The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-03-17
By Frank G. Carpenter
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women with sheets Of white linen fast ened so tightly over their faces that they seem to be pasted on, go along in slip pers in their Noluminous brooches. The city Is all up hill and the most of the streets consist of staircases which climb from level to level.
 The shops are in striking contrast with those of the Rue Bab-Azoun On each side of Us are more holes fin the walls in which somber Arabs sit surrounded by goods or work away at their trades. Here Is q shoemaker with four helpers in q hox-like cell not more than eight feet square; just above is a carpenter in a space hardly big enough for his bench and farther on are men in similar quar- ters, making jewelry of horns, using their toes as We use our fingers
 How strange the crowd looks! There are bare-legged Biskris, who have como here from the desert to act as porters, carrying great loads on their backs. There are Kabyles with turbans and big hats in from the farms and there arc many fat Mozabites. the Jews of the Sa- h. !, who have come Here to make for unes by trading with the Christians and Arabs. Now and then a native soldier makes his way through the crowd and a Jewish woman, unveiled. waddles along. climbing from level to level. Indeed old Algiers is the same 1t has been from century to century far back Into the time of the deys. when these Christian slaves and their piratcal bands were the terror of Europe. The scenes here are those of the Scriptures. We pass d man who might be an Abraham or an Isaac at every few steps, and are crowded against the wall by others who remind us of the forty thieves. The pious Mohammedan Is also in evidence. Turbaned men arc pray ng in business hours and merchants are to be seen reading their Koran In their shops between sales.
 Where the Dey Ruled.
 Through scenes like tlas we climbed up to the citadel. which was both the pal ace and the fortiaeatlon of the deys of the past. This rises high over the rest of the town. and is now occupied by French troops. There are soldiers at the gates, and we are watched by them as we pass through.
 The citadel is surrounded by walls, with great portholea, through which were thrust two hundred guns. commanding the city and harbor There is one build- Ing which the dey devoted to his harem and in which he kept his numerous wives. Another was his mosque. which has been turned into a French church; and third Is a tower which was built right over the entrance gate Upon it the heads of Christians and criminals. who were be- headed according to orders from tha court above. were strung. 1 am told that the heads were usually shown for twen- ty-four hours, and were then taken down and given to the Mohammedan soldiers for foot balls.
 Costly Blow With Fan.
 Such were the antics these Moslems were cutting before high heaven when John Quincy Adams was President of the United States. They did not monkey" with the Yankees however. for Commo- dore Decatur had taught them better. Nevertheless they were still bulldozing Europe and preying upon the shipping of the Mediterranean sea. They sli.yed and murdered Christians. and in- suited the powers when they objected. One morning. along late in the twentles, the dey held an interview with the French consul, during which he feel ing especially bad. He may have been having trouble with his numerous wives; his breakfast may not have agreed with hin.. o1 he may have been dissatisfied with the number of Christian heads hung upon the chain below his Judgment seat At any rate he grew angry during the interview and struck the French consul in the face with his fan. The blow was not heavy, but 1t cost him his Kingdom. France immediately declared war. It conquered the army of the dey, and since then Algera has been a dependency of France.