them in the direction of West Kensington railway station were burglars. The station must have been. 4 tiring quarter of an hour's walk with that load, and when they had reached it they had sat tran- quilly waiting on the platform. for the first train to Aldgate. In 1898 West Kensington was a quiet as a country station, which will sound strange to those who use it today.

One of his "auri) novels. Sinister Street, described Na schooldays at St. Paul's. has written Murals, plays "historical works; he has broad- cast, talked. Ilmed, fived sa

landa.

wife,

He

:

Did it really happen?... to RICHARD GORDON

MARK ANTONY Triumvir of Rome.

World Copyright by arrangement with the Manchester Guardian

be able to afford an ostridge feather"

The series that keeps

you guessing con- tinues today with the FIFTH tale.

It transpired later that in some recent burglaries in Ken sington one of the maids had been lured into entertaining a burglars' scout for the sake of an ostrich-plume.

Shadowed

Next morning I was again at the police station and was asked To sharply when they were going

to be put into communication with my parents that I decided

state of perturbation that even ing those two beefy detectives called soon afterwards to imforti her that Mary and I bad planted the burglary between us and bod Bons to Whitechapel to warn our confederates.

My mother's laughter only made them determined to prove her levity ill-timed.

They

one

never recovered piece of the stoleh silver, but I had the immense gratification of being kept under observation by the police, for quite a fort

which was reassuring to lescent self-importance. And Mary? Looking back at the business now, I think she fast have entertained one of those

handsome strangus with base intentions and he may pave charmed her with

ostrich

that

plume to show him round the hours. But I do not believe she

was a confederate. Yes, I think she must have entertained one

of those handsome strangers in

morning-room

bestsea the crown-piece of James II and VII, as fresh es the day on which it was minted which I kept there in a drawer of the tiny cabinet that held my treasures, WILS missing, and my instinct was not to tell the police for Mary's sake.

WORLD COPYRIGHT RESERVED

"In the Shadow" by W. Stanley Moss was FICTION.

NOW, you have to de would be wise to telegraph cide: Did Sir Compton Mac- mother about the burglary; kenzie make this story up I should have one more day of freedom anyway.

disor did it really happen to

my

I was

tressed at Mary's being bullied him? Make a note whether by thee beefy detectives and in you think story No. 5 is order to convince her of my trust FACT OF FICTION and check "Rot!". 1 exclaimed

with in her honesty Lisuggested that the answer tomorrow. chivalrous scorn, adding on the she and I should go to Aldgate authority of Sherlock Holmes and look at the pawnshops on However, I am anticipating that the police were always fat- the chance of seeing a piece of

the stolen silver, what the inquiries of the police heads.

Believe it cr mat, we were At a quarter to "They asked, me who give me ascertained. nine I set out for Hammersmith my ostridge-feather, and when I shadowed, the result of which police station, stopping on my told 'em I bought it, they said was that when my mother way at St Paul's School to leave it was a queer thing for me to arrived from Hampshire in ย

mote for my form-mester, with which 1 enclosed my Latin over and went to sleep zain elegiacs as a peace-offering.

भात

Faith Comptam Mackenzie, is also a writer.

4.

I

I have said that I spent the until I was woken at eight by told him that owing to bur- week-ends In the country, and on the evening of the third or piercing shrieks. I got into a glery at our house I should be fourth Sunday in that May dressing-gown and went down absent for at least two days. came up from Hampshire to and stairs to find Mary in hysterics in the trees hall, leaning against. my supper ind in the morning the closed door of the dining- room,

which was next to the kitchen in front of the house, and a note to say that Mary had gone to bed with a headache.

Toom.

DID IT REALLY" RAPPEN 7 No. 5: My Pretty Mail.

YES

NO

NEWELL ROGERS' AMERICA COLUMN

THE FILM MEN NOW TURN

TO FLORIDA FOR THE SUN

F

LORIDA

In these days when half the policemen I see in Londen lock ilke overgrown boy scouts, I am zure a schoolboy of 15 who went They're in there! They're in to report a burglary would be there!" she was screaming...

The received sympathetically. I asked who was in there.

beety plain clothes man with

New York. forehead by adjustable barkis acquiescence" from him. He is T'ant up in just before mid-

"Burglars," she gasped.

walrus moustaches in The police night finishing a set of Latin

have made their appearance in fighting her "Don't talk such rot, Mary, slation off Hammersmith Broad-

sunshine is

'sult 'for separate alegines and reading through the How can

'Cleveland, Ohio. Their purpose maintenance. there be burglars in way 50 years ego treated me

Hollywood. to shield neck and head from worrying

In New York, the opening of chapter of Greek Testament broad daylight?"

with gruff suspicion from the Big producers are studying the sun...

the baseball season wiped out with which it was the custom on

I thought I had never

the publicity fanfares which Monday morning to open the Yet I could not help hoping as t

normally would have, surround- dreedy

round of the week's I pushed past her to open the heard so many stupid questions the question of doing more.

ed the arrival of heavywel at schoolwork. On my way to bed dining-room door that it might asked.

IT'S maize planting time in champion Don Cockell He is on the black gumbo soll of way to California for his fight America's rich Midwest. The with world heavyweight chara- white man found Red Indians plon Rocky Marciano. growing the cars cf corn. Now

A list

and more pictures in the Land of the Everglades and Seminole Indians.

SIGHTSEEING tours in Wash..

I noticed that a Saratoga trunk be true. To be able to brag at packed with the clotures of 15 that one has confronted Bur- American cousins which had glass face to face is granted

Reason California · smog been left behind on their last to few boys. There were no "Well,

we'd better go along is ruinous for colour picture visit to England was still stand burglars in the dining-room, of mid have a look at things," mid making.

millions of acres are, sown and ing in the basement passage. course, but there had certainly one of the boy detectives. "And

For weeks, film magnate And Britain reaps a harvest ington now include a visit to

harvested each year. was supposed to have been a burglary in the grand if you've been up, to your pronks, Howard. Hughes has had a of dollars from America's "dirt the HQ of the Federal Bureau This been taken away on the previous style

young fellowmelad...." he blew Friday and despatched to New The thieves had entered by

portentously through his team in Florida measuring farmers." Travel experts say of Investigation. Tourists get a moustache 10 indicate the the daily sunshine average: 20,000 farmers will visit Britain thrill from watching York. It was an outsize pe cutting a hole in the nearest revenge that the Law would The figures will be compared and Europe this seasonmony practising marksmanship of luggage ich added, to Window...of the bay to the, dront-

Strengthened by 4

with sunshine statistics in Continental farmers

on tours to see how British and shooting galleries.

harvest their crops.

strips of trea its already heavy weight of kar, large enough for a hand to wood." I wondered vaguely why it had not been called for and went up the three fights of stairs to my bedroom.

· take-

PRIZE fight punchlines:

G-men

NEWEST Juke box craie "records of tunes pounded out on pianos whose key hamanera

be inserted and - unscrew the As we passed St Fail's in a California."...

catch sately

bus, I thought. compassionately Hollywood has been further of my schooltellows muzzing in annoyed by a ruling of Cali- I told Mary I would go und dass on this lovely morning of turnin smog control officials that dress, and she having by now May white 1, accompanied by the studios may not stage large Former middleweight cham- have been worn down, or the - recovered: «- from her

bwp_booty: detectives, was hand- outdoor fires for film purposes, pion Miettey Walker opened a felts have not been replaced; The said she

Now in works" is 32 picture one-man show of his paintings, rendt "Crazy Otto Sounds of the San Francisco earthquake priced from $60 to $750 in a like the banging and whanging As I went upstairs I was

He has born in old Wild West saloons, for the last Crazy Ot

Otto pela its name from. o'clock in the morning when I that if this burglary, was baniited, observed heavily when they had the

Woke up

would have

.

make-belleve fire

, ז

KEY

15

0362 M the original

bang-whang planist,

waiting for me in the morning buyersvitscertninky. Eşoka Izku, a followed by a vast fire. So law New suppose it was about. niz sull of eletran, because I realised

woke up suddenly with, the im- with skill. I might get out of surveyed the daing-room And smoke only three minutes out of Ex-heavyweight fighter Buddy German named Fritz Schultz-

Bear, now weighing just a shade Reichel, SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, LTD. in that a door bad alammedchool, forent least a couple of what exactly is mixing?" every hour.

somewhere below, but deciding days. No telegram was going to d gave them as accurate a list

under 20 stone, complained in i Now other plonists are ripping KOWLOON that the noise was an echo trvan bezons Op Hampadres you 1 or 1 could despole mugs, jugs, SUNBRELLAS strapped to Callfemia divorce court, that his the felfs of their plane hanKITS

the edge of a dream. I tumed would inform the police myseit, wuets, sugar bowls and the rest men's hats, or attached to the wife demanded obedience and to Iritate him."<

HONGKONG

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