The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-07-13

men, at the rather unusual hour for dinner of 3 p. m. Before we had time
 to lift hand for knocking a servant
 evidently posted on the lookout-gave
 motive of the arrival and our host, with ! his wife and nine children, including an infant in arms, his sister and mother in-laW and nephew and nieces-came crowding forth to welcome us. We af- forwards learned that the old Jewish custom, descended from the days of Moses, calls the whole family without the door of the tent" to greet the com- ing guest. The lady of the house, who was strikingly handsome woman though dark of visage, obese of figure and far along in the forties-as well as her stately mother, had the good sense not to abandon her picturesque na- tional costume. She wore the formla,
 or velvet vest, buttoned tightly over her ample bosom; the gold-embroi-
 dered caftan; the Veden, or skirt of embossed silk; and the ghelibos or
 sleeves of transparent gauge, conceal
 ing yet revealing the too robust arms.
 Her shining hair, black as the ravens
 wing, but slightly threaded with gray.
 disappeared beneath the graceful folds
 Of the m m'harlna-a silken kerchief
 fringed with gold. Her girdle, of satin,
 gorgeously striped in crimson, purple
 and yellow, upheld a heavy golden
 chain, terminated gy jeweled perfume
 box. Her neck was clasped by a col
 lar of pearls; diamonds, rubies and em-
 eralds glittered in her ears, upon her
 wrists and fingers; slight tintinnam-
 bulation as she walked, gave hint of
 anklets, and her bare feet were thrust
 into gold-embroidered slippers of yell
 low kid The younger ladies of the family had all sacrificed more or less to the mode franchise, though each was rich in color and bejeweled beyond any
 thing l have eyer seen off the operatic stage. As for the men of the family they were Angerians, so far as regard ed the swelling trousers and vest of braided cloth; French citizens, so far as regarded the shirt and little velvet cap. Nowadays it is rare indeed that one meets in Tlemcen, or elsewhere in northern Africa, a Jew wholly attired in his national dress, free from hete~ rogeneous mixture.
 At first sight the house of our we'll to-do Hebrew friend seemed to differ vary little from the Mussulman "dar'' It had it's spacious cloisters, anked by columns and paved with glazed tiles. The central court--not unlike some rich Spanish interior, sparkled with jets of water thrown from a marble basin All the rooms were long and marrow; and by a pecu- liar architectural arrangement, on one side of each opened kind of alcove with raised flooring, on which was a cushioned divan. The Israelites are electric as well as conservative. While preserving their ancient customs, they have adopted many of the improvements and inventions of modern Paris; and so our host had a veritable salon in his upper story, fur nished in luxurious, though somewhat gaudy, European style. True, he frankly confessed that the parlor was never used, except once or twice a year, in entertaining European guests; but the pride, which the family obvi- ously took in their white elephant was pleasant to behold. There was a grand piano, a veritable Knabe of eb- lny WOod and among the music piled upon it l noticed La File de Madame Angot;" and-shades of MMoses pre- serve us! Sullivan's Pinaforei'
 Happily we were almost immediately rescued from this apartment of state, upon whose stiff English and German draperies and upholsterings of Italian satin-damask, Swiss orna- nents, French "what-nots'' and polyg- | anous knick-nacks, the owners thereof | looked with eyes even more unfamiliar than our own. The great dining room