The weekly Butte record., 1861-06-29
The City Of Algiers.

Algiers is purely African city, with the
exception of those parts which have been re-
built or altered by the French. The lower
part, embracing the Plaza, is pleasantly situa-
ted on plateau overlooking the sea, is occupied
principally by the French and Jewish popula-
tion, and presents an extremely lively and
| picturesque appearance to the stranger
Fronting upon the square are several handsome
hotels, and two or three excellent cafes, with
orange trees in front, archways, colonades and
fountains. 1t puzzles one at first sight to de-
termine in what part of the world he has been
dropped down, so strangely diversified are the
styles of architecture. the costumes of the peo-
pie and the languages that strike upon his ear
in every direction. AT all hours of the day,
during the charming Winter and Spring
months, the Plaza is crowded with gay idlers,
lounging about enjoying the sunshine. Here
chiefly conspicuous are the dashing French
officers, mustached, spurred, laced and blazing
gallant, ierce-looking Zouaves, with their
turbans and flowing trOwsers, rich in colors,
agile and springy in their motions; the gay,
iaunty Partisan on q tour of pleasure, happy
in the present, but happier still in the thought
of soon returning to his beloved city-world
the stiff, starch-collared Englishman, with his
everlasting guidebook the easy, half-satisfed
but adventurous and enterprising American,
looking about wherever he pleases, with spec
ulation in his eye ; the Belgian, the Norwegian,
the Russian, the Polish exile, the Hungarian,
the cadaverous Spaniard, grieving over his
bile, and thousand others, from all parts of
the civilized globe. Not even Constantinople
can surpass this strange old den of pirates in
the variety and picturesqueness of its popula-
ton. For here, too, you see the glorious East
represented in all its majesty of long boards,
turbans, flowing robes, loose trowsers, bare
legs and pointed slippers. Here is the genu-
inc Arab, in his burnoose cloak, with a coarse
girdle of camel-skin his legs bare and all ma
hogany color, his grave, lean features and
fierce, dark eyes giving him something of
royal aspect in all his rags here too, the
Kabyles, leading their mules laden with packs
of oil the swarthy Moors, with their turbans
and loose trowsers; the Bisberies or water
carriers, carrying immense earthen vessels of
water on their shoulders the Mazabtes, a
mixed breed, selling their meats and wares in
little ships the negroes. black as nature could
make them, with lips as thick, wool as crisp,
legs as baudy, and hceie IS long as erer-seen
in Virginia or South Carolina the Maltese,
half-Arab, half Italian, halfGreek, balfcivil-
lied, halfmongrel, speaking mongrel Ian
guage, and dressed in mongrel style, with
most reckless, daredevil set of vagabonds in
the crowd, caring for nobody, and always
lively and boisterous. Here, in short, are so
many other races-Jews, Gentiles, savages
and demi-savages Never was there such an
incongruous mass gathered together in the
same space yet, under the French rule, the
most perfect harmony prevails Everybody
seems happy and conteuted. The largest lib
erty consistent with public order seems to be
allowed Lazy vagabonds lie about on the
public benches, smoking their cigars, or gos-
siping over their games Of hazard, with perfect
impunty nothing like constraint is anywhere
observable.
1t can scarcely be said that one takes
promenade through Algiers, for of all the i'm
practicable streets | ever saw, the streets of
this strange old city are the most so to Pc
destrian, especially in the upper or native part.
Many of them are not over six or eight feet
wide, and run up hill at an angle of forty de-
grees-sometimes with steps, sometimes with
out, just as chance may direct. One climbs
through the city rather than walks. The pave
ments are of round, slippery stone, and on the
steep, narrow slopes, where slops are thrown
out, it is a very slippery business to keep ones
feet under him at all. Mine went ahead of
me on several occasions, as l was working
down hill, and got some distance beyond con-
troll before could haul up From what dis
covered by tapping the stones with the back
of my head, / consider them hard and not
likely to wear out rapidly. The projecting
walls of the houses nearly meet in some of
these narrow streets, showing above mere
streak of sky, and efectually excluding the
sun during greater part of the day. 1t is
doubtless on account of the heat that the streets
are made so narrow in all warm countries A
draught of air passes through them during the
hottest part of the day, and where there is more
than ordinary exposure to the sun, coarse mats
are hung overhead thereby rendering the tenn
perature more endurable All the houses are
whitewashed, and those built in the purely
Moorish style, which chiefly comprise the upper
part of the city, are sometimes ornamented
with grotesque designs over the doorways.-
The windows are little barred holes in the walls,
and the doors are small and massive, as if con-
structed with view to security A small
square hole in the middle of each door, crossed
by bars, is used as sort of observatory, and
no person is admitted until general reconnoi-
sance has been made from within. The interior
somewhat resembling the Spanish style of
houses first, courtyard, surrounded by the
four inner walls of the building with ground