The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1898-02-23
A WoEBEeoNE COUNTRY.


Life I'm Algeria M an EnglIsh Writ@P
Describes II.
The Algerian question, says
writer in the London Times. is de-
pendent not upon men, but upon
simple physical phenomenon, ques-
ton of temperature, a matter with
which God alone can deal. If Algeria
were 2 degrees farther south or
10 degrees farther north, all would
be changed. Instead of a region,
which is neither European nor Co
lonial, we should have the most
marvellous country in the world. 1t
would beat Santo Domingo. Ceylon
and India, because, being at the very
doors of France, 48 hours from Paris
and so from Brussels and London, it
would be a suburb of Europe,
whittier $4,000, 900 or 10000, 600 of
emigrants would come to cultivate
coffee, indigo, vanilla, sugar, cotton,
pepper-in a word, all colonial prod
ucts. On the other hand, if il were
situated 10 degrees farther to the
north Algeria, whose virgin soil con-
tains mineral wealth at present in
capable of exploitation, would rival
Normandy, Auvergne, Beoune and
Picardy, az well as the plains of Bel
gium. 1t woult be the land flowing
with milk and honey of the Scrip
lures and would contain no longer a
population of 10000, 900 to $4,000,
900, but after so years one of 30
600, 900 or 100000 1t would be
come an empire-the African en-
pire.
But, as it is, what is the condition
of Algerian The sugar cane has no
sugar; it is inferior bamboo. The
coffee berry is empty. The cotton
is too short for spinning. The cocoa
palm is incapable of bearing fruit
The indigo plant comes to nothing.
The pineapple does not ripen. A
dollhouse is necessary for the va
nilla. Of spices we had better not
speak. There il nothing here to com
pare with Brazil or India. And for
European products it is still worse.
Corn becomes hard in the third year.
A mealy potato is a myth. Oxen
in the fourth generation dwindle
from 300 Kilograms weight to $50
pounds. Fowls are poor, fruit
wormy, even the banana being
pasty. True, there are few good
oranges, but the wine is harsh and
rough, the sugar of the grape not
being capable of being entirely con-
verted into alcohol and carbonic
acid. In short, there is rebuff all
along the line
The human race shares in this de
generation Rare are the children
of a third generation who do not
succumb to meningitis, tuberculosis
or affections of the spinal marrow.
What is to be dOnef How fight
against these conditions which affect
all living organisms, plants and ami
mals9 There is no remedy. Life
pardon the truism-is question of
temperature. Beyond or within GER
tain limits it is death. In cold re
gions or lands occupying bastard
zones every living thing is blasted,
and Algeria, in spite of its fascina-
tions. of its admirable sites and of
the fruitlessness of its soil, is sub
ject to this law of what / may call
"Dastardization. Everything there
is still born. put aside the burning
question of race, the hatred of which
is doubled by the scorn professed by
the MOhammedan for the Christian
dog. l insist solely on this brutal
fact, which has never been noted
that in Algeria it is always too cold
or too warm or not cold enough and
not warm enough, and that for this
reason the country is, as it were,
under an evil eye.