CHAPTER VII.
LIFE IN HÂIFA.
On Tuesday, October 23, 1855, a Turkish steamer from Constantinople entered the port of Hâifa, bringing a new Pasha for Akka, with his harem, and suite of thirty individuals, including an Armenian doctor. The chief people of Akka came to meet him, and our little town was in an unusual state of excitement. My brother went to welcome his Excellency, who afterward called at the Consulate with twelve attendants.
Newly-appointed Pashas may sometimes be persuaded into doing some good in their Pashalics; and, at the commencement of their reigns, choked-up fountains flow, broken cisterns are repaired, and aqueducts are kept in order, but only for a very little while. On the "new-broom" principle, the Consuls earnestly urged the new Pasha to give orders for the cleansing of the guttered streets of Hâifa, some of which were little better than open sewers, and in a dangerously-unwholesome state. They also advised the removal of the dust-heaps by the sea-shore, which had been allowed to grow into broad barricades, where vegetable refuse and all sorts of filth were thrown. The appeal was favorably heard, the work actually commenced immediately, and Hâifa underwent sweeping and scraping, probably for the first time in its existence. Men and boys ran hither and thither with baskets of rubbish. Beks and Consuls bustled about, giving orders, and the dust-heaps were by degrees shoveled into the sea.
The Europeans and the upper class of Arabs rejoiced at the prospect of living in a comparatively clean town, but the majority considered the reformation quite unnecessary,
