The Republican journal., 1901-08-29

Turks and Moors. Those who have been
longest in the service, and therefore I'M
derstand the people best, take every
means to enhance their fancied import
ance, for their personal safety. In these
parts, nothing adds to mans dignity
so much as display; so the wise consul
hoists the biggest kind of an ensign and
brilliantly painted coat of arms, and
hires few Moors to wear fine clothes
at the gate. Each foreign consul in
Tripoli is provided with january, or
sort of Mayor Domo-a stately Moor,
in jacket of crimson and gold embroid-
cry, white kilt, red shoes, long tasseled
tarbouche, and a jeweled scimiter at
his girdle. And this is the magnificent
| individual who acts as your escort about
town, whenever the consul is too busy
to accompany you. To him all gates
are open except those of the mosque);
sentinels give the military salute as he
passes; and when you arrive at the door
over which the American eagle spreads
its wings, the several hireling Moors,
squatted on their mats at the entrance,
arise and solemnly kiss their hands,
pointing the way into the marble paved
court yard, which might be made into a
miniature Alhambra.
Both the consul and his january &C
companied us on visit to the Castle of
| the Pasha-a formidable stronghold,
scared with innumerable siegeS, the
old gray walls of whose outer defences
have been in ruins since the last can
nonading. 1t was in this castle that the
American Captain cambridge and his
officers passed much of their wearisome
captivity and narrowly escaped death
from the weapons of their friends. We
were shown the room in which Captain
cambridge lay asleep when ball from
one of the American gunboats came
crashing into the chamber, and rebound
ing from the opposite wall fell within
six inches of the prisoners head cover
ing him with stones and mortar, from
which his officers lifted him stunned
and bleeding The old castle has many
memories that stir American hearts
with recollections of gallant deeds per-
formed under its walls by Decatur,
Morris, Somers and others. "Childe
Harold too, is dimly mixed up in ones
mind with the siege of the old corsair
city-but a ship in mid-ocean is not the
best place in which to unravel an his
torical tangle.
We passed many sentinels presenting
arms, and wound through dark, sub
terranean passage way in which, it is
said, thousands Of victims have been
strangled by minions of the Dey, in
obedience to a private signal given by
| that pOtentate as he dismissed his I'M
suspecting auditors. Those times are
long gone by, and though the most
peaceable of ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS now
rules in place of the Turk, murder
seems yet to linger in those shadowy
corridors. Nowadays it is the native
fashion in Tripoli to assist the shutting
off of ones enemies by means of poison
in the hospitable coffee 1t is related
that the last Pasha, too progressive for
the bowstring of his ancestors, thus
made way with an incredible number of
offending subjects. He almost met his
match in turbulent chief of the desert,
who had caused deal of trouble. The
4 cho a6 hin, 70
friendly interview and loaded him
with honor. Finally coffee was served;
but the desert chieftain affected ignor-
ance of the beverage and pretended to
believe that it was perfumery, with
which he proceeded to anoint his beard
and hands. Exulting in his narrow
escape, he salaamed himself out of his
presence so hurriedly that he failed to
observe the private signal for the bow
string, and found himself strangled
within a foot of the doorway
The finest treat we have had in
Tripoli was a dash into the great Liby-
an desert. Arab horses were provided,
caparisoned with leopard skins, high
peaked saddles gay with red cloth. gold
embroidery and tassels that trailed to
the ground. Our route lay through tie
bazaars, crowded in the early morning
with the strangest aggregation of hui
manity l have ever seen; past the old
slave-market, where in former DAYS
Americans were sold to fate worse
than death; and through the gate, Sock
th-Thelath, to the fruit-market outside
the city walls. The greatest things in
Tripoli, for size, are the watermelons.
which are said to sometimes attain the
weight of hundred pounds. Then we