Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1890-04-05
R. wAkEmAN,s JoURNEy1rGs
At Catania, sIcIiy-Manners and Gus
toms Of she PopulatioR-The Climate
-Trahac and Products-S0me OF the
FruIts-A Parting Peep at AlglerS-
Quaint Architecture.

toms OF She POpulat10R-The Cum1to
-Trahic and Products-Some OF tho
Fruits-A Parting Peep at Algisrs-
Quaint Architecture.
CATANIA, Sicily. March s..
To the Editor Of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
One does not require weeks time In Al.
gsria, or to 60. with his eyes open, more
than two hundred miles from the city of AL
giers in any direction in the interior, to dis
cover, aside from the human interest which
is absorbing on every hand, and the scenic
beauties and splendors which are unexpected
and surprising, that here the French have
found new empire whose possibilities as a
garden-spot for enjoyment and material de-
velopment surpass all ordinary calculation.
The native interior population and their
strange manners and customs have been
well and fully described. The beauty of to-
po9raphy, the impressiveness of military and
civil roads, the winsomeness Of shaded lanes
and ways, the wondrous beauty and luxuri-
BUSINESS of the fora, the enchantment of
valley scenes, the depth and beauty of ra'
vines, gorges and inter-mountain vistas, the
foaming of cascades and torrents, the almost
Norman or English sweetness of flashing
streams, the picturesqueness of countless
vineyards, and mountain-side herds with
their white-robed shepherds, and the grand
eur of the Atlas peaks, SO lofty that their
caps of snow often Withstand the assaults of
the summer sirocco until July, have all been
well told by travellers who have come before
me. But have seen presented no references
to those things on which the future OF any
country must depend. In what respect may
France be vastly benefited by its Algerian
possession at such stupendous original cost
of life aud treasurea-is the constant query
of the earnest reader and earnest observer.
The answer is everywhere given in such stu
pendous proofs of rich rewards, that the vis'
itor is constantly forced away from the con-
temptation of the native people, customs
and archaeology. to the liveliest, most excl
ting speeulations upon commercial and agrt-
cultural possibilities under the new and en-
lfghtened regime.
AS to climate, one is reminded constantly
of the vast variety accessible in Mexico.
Every possible degree of heat or cold can be
definitely secured during nine months of the
year. It is only question of ones location
within tropical valley, far reaching table,
land, mountain-side plateau or crisp and
freezing height. So, too, every form of
vegetation known to torrid, temperate or
frigid zone is here disooverable by the bota-
one may see, in mid winter months, prodl-
| gious jacqueminots, jonquils, Marchael Neil
roses, and mignonette shrubs as large as the
most Iuxuriant American locust; eucalyptus
| trees, cacti, hedges of pomegrsnate, orange
and lemon, interspersed with lordly roses;
pear, apple and other northern fruit trees;
wild olive and oarob trees; evergrsens, oaks
and cedars as Astounding In girth and height
as the tremendous redwoods of California
and Washington; and, at last, set like beds
of emerald against the white oameos of
mountain SHOWS, vast and untroddsn forests
of noble pine.
Traficable and always profitable products
of the soil, but twenty-five hours distance
| by steamer from European entrepots, are
| cultivable in Algeria in an equal proportion
| and variety. As Cuba and Florida are now
| in degree, and in time will become COM
| prehensively, the "truck"-gardens of Ameri-
can cities, so Algeria is already largely, and
will eventually become, like the little Scilly
| islands off Cornwall to London, the supply
| i've hours distance from Cadiz, Barcelona.
Marseilles, Rome and Venice, forty-eigh'
hours from Madrid and Paris, and but eighty
hours-the same time as Jacksonville, Flori'
ds, is from New York and Chicsgo-from
Vienna, Berlin and London. Any morning
you may enter the market in the Place de ID
Lyre or in Place de Chartres, in Algiers. ane
I lQ6 eXnlOltlou III ekSS, Potnssscnt poass eo"nss
asparagus, mushrooms, artichokes, cault.
flower, lettuce and all known northern ane
tropical vegetables; roses and branches o.
buds, blooms and blossoms such as all Cubs
cannot surpass and apples, plums, pears
cherries, dates, figs, bananas. tamarinds
pomearanates, melons and every known de-
licious fruit OF every land and CLINE; il
something your eyes can never elsewhere be-
hold. And yet all this is but hint of what
another quarter century of French husband.
ry in Algiers will be able to disclose.
In general, fruits, cereals and other agri
| cultural products for necessary consumption
/ and profitable export are vastly more varied
| in number, and average higher grade o
excellence and perfection, than in any othe
known land In ancient times the Barbar!
states were an overaowing granary for ole
Rome. For more than q Thousand years Al
gerian soil has rested fallow, only scratched
and prodded here and there by the primitive
| plow of the crooked olive tree root. To
i day every acre of Algeria's one hundred an6
fifty thousand square miles is stored witt
| the riches of these Thousand years of recu'
| peration and strength. France, then, has
found what is practically new Americf
| twenty-five hours from home, wherein she
may remove the overplus power of her splen
did industrial activities; with the added ad
| vantage of a soil and CLINE capable of incal-
culably diversified employment. Even th'
Il
| Arab, the feet of whose tree are in "the wa
ter and its branches in the flames of heaven,
is Transforming the northern edge of Sahar
into a garden, through French irrigation
Two crops of patatoes are annually yielded
Beetroot for sugar manufacture is alread.
successfully cultivated. The fig is every
where, forms an immense food supply whel
fresh, is exported for spirits distillatlon, AM
no American need be told OF its universe
foreign consumption when cured. Nearl
all the gusva jellies, which come by way O
France, are made from the Algerian frui'
| Algerian bananas and oranges of the mos
delicious flavor are now rivaling in the Eu
ropean markets the same fruit from tn
Azores, Cansries and the West Indies
duced anywhere in America, and already t
!. q yield of nearly four hundred million bush
! els. are grown. Cotton is still in an expert
mental status; but specimens of extraordl
| nary yield and texture are secured. Th
| vast tobacco plantations Of Mascara and else
where are now producing leaf the equal
not the superior of the the most prizsd pre-
duct of the sunny valleys behind Havant
+, But more than all this, If you have loltere
!! in the noblest vineyards of France, Spai
!. and Italy, you will find that those Of A'g'
| ria now surpass the most splendid planti
| tions either of those countries ever knew
| Years ego the French savant, NJ. Dejernol
! commissioned by his government to stud
and report the subject, said: "The vine wi
become the fortune os the country. 1t cs
produce an infinite variety of vines, suite
to every constitution and to every caprice
g taste" The promise is already fulflle
though grape growing and wine making a
yet in their infancy. What all the travele
and poets have written upon the vineyard
of southern Europe within the past two Gel
!, | turies will be true before the close of Il
= present century in this wondrous land whe
the swallows home beneath a genial wint
sun.
A parting peep at Algiers was taken In Il
:, I old Arab quarter of the city. One ceases
u | wonder over the rhapsodies of artists upe
u this BIZ of Moreaque holding itself sturdi
| against all inrosds of modern progress. !
outlines stil very clearly define those of Il
ancient city. Down here harborward are Il
grand bonlevards, plszas, palaces and shol
of the new Paris the French have mad
The two great general markets, the hsh ma
8 ket of the port, and two stately mosques, o
% ccpy line of common ground upon whit
, all na:ionalities seem to meet. From tn
W line. as broad base of nearly mile
:. length. converging gradually as you ascer
- to the Kasbah, or ancient citadel, rises al
q narrows the old Arab quarter, dense ma
T. of Moorish structures from one hundred
= q one thousand years DID, No one ever CAV
| -. 40, nan avar olive an ade0uat0 descri