The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-12-02

City of Morocco, Oct. F, 1901
 Though Mediterranean guide books
 advise the tourist to keep away from
 thls part of the Sultan'S empire and as-
 sure him that there are no sights
 worth visiting in the southern capital
 we lind it the most interesting of cities
 It Is the strange life, customs and cos
 tunes that absorb us; the swarthy peo-
 Die, toJours en neglige-the Bluebeards
 Ala Babas, Forty Thieves, Grand
 V1zars astride barrel-bodied mules | Wise Men of the East from across the ! desert on their camelS and other de- :. lghtful characters of childhoods ac- ! quaintance, constantly met in it's dirty 1 streets; the mediaeval atmosphere of
 this land of repose, where tax-gatherer
 and robber are synonomous terms and
 the executioners hand never forgets it's
 cunning from lack of practice-all in
 the greatest possible contrast to the 1 happy and confident life of our infant republic. Universal dread and distrust every man of his neighbor, and all of | the cruel Sultan, with his minions of the bow string and bastinado, his prizonS and tortures-oVershad ev- erything and explains why there are no social frivolities in Morocco. Cairo
 may have it's races, balls, Italian opera
 and English soldier polo games; Con- stantinople its French bouffe cafes chantant and masque balls; even Jeru- salem, the Fallen its lively foreign col
 ony; but here, in the dawn of the Twen-
 tieth Century, men exist merely as
 travellers from the distant past en route
 to the life hereafter, concerning them
 selves little with the things of to-day.
 To Moor and Arab, death means happy
 release from the pain and sorrow of
 the present. and their daily prayer is
 Allah great! Allah bountiful Give
 us patience to endure till thou deemest
 us worthy to behold tn light of thy countenance."
 Nobody with eyes in his head and the remotest spark of appreciation of the
 picturesque in his soul, can fail to be charmed with the ever-varying pan orama of these crowded alleys; and as there is really nothing to keep one with in the dark, damp, bare and chilly houses, it is best to send all ones walk ing hours out in the sunshine. To be sure, while wandering about in search of local color one encounters a good deal more of local oder than is agree able, together with some danger of dis ease-not to mention other possible period, such as Mohammedan fanatics with their thin, curved knives and the long, lean; murderous fingers of crazy Santos" who consider 1t pious duty to strangle dogs of unbelievers." Ev- erything that in civilized communities is carted away and somehow disposed qf by the garbage-man, is here left to rot in the streets, including not only lsitch- en offal, but dead canines and felines, mules, ct eetera, to become an abomina- tion in the nostrils of the living Yet the reeking masses of fostering decay are not an nmitigated nuisance for at least they attract the myriads of big black flies, which would otherwise make life unbearable for human beings
 Begging is a rarity in Morocco, as compared with the wholesale manner in which that industry is conducted on the haps because Allah's poor scorned to be helped by Christian dogs, as all for eigners are impolitely styled. Though not so numerous and importunate as their fellows in Spain, these African mendicants are none the less a pest. They have an offensive habit of clutch ing your garments, or grabbing your arm, and holding on like grim death, thrusting their dirty faces within an inch of your own and de- rather than requesting aims It is not so much the aggressive famil- | arity that one resents as the foul | breath in such close proximity and the | hands which, mani | festly, have never made the acquaint- ance of soap and water. These beg gars exhibit the most nauseating sores | IS their stock in trade, or horrible de- (aften purposely inf cted by heir parents. we are told, in order to set them up in business); or deep, red holes in their faces, where once were eyes-burned out, according to law, in expiation of some crime After observ- ng the unusual number of sealy lepers with which Morocco is infested-all minus more or less of their limbs and eatures, you chun the arm grabbers ike a veritable pestilence. Meroccans ;eem to have no fear of leprosy, and sufferers from that most loathsome of diseases have perfect freedom of all public places.
 Another ever-present menace to the tranger's safety in Morocco are the santos, or Mohammedan lunatics, who ange at will indulging their wild fan ies to the fullest extent From what l yer cause a man may have lost his wits, he is thenceforth held in highest everence by the Moors, who believe hat Allah has withdrawn the especial y-beloved soul to be with him in para ise, leaving the body behind as token f his power. Think of turning all the una tics of the United States loose upon he country and allowing them to do xactly as they like! Here the crazy ut t-number those of our country, ten Q one in proportion to the population aving become mentally unbalanced by heir hard lives, the scorching sun, the cruel punishments for non l ayment of taxes or long terms in pris- { n. Any citizen of Morocco who has $ aved a few dollars is subject to incar- . eration without the pretense of trial, ! lerely because somebody higher in au- f lority wants his money; and if he has I ot laid by something for the tax-gath- ( Ter, his fate is both person and bas- Y nadoing. No prisons on the face of I ne earth are so dreadful as these I Iany of them are shadow holes, like s