The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1907-03-21
DIR. MORGAN ABROAD.
Writes Interesting Letter to His
Neighbor, Mr.. Malcolm

Jno. o. Malcolm is in receipt Of a
personal letter from his neighbor,
DR.. J. w. Morgan, who is now travel
ing in the East The letter will be
pleased to be able to publish the fol-
lowing extracts:
Tangiers, Morocco, Feb. 12.+This
morning we left our great ship, the
Moltke, at Gibraltar, and took
small steamer for this place, which
is thirty-four miles from Gibraltar
and on nice harbor on the coast of
Africa. OF all the strange places and
strange people | have ever seen, this
beats them all. 1t is hard for me to
realize that there are such people as
the Moors living here. From the
steamer the city looks beautiful;
houses all white, but when We land
ed we found the streets very narrow,
dirty and filthy, and full of donkeys
with great loads of sand, of bricks,
lumber and boxes, four or five times
as large as the donkey himself. The
people wear a light shirt or gown
which comes about to their knees,
have nothing on them except slip
per on the toes. About 100 of our
party came here and We all got on
donkeys to see the situation of the
city of about twenty-five thousand.
No tongue or pen can give half des-
scription of the people. Some places
the street was so narrow that | could
reach each wall of the buildings by
my right hand on one side and my
left on the other. A man walked be-
hind my donkey and urged him on.
The man would yell at the donkey to
get out of the way of another donkey
with a great pack of barrels of water
or boxes of sand or baskets of some
kind, and l had to hold on for dear
life to keep from being scraped from
my seat. | am very much like one
of our party said as we returned to
Gibraltar, that he would not have
missed seeing the city for thous-
and dollars, but he would not go back
again for a million.
A Most Beautiful Place.
At Funchal we saw the finest and
most beautiful spot on earth, almost
an ideal paradise, flowers on every
plant, fruit ripening, a clean city,
with grass growing all over the
streets for walking over it won't
kill it. Everybody rides in a sled
drawn by oxen, no buggies or wagons
on wheels here-the most pictur-
esque spot on earth. I want to 1--we
there and all who saw it say the
same. l had a grand trip in Spain
and was surprised to find such a
beautiful country as Il saw going
hundred miles from Cadiz to Seville.
found these cities very fine and in
teresting. At Gibraltar l went
through the galleries or tunnels in
the rocks and saw fort of two thou
sand cannon there. Six thousand
English soldiers are here all the time.
One of them went as my guide. Near
by traders of some kind. Strange
costumes are seen on every Street.
Many languages can be heard on the
streets and most of them can talk
little English. I was trying to take
a picture of the Moorish market and
my kodak went wrong and would
not open, and one Moor said to me,
"You box like you, no good" l
thought he was no good. We left Glib
raltar for Malaga, where we landed
and all went ashore and found a fine
city of 100000 people. Spanish cities
are all clean as far as l have seen.
Here / went to see the great bull
ring which seats 10000 people. Bull
fights do not take place till Easter. /
went in and saw the stalls where the
bulls are kept in darkness till they
are rushed out into the ring to fight.
They kill as many as thirty bulls in
day here, on many occasions. /
saw many of the bulls but no fight.
In the City of Algiers.
We will reach Algiers today. I did
not get my letter finished at Tangiers
and have written of these other
places since / saw Tangiers. All on
the ship are getting acquainted and
we are having a fine trip. The Medi-
terranean is little rough today
have not had any word from friends
since left New York. find ] can't
mail this letter till we get to Genoa.
Later. We are now at Algiers and
| find it beautiful The French people
control it. have not yet been ashore
here. ] find / can mail this letter
here, so 1t will go from Africa to
you. The weather has been quite
cold on the water, but when we are
ashore 1t seems spring like. All
through Spain cattle were eating
grass four to six inches high. and
garden truck" was fully ripe and
plentiful. No ice or frost ever forms
in Spain. where we were, and the
country looks about like June with
us. Men blowing and wheat high
enough TO hide a rabbit Flowers of
all kinds were given us and great ef-
forts were made to please the "Amer-
lean tourists" visiting their country.
Let me say greetings to all.
Very truly.
]. w. Morgan.