The Olneyville tribune. (Providence, R.I.) 1893-189?, 1894-07-28
because he would not tell where he


because he would not tell where he
! had hidden it. Commerce Is taxed
with almost as much severity. Every
transaction must pay tax OF = per
cent. usually borne by the buyer.
| Day by day the Sultan's men make the
rounds OF the shops in Tangier, Moroc-
co, Fez and other towns, investigate
the business OF the day and demand the
taxes. Every handicraftsman must
pay tax for the privilege OF
! entering on his calling. what
soever il may be, besides an
nual fees for license 90 carry il on.
And over and above these forms OF
taxation, OF every sui, ,ect Is demanded
yearly sum in the form of poll tax,
for the privilege Of being allowed TO
exist. According 10 governmental
ideas in Morocco, the only excuse
man has for living Is that he may con-
tribute 10 the Sultans exchequer, and
whatever else he does or does not do,
he attends 10 this with reasonable
promptitude, for he knows that ex-
cuses are OF no avail: a failure 20 pay
certainly means the bastinado, applied
at once: possibly imprisonment for an
uncertain length OF time: in some cases
having his head cut of by the expert
enced executioner Of the court, who
never gets out OF practice through
lack OF work.
Thus IL is that the people Of Morocco
are lazy, shiftless and improvident.
They have been made so by their gov
eminent. They have no incentive TO
labor, for labor seems 20 be useless:
they do not care TO be put % the
trouble OF providing for the future only
TO see the means they collect unscru-
pulously appropriated By a savage
soldiery. SO they pass their time as
pleasantly as they can, do as little
work as may be necessary 20 satisfy
hunger and the ever-greedy taXgath-
erer, and employ Themselves in LISTEN
ing - the street stOry-tellers, in watch
ing the snake-charmers, in smoking, in
sleeping, in anything, in short, but
work. Under proper conditions they
would would work cheerfully, and
when Morocco is placed under civ
iliZed government, rs some day il will,
its people will become as industrious
"a Orientals are capable of being and
Morocco will again, as il once wa, be
an important productive country.
That, however, was long before the
days Of Mohammed and Islam When
the iron rule Of Rome governed the
whole OF the then known world, Mo
rocco, under the name of Mauritania,
was "A great province. II must have
had dense population, for here and
there. at frequent intervals, even in
what are now sandy deserts, are found
groups OF ruins, the remains OF the
cities and temples and shrines built by
the conquerors OF the world. and there
stretch across many of its plains long
lines OF columns, huilt when the Ca
sars raled, marking the line of some
ancient aqueduct which brought water
TO the cities that have now crumbled
into dust. From the ports Of Morocco,
now filled with sand, went forth
carg es OF wheat, which kept quiet
the turbulent populace of Rome. From
Morocco came the best horses used on
the European post routes and in the
cavalry which hung on the wings of
the legion. Morocco was then no doubt
rich and prosperous, which Is
more than IL or its people have ever
been since. For n time, during the
Saracenic period, Morocco was seat
of learning and industry. There were
Moslem universities at Fez and Moroc-
co: there was an enormous trade in
leather the manufacture of which was
unknown outside of this corner of
Africa; there was an immense business
done in ivory and furs and gums and
slaves with the vast and. until lately,
unknown interior south of the Sahara.
Twice year caravans with thousands
of camels threaded their way through
the painless sand u the south, carry
ing to the Soudan what Morocco had
To sell, and bringing back what Moroc-
co wished 10 buy. Caravans of equal
size crossed the sahara toward Egypt,
starting eight or nine months before
the great festival at Mecca, and trad
ing their way slowly TO the Red Sea
and Mecca. These business expedi-
tlons, on the former scale Of greatness,
are now unknown, for, although the
caravans still move, they are merely
shadows of the hosts that formerly
went through the Sahara like con-
quering armies.
The change is due solely to depotism
and arbitrary taxation, and thus it is
that the cities OF Morocco are merely
crumbling aggrcgations of houses, the
streets filthy lanes which serve alike
"a passageways for the people and
sewers for all manner Of refuse from
the houses. The tales o travellers who
return from Morocco disagree in many
particulars as TO the people and their
ways, but in regard TO the vileness of
the smells emanatipg from a street in
Tangier or any other city in Morocco,
there is practical unity. The wonder
is that plague, cholera, yellow fever,
smallpox and few other vile diseases
are not epidemic all the year around,