Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-08-20
THE BERBERs.
A Race That Has a Golden Ara :, s.or.
For II.

Ahat mas Golden Age In Store
For It.
Ii any race in North Africa has n
golden age in store for it that race is
the Berber or Shelluh. In numbers
and physical strength it already stands
hrst in Morocco. With the Arab ele-
ment it does not mix at all. Peoples
OF this blood and language spread
pnder different tribal names from Cape
Spartel teNNubia and the EGYPTIAN
Soudan- They are. in rude but ener-
get'c fashion, traders, farmers, and
shepherds. and have against desperate
ODDS gained a reputation for intelli-
gence and industry. 1t is sign, char
acteristic of French rule, that IN Africa
alone have the representatives of this
most promising race. the Kabyles. de-
ciined IN numbers. We say promising
adv sedly, because those who wish well
to Morocco must live in hope. The
rule of Sultan Mulai Hassan, except in
coast towns subject to European infiu-
ence. like Tetuan, Tangier, and Mega
oor, is weak but uncontrolled
despotism. Persons convicted of
small offenses. or entirely limo
cent crowd the prisons and re-
man there for life. Slavery is forbid
den' but IN no wise suppressed. Fiscal
monopolieS and taxes are decreed at
Will. and payment of the latter is
evaded by any one who can take to the
hills. The inhabitants of the Riff and
Atlas live in chronic rebellion against
the kaids of their provinces who act as
the Sultan's taxgathers. From the
southern territories OF Sus and Tablet
the lmeer- al exchequer gets little more
than the spoil amassed by Government
raids, often headed by the Sultan him.
self. The retaliatory brigandage
which is provoked by such measures is
perpetuated by the absence of an eff
hclent army of police. Indeed, mill
tary service and personal serfdom are
often synonymous. The worst features
In the situation are the thjnness of the
population and the want of communal
cation. Morocco is larger than France,
but its inhab. tants, once very numer-
Gus. have dwindled to about 5000, 900.
1t Is said to possess no wheeled car
raige besides the Sultan's coach at
Fee. 1t is covered with metallifer-
Gus mounta MS and traversed by
large rivers, mostly running westward
from sources in the Atlas; but it has
neither roads nor bridges. Irrigation.
which now supplements to some small
extent the deficient rainfall and the ir-
regular flow of the rivers, needs an
enormous Developments; but the ma
tives have neither the money nor
the confidence 1equ red. In circum-
stances like these the weakness of the
Government and the poverty OF the
people act and react upon each other
to the common ruin. The condition of
the rural population is indeed one of
primitive restitution, and would be in
tolerable but for the magnificent elm
ate in which they live. The men tend
f1ocks. or scratch the earth with
plows of patriarchal MAKE, and the
women act as beasts of burden. The
ordinary village is composed of the
rudest cabins of mud. sticks. and
leaves. The few manual industries of
the country are starved alike by want
of encouragement and want of access
sible markets. Such export trade as is
done at the ports, and notably
at Tangier, gives no idea of the
real resources of Morocco. The
construction of roads and harbors
and the abolition of vexa-
tious imposts would enable other in
dustr:es to share in the success which
actually attends the cattle trade with
Gibraltar. But neither poverty nor
tyranny have entirely crushed the well
conditioned natures of the population.
Least of all has it prepared them for
forcible annexation by a European
power. Neither Arab nor Berber has
anything of Egyptian servility about
him. One might expect mendicancy to
be rampant. but this is not the case.
Beggars are thicker and more shame
less at Seville, Naples orBoulogne than
at Tetuan or Tangier. The character
of the people. like that of the country.
is calculated to excite hope as we'll as
regret. 1t seems quite impossible to
believe that these fine races are to live
on like this forever. The Transforming
influence must come from Europe, and
the fate of Morocco depends on the
generosity and single-mindednes of
the particular European nation that
may exercise that infiuence.-NationaI
RecieU.