Let me tell you about my Nationalist friend, Gabal Osman Effendi.
The circumstances of his brother's death, which were as follows, drove him
into politics and made him a fervent advocate of "Egypt for the Egyptians."
His brother was in a very humble way and lived in a little mud village.
There he had a friend, yet poorer than himself, who only attained to
prosperity when a plague fell on the village. The sanitary authorities put
a cordon around it to prevent the spread of the plague, and hired this man
among others to throw disinfectants and things into any drains that
happened to exist. Thus Osman Effendi's brother's friend became a
Government servant.
Now Osman Effendi's brother had a sore leg. When he heard of his friend's
new work he thought he saw a way to avoid any doctor's fees. So he went to
him and said, "I hear that you are now a doctor." His friend, proud but
truthful, said he was perhaps hardly that, but he was certainly put to
administer drugs. Osman's brother pointed out that his leg was sore and
suggested that it should be healed. The other looked doubtful, then
produced a lump of his disinfectant. "This," said he, "is a powerful drug
and, who knows? it may cure your leg." It was a friendly act; but Osman's
brother swallowed the lump and shortly afterwards died.
Osman Effendi at once brought an action for damages against the Government,
on the ground that its servant had caused the death of his brother (whom,
as a matter of fact, he himself had largely supported). The case was heard
by a Court on which sat two Egyptian judges and one English, and the
decision went against Osman. This convinced him of the injustice of the
English.
The Assize Court of Appeal, which visited the district and heard Osman
Effendi's appeal against the first verdict, consisted of three Egyptian
judges. It is true that the English judge who should have gone on Assize
had fallen ill, and there was no other to take his place. But Osman Effendi
saw in this too the malevolent hand of the English, who nourished a grudge
against him. "How," he said, "can I obtain justice if there is no
Englishman on the Court?"
From that moment he has become an ultra-Nationalist, and has, I believe,
been seen in the streets of Cairo shouting with the best of them the latest
"English" catchword of "Long Live Egypt! Long Die MILNER!"
He is, you see, an educated man.
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[Illustration: _Editor (to poet of somewhat dissolute habits who has been
paid in advance for contributions which are not forthcoming)._ "I KNOW
YOU'RE GOING TO THE DEVIL AS HARD AS YOU CAN; BUT YOU'VE GOT TO SING AS YOU
GO."]
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