New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-12-13
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
ALGERIAN LIFE.

u,vrrpc nv ALGERIA. written and illustrated by
Frederick Arthur Brldgman. Square eVo' pp
2e2. Harper a Brothers. -,
Though the sketches Of life IN Algeria WIN"
compose this volume do not form continues
narrative being in fact the selected "reminiscences
- so,o,oi winters they are full of interest and
on;roa,ion As an artist Mr. Bridgman has filled
his ,aces with effective and picturesque studeS'
,ha marriage of which with the text is completely
h.,monions The barbarian and truculent paso
80 A1giers must always be fertile source OF
interest Few Old World anomalies are more
curious than the protracted submission OF CIVIL
ized Europe to Algerian piracy. 30 long as lhe
Algerian Navy was stronger than that oil any
other Power, the situation Is COMPREHENSIVE
hut as a matter of fact, this nest OF the herceso
and most insolent pirates the world had ever
known was permitted TO exist for generations
after il had become easy enterprise for Eng
land Holland or Spain TO reduce the place Even
so late as the early part of the present century
Algerine pirates were still robbing and enslavlns
men of all nationalities with truly Oriental I'M
partiality and assurance, and 1t was hnaliy more
an accident than the result of deliberate policy
that the French entered upon the campaign which
broke the pride and power of the naughty and
ruffianly Dey, and gave the conqueror colony
and military battle-ground
changed France spent many years in subdulng
the brave but wholly intolerabe Arab tribes that
swept the skirts of the desert and threatened
every isolated post until they had been so thinned
ont as 10 listen to reason. To-day the province
appears 10 be thoroughly quelled, but no doubt
H. contains almost as many germs OF lnSurrec-
ton as British India. The rising in s71, when
France was in death grip with Germany and forced
TO call home every soldier, shows what may be
expected in all probability, every time the mother
country falls into difficulties. The Algerian Arabs
have not become reconced TO the situation. They
merely keep quiet because the military occupation
of the country is virtually complete and for the
time insuperable. That their deadly hate only
shoulders, Mr.. Bridgman indicates by many shght
touches. and doubtless the imperiousness of the
French in many instances aggravates the AMI
mostly of the conquered race. But it is with the
picturesque, not with the political aspects OF
Algeria. that Mr.. Bridgman's book has to do.
and there is plenty TO occupy and interest the
reader without stopping TO indulge in conjectureS
Education, there is practically none in Algeria,
outside of the French schools and colleges. All
the learning deemed necessary for follower or
Islam is from the Western point of view. and
indeed from any rational point of view, worthless
To read and write, TO recite more or less OF the
Koran to understand the simplest rules of arlth-
metic-these are the beginning and end OF the
curriculum. Mr.. Brdgman would include hatred
of unbelievers in the educational programme. but
that is learned in the home circle. In India the
Moslems are gradually awakening from their
lethargy, and since the civil service has Deeh
opened to them they are seeking the new western
education. Possibly the same KIND OF renaissance
may occur in Algeria but at present there appears
IN he few indications of such a movement MIR.
Bridman travelled extensively in the colony, and
his experiences beyond Algiers are quite as In
teresting as those in the city.