The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-06-13
AFRICANS AT HOME,
IN ALGIERS-MOORIS AND ARA-
 ELAN INTERIORS.
What to Eat and How to Eat 1t a Ia
 Afr3cane.

mus Ward who laid down the axiom
 When you are in Turkey, do as the
 Turkeys do;" and-at least in the spir-
 1t of it-there was never a truer one
 for the guidance of globe-trotters
 Those who stick to the small colonies
 of their own race wherever found, de-
 manding the food and habits of home
 hiss half the delights of travelling in
 foreign lands. It is far better to adapt
 oneself to the ways of the people one
 happens to be with, to eat and sleep
 and live as they do-to be one of them,
 as far as possible; and if the life
 seems rude and hard, to console oneself
 with the thought that if whole nations
 exist in that fashion from the cradle
 to the grave one can afford to endure
 it short time and then, by contrast,
 to doubly appreciate the comforts of
 home when returned to them. Ger
 tainly that is the only way to get the
 best out of Africa. In now thoroughly
 cosmopolitan Algiers you may live ex-
 actly as you lke-and as Frenchy as in
 Paris, as German as in Berlin, as
 English as in London, as Yankee as
 in Boston--there being flourishing col
 onies of every civilized nation, each
 with it's distinctive hotels, clubs and
 cafes. For my own party, we act all
 ways on the principle that one does not
 go far to find what may be seen every
 day at home; and therefore we confine
 ourselves religiously to the character
 istic things of the countries we are vis-
 iting. In pursuance of this plan we
 Twin n ba orr
 Arab quarter of Algiers, in the great,
 cool, shadowy inn which was once the
 palace of the Sultan Abou-Tachfin,
 with it's richly-carved horseshoe arch
 es, it's glazed encaustic tiles, slender
 columns of yellow marble and doors of
 cedar wood, wrought with arabesque
 devices-all dimned by time, but mar velously beautiful. Its inner court,
 open overhead to the glowing African SKY, is encirqles by graceful arcades, supporting a gallery above into which all the chambers open. The court be-
 low with it's murmuring fountain in
 the middle, its waving palms and rare exotic plants, was doubtless the resort of the harem in the old days and the whole scene forceably recalls the poets picture:
 "The carven cedarn doors,
 Flung inward over spangled floors,
 Broad bosed flights of marble stairs
 Ran up with golden balustrade.
 The solemn palms were ranged
 Unmoved of summer wind.
 A lovely time,
 For it was in the golden prime
 Of good Haroun Alraschid."
 I venture to assert that few Ameri- cans have ever seen the inside of this house, much less lived in it. Yet is is open to all, like any other inn, and it's charges are about one- third those of the glaring, common place crowded sostelries of the Lower Town. Here there is plenty of clean, cool, tranquil space and life goes on sleepily, like q page out of the Arabian Nights En- tertainments." If you desire attend ance, you step into the corridor and clap your hands softly together; pres ently there shuff1es along a sandalled follower of Mahammed, enveloped from head to foot in flowing white, like stage ghost, who salaams till his nose almost touches the marble floor to re- ceive your order for mug of water. To be sure, the coveted drink may not l arrive for an hour or two, and when it l does will be luke warm but it comes | in copper jug, brought from the moss grown fountain under the shadow of | the minaret, on the shoulders of the draped gure, which salaams again in | dignif1ed silence and then assumes an | attitude which might serve as the mod el for statue of Junius Brutus. No apology for tardiness need be expected here where such a thing as haste or promptitude. was never heard of! The patrons of the place are Moors and Arabs, their dark faces and black boards accentuated by the white ber- mouse; with an occasional turbaned Turk, and Jewish merchant from the interior, come down to the port to trade. The latter though less pictur- esquely costumed than the Moslems, are yet spectacular objects, worthy of attention in the dress of their class the chechi and gray-blue jacket with silver buttons, embroidered vest. crim- son sash and full trousers There are women in the house, many of them no numerous wives of the merchants aforesaid but they remain secluded behind the latticed doors and gauge curtains, which admit the air and permit those behind to look out freely, while themselves completely hidden. You catch never a glimpse of them, except at morning and evening, when yelled figures glide to and from the adjacent mosque, like white domi- noes in masquerade, each closely fol- ; lowed by a stalwart negress, who in , this twentieth century fills the place of , the eunuch of Ali Baba's day. The adjar, or veil, which covers the face of every Moslem woman, is so disposed Z hat one dark eye flashes out; and the ( shining lamp is always turned upon the oreigner with unmistakable expression s If interest and curiosity. ( Of course, if you are of "the femi- ( line persuasion" you must eat in the I privacy of your apartment, served by j he silent Junius Brutus in voluminous l lrapery, who appears to enjoy a peace V ul snooze between each of the fifteen y F sixteen courses. Most of the menu l 8 an unguessable conundrum, and a .nives and forks are conspicuous by q heir absence, Cunless you have had the t orethought to include them in your '' wn stores), because those superfluous " implements do not figure in the Arab t An enormous water-1ar of r