Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 131, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1920 — CHASTENED BY THE WAR [ARTICLE]

CHASTENED BY THE WAR

Old Travelers Find Port Said Much Changed City. i __ Gateway to East Has Been Cleaned Up and Is Now Safe and Nearly Respectable. Port Said.—Old travelers come ashore and smile sadly. New travelers plunge into the stronghold of curio merchants with surprise—and disappointment. Port Said, like the rest of the world, has been changed by the war. Port Said, to be quite frank, has been .cleaned up. Time was when a brief saunter through the ramshackle bazaar meant a terrific battle with touts. Shady gentlemen of all nationalities, most of them known to the police of two continents, plied their disreputable trades with impunity. An incredible amount of rubbish was carted away by tourists tn memory of a few hours' stay. Mur-

der was a pastime after dark, and many sinister stories were told in the smoking rooms of departing liners of Port Said’s wicked Inhabitants. Now this gateway to the East is safe and nearly respectable. The hand of the A. P. M. has been laid in no uncertain manner on the underworld which was the real Port Said. Deportations eased the town of its international rogues and vagabonds. A passport control second to none in effectiveness keeps a tight grip on the polyglot population. Murder, even routine robbery, which was a staple industry on steamer days, is discouraged by the representatives of British rule. Gene, too, is the atmosphere of piracy and pillage maintained by brazen guides and qther varieties of profiteers. They were wont to seize on amiable and inquisitive tourists with the persistency of a leech. They would extract money by entreaties, argument, threats, even violence.

Now the touts and trinket sellers and ragged bootblacks approach their prey with marked diffidence. A single sharp refusal usually suffices to turn them off. They -drop the trail immediately they see that no business is to be done.