The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-08-14

consular dragomans in the Levant, and glowing with gold braiding. The chief sumptuary distinction between them and the princes was the long thick golden tas- sel ornamenting the fez of each of the latter. Apropos of the fez, a funny prin- ter's mistake caught my eye in reading a descriptive report of the Beys visit. Son Altesse, en saluant porte sa main son nez." The reporter would have written Porte sa main a son fez." Only the difference of one letter, still
 Bey an Early Riser.
 The Bey is an early riser. His petit deiuner is simply a glass of cold water, filtered by porous jar of coarse pottery. sons take cafe au lait, or chocolate with thin toast or those porous rolls known here as flutes. The three lunched and dined out every day, and ate sparingly. Sidi Mohamed el Hadji is strilangly tall, has a healthy, florid complexion, an up- right carriage, and a we'll -braeed air. The eyes, black, bright, and watchful, and the cut of his features are those of a Corsican peasant. His short stubby beard, black at the roots and white at the end, Is cut round and not imposing He is the husband of but one wife, which he says Is in conformity with the prophets teaching. The Koran allows plurality of wives on one condition-that of absolute justice to all and no prefer ence for any one in particular. Sdi Mo- named used to be as much the boule- vardier as King Edward, and speaks French like Parisian. He takes pride in Corsican ancestress. Her patronymic was Ramolino which may or may not | indicate relationship to the mother of Ma l CAtr. al.. entered the harem of 1 forget what Bey of Tunis from the slave market, and be- coming the mother of his only son, be- 1 came the lawful wife. She lost her hus- | band early. His successor, a poor fool, | allowed her to reign in his name, and she | continued, when he died to reign through her son and with marked ability She | fostered movement to detach Tunis from the Turkish empire, and contended | that the sultan had no right there to l temporal power.
 The Bey spends four months every year I at Tunis and eight at grave, sombre l Carthage. He takes passionate inter | est in the ruins, and never tires of study ing history in connection with them. Sd Mohamed is perhaps the only Moslem prince who has shed tears over the lamen- tations of Dido, as given in Latin verse l by Virgil. He encourages by every means those antiquarians who seek to lay bare the foundations of the city which Rome | feared as rival. In his mind, Car thage was the finest achievement of the Semitic race. As the dead never wholly die, who can say that the archaeoogists now digging among the ruins may not set her on her feet again? There would be no modern Athens but for the Aero polls. The new birth of Italy is due to the historical studies that followed the discovery of the buried cities on the flank | of Vesuvius.
 l The Bey sometimes uses Oriental figures Of speech. Thus he speaks of having seen a huge being rising from an immemorial sleep, and dazed to see peoples, of whom l Carthage knew nothing when the long slumber began, now masters of the blue sea In front and the vast continent be- 1 hind. The time for them to lie down and sleep perhaps draws nigh What Is Paris compared to majestic Cartnageg A lively, l frivolous fiirt!
 Has Large Fortune.
 His highness has a large fortune be- siaes ms civil list annuity. He looks care Iuily 70 the development of his estates ms horse farms. and vineyards, and to ms royalty on the fisheries of the Bay or Bizerta- They are so considerable, since the French took them over, as to pay all expenses Incurred in deepening the pay ana turning 1t into a military port heo muiiet' tunny, and other Mediterranean fish are drawn there in shoals all the year round. The attraction Is the superior warmth of the water. net has only to De thrown to be at once filled, A line