Port Said, Egypt

Monday, March 18, 1929

A sleepy hotel clerk failed to call me on time and so I missed the 7AM train by three minutes. An old custom. Yet each time I missed a train, I saw something unusual. This time it was the Lord High Commissioner of Egypt boarding his private train. A guard was thrown around the door of the station to make sure that nobody got near him. The grand central portal was opened for this special occasion. A big red rug covered the floor and another long one was laid along the platform beside his train of four cars, which was to carry beside himself, Lord Late (?), a party of a half dozen, and a squad of English tommies, smartly lined up waiting his highness’s tardy appearance. The people were cleared from the station and I had a deuce of a time to even cross the place. Such false pride and ado about one English official. It was all ridiculous, to say the least, and I am glad to say the main character of this foolishness did not look the part as he quickly passed along the platform and laughingly joked with a friend from the window of his saloon car.

I took no chances on missing the next train, so sat in the station to await its departure. My complaining feet readily agreed to this. Thus, three o’clock found me in Port Said, dirty after the ride through the desert, but with hopes of getting cleaned up. The same evening we decided to buy a developing set to do our own films with. I attacked my 13 rolls of film and with Frank’s help, made 8 rolls of negatives by 3AM.

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