Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 October 1887 — HE SHOOK PHARAOH’S HAND. [ARTICLE]

HE SHOOK PHARAOH’S HAND.

Sunset Cox Says He Had That Pleasure O liile in Egypt. “Suuset” Cox delivered a lecture at the Windsor theater under the auspices of the Steckler Association. His subject was “observations upon Turkey.” The crowd which came io listen to him was so large that many had t« be turned away, * * * After Bayne’s Sixtv-ninth Regiment Band had discoursed a f3w lively selections President Julius Harburgerof the Steepler Association, introduced Judge Alfred Steckler, who was down on the programme for a speech. Mr. Steckler was so anxious to hear Mr. Oox that he declined to say anything. The latter came before the footlights in the mids* of a storm of cheers. “I ; eel,” he said, “as if I ought to make a Turkey salaam after the hearty welcome you have given me. The Turk, when he bows to a man. picks up the earth. He touches his heart to show the cordiality of his greetings, and his head to mdicate the confirmation of it by bis bmn. Then he loosens his tongue to give expression to it.” The speaker went through tbe motions with mock gravity to the merriment of his audience.

“I can’t in my awkward way,” he said, “illustrate the grace and politeness of a Turkish salaam. They have many things in common wdh Americans, and one particular thing with myself. They always begin the day at ‘Sunset.’ I know that my mother-in-law used to ted me that the old Puritans began the day in the morning and ended it >t sunset, and I never went back on ‘Sunset’ when I could help it. There are a great many young men I know of who are interested in politics down in our district who end their day at sunrise.” “It must have struck some of you as being very strange that in going to Turkey I took only one wife with me, but it was all the wife I had, as the fellow said of his head when the executioner wanted to clip it off. The Mahometans are 1 'gaily entitled to four wives, but my friend the Sultan had 484. He doesn’t kno * them all, but he has their names written on their doors, which is ‘just as well when he wants to make a call. I never had a chance to get into a harem and so I can’t tell you what the interior is like. Oh, yes, I did get into a harem once, but I got out again in a great hurry; but I won’t tell you about that to-night. “When I was in Thebes I went down in a freshly opened grave, and there on the walls I read the history of its occupant. He was just 4300 years old, and —he was dead. The figures on the wall showed that be was an agriculturist, and ships and scales showed that he had brought his harvest down the river and exchanged it for gold. I’ve got the body now in a warehouse down town, and I had half a mind to bring him up here this evening. “When I came back from my trip on the Nile 1 met the Khedive and he says to me: ‘Your E cellency’—they always called me that over there, although I did not like it —he says: “Your Excellency what is the reason that your country has attained a population of 60,000,000 in only 100 years ?” I replied that it was the attraction of our emigration system. ‘Have you ever,’ he asked, ‘had any immigrants out of vur country?’ ‘Yes;’ I replied, ‘we have had two. I shipped them yesterday. They were mummies.’ “Perhaps I am the only American who ever shook hands with old King Pharaoh of Egypt. He was a bit dusty, but I shook ha ids with him just the same. They had him under a glass case, which was raised for my lenefit, and there was a history of all his movements, even including those which occurred after his death.”

An automatic pencil that writes blue, red, violet and black at command is % late novelty.