The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-08-24

likes not. Neither does he fancy Jews
 or any other people, but Mohamme-
 dans. 1T he catches a Christian or a | Jew in his domains he demands that
 they immediately embrace the faith of
 Islam He boasts that through his in-
 strumentality one Jew and five Chris
 tlans who were caught strayng in the
 desert places over which he rules have
 been led to become followers of the
 prophet. In truth, Johar has a con-
 vincing way with a stranger whose
 conversion he seeks, His arguments
 are simple but so effective! They
 would rejoice the heart of the eminent
 theologian who gave the defeated Sax
 ons the choice of being baptized in the
 river Weser or being drowned in it.
 Slaves wives, groves of dates palms and
 other good things are offered in this
 world, with the alluring promise of an
 unlimited supply of houris and lemon
 ade in the next, to the traveller who em- braces Mohammedanism To him who
 refuses is promised a sudden and dis
 agreeable death. Verify, Johar is
 poverty reasoner when he talks theoo-
 gy, and is justly proud of his accom-
 plishments in that line.
 !. In all Northern Arabia there is no | town like Jowf and no prince like
 Johar. No less than seven caravan routes meet in the city, and at some
 distance from the town some of these
 routes branch off into different ways,
 so that from the Red sea coast and
 the coast of the Persian gulf, from
 Persia, from Palestine and from the native kingdoms which lie hidden in
 the unknown interior of the Arabia peninsula, long trains of camels are
 constantly coming and going, bringing to JoWf grain, cloths and avariety of
 manufactured articles, and taking away
 Tn return great loads of dates.
 From the region round about Jowf
 and the other oases over which the rule
 or the Prince of the Desert extends are
 optalned dates of remarkable quality
 and date raising is the chief industry
 or the subjects of black Johar Now
 that the United States government is
 introducing the cultivation of the date palm into this country, it is not unlike
 " that an attempt will be made by
 some of the Agricultural explorers" to obtain cuttings from the Jowf trees. In fact, it is rumored that an American
 has already visited the city of the Prince of the Desert and got away again scot free. It may be that he was spying out the land and brought away with some date cultivations of the won derful trees which grow for miles around the capital city of Johar. If Uncle Sam really wants samples of the date palms which wave by the walls of the castle of the Prince of the Desert he is going to get them. Johar and his | theological arguments notwithstanding. |
 It cannot be said that the Prince of | the Desert keeps his people outside the towns in very good order; for all over the desert roam bands of robbers who prey upon chance travellers, or, if they are in force enough, will attack a cara van and try to run off one of the laden camels. In some of the oases are pas ture lands where sheep are raised and temmin, ca coarse cereal, is grown. Camels abound, and are used for food as well as for beasts of burden and for saddle beasts.
 From the region to the south of Johars domains come splendid horses of the finest breeds of Arabia What the Prince of the Desert wants of the products outside civilization he can get in plenty by means of the caravans: of the civilization itself he desires no part Yet he is getting uneasy, and the are bringing more and more arms and powder and shot to the date groves of Jowf Prince Johar's author ty extends over region about as big in area as the state of Texas and New , York combined No one knows the oIa, of ot t,a |, prince himself, for such thing IS i census never was heard of in those , ands of desert sands in which the oases , ie like fertile islands in yellow sea
 The sultan would like to have Johar | 'ecive into Jowf a garrison of Turkish S roops; and Turkish agents have told , he black monarch now nice it would f )e for him to have the soldiers of C oadisha to protect him and keep the | routes free of rowing robbers. f But what cares Johar, Prince of the + Desert, for the sultan at Stamboul? As Ii o the rowing bands of armed robbers . IS they prey upon the caravans when n hey come into the country and not l. when they go out, everything they steal h s so much clear gain to the nation, for ., he subjects of Johar do not have to : ives dates in return for the goods thus {. aken. and the losses of the traders V nay be taken as a sort of tax they F ave to pay for the privilege of doing usiness in Johar's domains. With his wives and his castle, his n unlimited power and great wealth in h amels and date groves, Johar, the n lack, is quite content to let things re- h lain as they are, and has given fair f, that any attempt of Turkey to o lterfere with him and his ways will be TT 0llowed by a war which will close ev- z. ry caravan route in Northern Arabia, ., hereby not only shutting off the prof "a ble trade in dates which is now car " fed on between various parts of Fur '' ey and the desert, but also depriving II, alestine of it's supply of salt. For on ei :. le borders of Johar's realm lie the Il alt wells from which nearly all Pales- o' ne and Syria gets it's supply of that II ecessary article. To those wells jour III ey great caravans, sometimes con- ss sting of more than a thousand cam SC S, attended by couple of hundred W rmed men as escort They carry wheat the wells, where it is exchanged for W salt obtained by pouring water from - le strongly impregnated saline wells ito hollows in the ground, where it T' +oc fon hI1rp tnor