The Russellville Democrat., 1889-05-23
CHILDREN IN ALGiERS.


Great Changes wrought In Their Habits
Under the Influence OF Education.
The city OF Algiers. the capital OF
the great French province OF Algeria,
in Northern Africa, has so mild cli-
mate that snow is almost unknown.
The average temperature in January
is fifty-four degrees; palm-trees grow
freely in the gardens and suburbs, and
the country has tropical aspect. No
little excitement was produced. there
fore, when one day last winter there
fell snow enough to cover the ground.
The last such snowfall had taken
place in 1861, so that none of the
younger people OF the country had
ever seen any thing of the kind.
The sensation was SO great, indeed.
that all the schools were closed, and
the pupils, rushing out, were heard to
make such remarks as these:
Look 1t is raining cottonr'
Lets get some. and take it home
and save it!''
The boys gathered masses of the
fleecy snow to keep for curiosity.
and were astonished to see 1t turn into
water in their hands.
The boys OF Algeria are strange
race. Most of them are Arabs, whose
speech was brought hundreds OF years
ago from Arabia. They are Mussul-
mans in religion; IL they go to their
own Arab schools, called zawyas. they
are taught little except to recite verses
from the Koran: They are for the
most part bright and merry, much like
other boys among themselves, but in
clined to be grave and suspicious in
the presence OF foreigners.
Girls are seldom admitted to the
Arab schools, and they do not go, ex-
cept rarely, to the French schools.
They are usually married at an age
when American girls are still playing
with dolls. A good proportion of the
Arab boys attend the French schools,
and in some of the towns all the Arab
children speak and write French.
There is, however, race of people
in Algeria who are much more eager
to learn than the Arabs. They are the
Kabyles, who. although Mussulmans
in religion. some scientists believe to
belong to the same race as the inhab-
itants of Southern Europe They are
mostly farmers and mountaineers, and
are very Industrious; they are eager
to learn, and send all their girls and
boys to school wherever schools are
founded. Among them are some
strange colonies descended from the
ancient Romans, and still calling them
selves Romafis, or ."Rumi"
The Algerian Jews, too, who are
descended from the Jews whom the
Spaniards banished from their country,
pay much attention to the instruction
of their children.
Under the influence OF education
great changes are taking place in the
character of the population OF Algeria,
which, at the beginning OF the present
century, was almost entirely Mussul-
man; aud practically iucivilized. Now,
although there are not quite half a
million Europeans in the country, more
than a million people speak the French
language.
Algeria, moreover, is but part OF
the French domain in Africa. There
are French colonies here and there
around the whole northern half of the
continent, and nearly all Northwestern
Africa, including Tunis. Algeria, Seue-
gal and great part Of the Western
Soudan, promises to become French
eventually.
The French flag has been carried as
far into the interior OF Africa as Tim
buctoo, which, not many years ago.
was synonym for all that was strange,
far away and inaccessible. Youths