Why The Canal Is Crooked

In connection with the canal whieh Mehemet Ali caused to he cut by unskilled Fellah labor, to connect the waters of the Nile with the sea at Alexandria, a characteristie story of the Napoleon of Egypt has been told. AFrenchen'ineer, in conversation, ventnred to criticise the viceroy's plan for the canal while the work was in course of completion. " Yotu highness," he said, "will pardon me for Buggesting that yonr canal will be very crooked." "Do rivers in France always run in a straight line?" promptly asked the pasha. "Certainly not," responded the surprised Frenchinan. "Did not Allah make them?" "Assuredly, yonr highness," replied the engineer, who thonght the questioner's wits were wandering. "Well, then," answered Mehemet Ali, trmniphantly, "do you think }-ou or I know better than Allah how water ought to rnn? I imitated him in rny canal, otherwise it soon wonld be a dry ditch, not a canal." The Frenchinan was silenced, if not convinced, and the canal was certainly made