The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-06-29
A RAILROAD IN AFRICA
FOUR HUNDRED MILES TO TIE
 PROVINCE OF GRAN,
Astonishing Modernization of North ern Africa.
Especial Correspondence of the Journal
 and Courier)

Especial Correspondence of the Journal
 and Courier)
 Tlemcen, Africa, May 23.-From AL giers to Oran the distance by railroad is about four hundred miles in a southwesterly direction. You start from the coaches-lately built in Eng land-which are at first such surprise to the traveller, who came to Africa prepared to trough it. and would find it easier to reconcile himself to the < camel transit of the Bedouins than modern luxuries in this far country. The railway system of Algeria has made astonishing progress during re- cent years. It is the aim of the admin istration to have a great central line all the way from Tunis to Morocco, passing through the most important points in the interior, with svarious subsidiary lines joining this with the sea, A good deal of it is already com pleted, and the time is not distant when one may travel all over northern Africa in as comfortable and common place fashion as anywhere in the Uni ted States. To lovers of the adventuf- ous this is a disappointment rather than an improvement-like the modern hotels that have usurped the Wlld camps of the Yosemite, the Garden or the Gods and the Grand Canon of the Colorado. and the railways that now other of natures inner sanctuar1es desecrate the Heart of the Andes and Soon the poor globe-trotter, in hls quest for a novelty, will find himself in the hard luck of Noah's dove when first sent out to discover dry land, and Will return sadly to his ark without the typical olive branch.
 First the train passes slowly through Agha, the manufacturing suburb or Algiers. where are shops and works Of every variety, carriage and cart z manufactories, corn and saw mllls' iron works, gas works, potterles, the new female prison and the old Laza- retto-a very inferno of heat, smoke and hubbub which you gladly leave behind. Then, running close to shore, vou raise the window of your compart- Y ment enjoy the soft breezes and gen. tle ripling of the Mediterranean There is no dashing surf along this coast, but the great inland sea, IS trah- quil as a frog pond, with little rlse anu fall of the tide. At Hussela Dey-so- called from palace which belonged to the last Dey of Algiers, but is now Tn corporated in the great government es- tablishment for the purchase ana sale of tobacco-you enter reglon or mar ket-gardens. and might almost fancy yourself in the suburbs Of Boston or Chicago. A little farther on haVlng passed the junction with the llne to Constantine, the road makes an abrupt t,,rn to the west, following bend or the Harrach river, and enters the Iar- famed Metidja This is a vast fertlle plain. a hundred kilometers long oy +wentv-fiye broad, lying between the high lands of the Sahel and the toot hills of the Atlas mountains. It IS salo that fully thirty thousand Europeans mostly small farmers, are now settieo in the Metidja, and the number IS con- stantly increasing. Several plctui esuue villages are passed-Bou Farlk sidi- Moussa. Rouigo and Aumale Ii lime permits it is well to break your io,1rnev for twenty-four hours by a ston at Rouigo, in order to visit the hot hs of Hammam Belouan The Vll- Iaee is beautifully situated on the first s1ones of the Atlas, at the point where the deep, wide Harrach entres the n1ain The stage road winds through deughtful mountain scenery, the sides of the ravine covered Wllh pines thuyas and olives, and the rlNei fringed with fragrant oleanders. 1he baths, which are in high repute all oVel Europe because of their healing quail lies in rheumatic and cutaneous afFec' tions-are situated in an open part ol the valley, in the midst of many acres of park-lilze land, with fine old olive and lentisk trees, which form an idea canning ground We found it full O. tents, and they tell us that rom ths middle of May to the end of Octopel hundreds of Jews and Europeans af' encamped here. The guardian or th' nlace says that he takes in an average of seven hundred francs a month II fees from the baths. and as the chars is only five centimes bath, It folloW that fourteen thousand are taken uui ing that time. No doubt there Woul' he many more were there better ac communications. As rule, passing travellers cannot command camplnE outfits. and the one little inn contains on1v three wretched bedrooms. Ther are two principal springs, one of Whicl flows through a rude bath in the an cient Arab Koubba of Si Sullman ant the other is in wooden hut behind tn auherge. Both are dirty and ill-care' for; and being only seven feet by toul r. is d;fficult to understand how tn large number of visitors who frequen +hem can be accommodated. It IS m private opinion that more diseases ar exchanged and carried away than ar c,,rad Yet there is no doubt that tn waters themselves have remarkapl healing qualities. Hamman Meloua' means "colored water" and the nam ,s darived from the red deposito of
 small quantity of iron in solution. Tn water has a temperature Of one nun dred and three degrees Fahrenheit, an contains a large proportion of salln matter. Were it properly managed an all the sources collected into one de cent bathing place, six hundred bath a day might be available. Here, un doubtedly, is a golden opportunity 10 some rheumatic foreigner, not only [ get rid of his physical ills, but to bene fit the world and make a fortune a the same time.
 rhe town of Roufarik, forty mile from Algiers, near the iron mines Soumah, has perhaps four thousand IT habitants. At the time of the F'renc