The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-08-22

duNIStu not to VlSlI WllnOul all eade
 quate escort-for there Is no telling what the fanaticism of those pious frauds might lead them to do,
 Consuls are important personages in Mediterranean ports, especially among Turks and Moors. Those who have been longest in the service and there fore understand the people best, take every means to enhance their fancied importance, for their personal safety
 In these parts nothing adds to man dignity so much as display; so the wise consuls hoists the biggest kind ot an ensign and brilliantly painted coat of arms, and hires a few Moors to wear fine clothes at the gate. Each foreign consul in Tripoli is provided with a janizary, or sort of Mayor Domo-a stately Moor, in jacket of crimson and gold embroidery, white kilt, red shoes
 long tasseled tarbouche, and a jeweled scinite 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 it's 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 janizary &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 half in ruins since the last cannonading. It was in this castle that the American Captain Bainbridge and his officers passed much of their weari- some cavity and narrowly escaped death from the weapons of their friends. We were shown the room in which Captain Bainbridge lay asleep, when ball from one of the American gunboats came crashing into the cham Der and, rebounding from the opposite wall fell within six inches of the pris- oner's head, covering him with stones and mortar, from which his officers lifted him. stunned and bleeding. This old castle has many memories that stir American hearts, with recollections of gallant deeds performed under its walls by Decatur, Morris, Somers and others. Child 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 historical tangle.
 We passed manly sentinels presenting arms and wound through a dim, sub terranean passage-way, in which, it is said, thousands of victims have been strangled by minions of the Dey, in obedience to private signal given by that potentate as he dismissed his un- suspecting auditors. Those times are long gone by, and though the most peaceable of Governors General now rules in place of the Turk, murder seems yet to finger in those shadowy corridors. Now days it is the native fashion in Tripol to assist the snuff fling off of ones enemies by means of poison in the hospitabe coffee. It is related that the last Pasha, too pro- gressive for the bow-string of his an- cestors, thus made way with an incred- ible number of offending subjects. He almost met his death match in a tur- bulent chief of the desert. who had caused a deal of trouble. The Pasha summoned him to the castle for a friendly interview and loaded him with honor. Finally coffee was served; but the desert cfieftaiH affected ignorance of the beverage and pretended to be- lieve that it was perfumery, with which he proceeded to anoint his beard and hands. Exulting in his narrow es- cape, he salaamed himself out of the presence so hurriedly that he failed to observe the private signal for the bow string, and found himself strangled within foot of the doorway.
 The finest treat" we have had in Tripoli was dash into the great Libyan desert Arab horses were pro- vided, capa.risoned with leopard-skins, high peaked saddles gay with red cloth. gold embroidery and tassels that trailed to the ground. Our route lay through the bazaars,, crowded in the early morning with the strangest aggrega- tion of humanity have ever seen; past the old slave-marked, where in former days Americans were sold to a fate worse than death; and through the gate Sock eth-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 a hun dre pounds Then we had a glorious gallop on the hard and curving brach, turning at length into a highly culti- vated country, fourishing in gardens and orchards, with all the picturesque vegetation of the East. After an hours easy amble, we emerged from a wide grove of date-palms, into the most sudden transforma ton scene 1t is pos sible to conceive. Before us stretched the great grey desert, far as the eye could see, the pleasant road we had traverscd being instantly lost in it's waves, like a path to the shore of the ocean A caravan of camels which had just arrived from a voyage across the Sahara, left no trace of their route, nor track of foot prints behind, for the lightest breath of air at once obliter- ates every vestage of pathway. Like ancient mariners of the ocean, travellers on that sea of sand must look to the sun and stars for guide
 Built on the verge of the desert is small Marabout mosque, its tiny dome and slender minaret being the first ob- jact to greet the returning caravan, and the last to bid farewell to the out- ward bound. In it the faithful Mussul- man makes his prayers to Allan before setting out on the long journey; and I.l- 14 E.. I.N,.