The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-06-01

showing their teeth like savage dogs,
 when irritated by jostling crowds; sol
 diers off duty, sauntering about in gau-
 dy uniforms; French gentlemen of leis-
 ure in their absurd morning costumes; English tourists, cool clean and indif-
 ferent; Germans, Italians, Spaniards, Maltese, all jabbering their native odi- oma; and many other representatives of
 diverse tribes and nations, each widely
 separated from all the others in habits,
 religion and modes of thought. The
 streets of Algiers are always packed
 with a moving panorama of absorbing interest, especially in the early morn-
 ings, when buyers and sellers aye in full
 activity around the markets and ba-
 zais. q little later in the vicinity of
 mosques and synagogues, and at noon-
 day by the fountains where the natives
 come to refresh themselves when the
 fervid sun has driven Europeans to the
 shelter of their houses. As everybody | knows, Algiers has belonged to France
 about seventy years, after centuries of | government by long succession of Turkish days. Built in amphitheatrical
 fashion, the slopes of the Sahal, as the
 chain of halls is called that follows the
 coast for a considerable distance-the ] first view of it from the sea is most i'm posing. It locks from distance like series of dazzling terraces, rising
 straight up out of the water in the
 form of Q triangle, whose apex is Cas-
 bah, the ancient fortress of the days, Atyo h,,p oho Io hor
 The houses are all of snowy stone, square and massive. with plain facades; and standing one above another, ondi
 minisning terraces, the outline of the white city has been aptly compared to
 that of ship under sail. It's dazzling
 Whiteness, contrasted with the dense
 greenery surrounding it explains the
 Arab saying that "Al-Jezair is dia-
 mond set in emeralds." The shores of the bright blue bay in form are dotted with elegant French villas, Moorish pal aces and suburban hamlets, amid the richest verdure; and beyond, the green plain of Metide slopes gradually up
 ward to the distant Atlas mountains, whose snowy summits form a magnifi cent background to one of the lovelest pictures on the borders of the Mediter- ranean. The particular hill of the Sa- hal chain on which Algiers is built. is five hundred feet high, and named Mount Banjarin, the ancient citadel on top dominating all the surrounding re- gion Naturally the town is divided into two parts, as distinct as if they lay on opposite sides of the world--the low CT and newer part being essentially French; the upper Moorish as in the days of its builder. the desert chieftain. The whole is enclosed wit hin an em- battled wall thirty feet high and twelve feet thick, the extraordinary of which is further increased by four great castles and casemented batteries The wall is pierced by five gateways, two on the seaward side, two on the landward and the other leading up to the citadel.
 At first glance one pays no attention to the European port, but sees only the Moorish capital above it, wAh it's me- liaeval castle, it's slender minarets and picturesque towers, and it's square-built, prison-like houses, in which occasional sits, protected by iron railings, do duty for windows. It is known as the 'Marabout" quarter, and nobody lives n it but Moors and Arabs. The streets Ire narrow, winding and inconeeivea- ply dirty; but they have one advantage .. lbove the wider streets of the modern own--that of coolness, being always in shadow. Tn the evening all the native inhabitants repair to their flat roofs to njoy the sea -breezes; while "The In lddel,' as by them all Europeans are
 assed, promenade the sea-wall and | olonnades. To all outward appearance he people of the upper town live pre- q isely as they did in the time of the eys; except that now there are fewer faces of worship and the muezzin nb onger calls the faithful to prayer from l he minarets. When the French took he place Gin 1S3O), it had upwards of / undred mosques and marabouts. The alter are merely sanctuaries of the .rab saints, each a small domed struc- I. ure containing tomb, which is pro acted by a wooden grating, before 0 .hich Mahomet's true believers" pray. . he mosques are divided into two class s-djamas and mesjlds, which bear ! bout the same relation to each other ! s a cathedral to it's parochial churches. - .rly used for Mohammedan worship in here are now but four mosques regu- lgiers. These are all accessible to uropeans; but out of difference to the ,elings of those who own them, and ho prostrate themselves flat on the DOT during prayer, unbelievers should ! least remove their shoes before enter lg. To go in<shod would seem to the avout and serious minded Moors and rabs more of a dissertation than to us IT man to set in church with his hat