The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1907-03-16
In THE MEDITERRANEAN.
On Board S. S. "Arabic"
Epb "a. 1907,

On Board ,. >. AfaD1c
Feb. "a, 1907.
Dear Mirror: We are leading
strenuous life these days! Going
ashore every As hours to see the
sights OF some strange city.
When the nervous tension II
stretched to its utmost then re-
turning to the busy life on the
Arabic, you naturally ask "Whal
can you find to do on the shipF'
Here's q sample of one afternoon
Dinner at /. Then an hour OF
walking on deck or on steamer
chair; at 3 a meeting of the Trav-
eler's Club; at 4 musicale; din
ner at 6. At 8 q lecture on "Gib-
raltar and Algiers. I" At 9:3O
dance on Promenade Deck! And be-
twixt and between, reading, writing
letters, cards, and million other
things.
Yesterday We did Algiers. Our
first glimpse of Africa in the
morning was of this beautiful
city surrounded by mountains and
presenting a most attractive APP
pearance from the sea. The city
is built of cream colored stone.
The buildings are modern and large
and the city rises in terraces from
the sea to the mountains beyond.
This description is OF the modern
French city. The old Moorish
quarter behind the new city being
very different and very unique.
Here we first saw the veiled
women and the turbaned men. The
costume of these Eastern women is
very queer and almost indescrib-
able. She is wrapped in white en-
tirely, and wears large baggy
balloon like trousers that are SO
inflated that they look as if they
might have hoops inside. We had
3 hours drive around the city,
after which some of us sat i'll the
park and watched the motley
throng file by in cndless proc,
sion. Arabs from the desert in
burnous AMI turban. French >ol-
diers, English tourists, mo)ri,a wo-
men, Arab beggars and lastly
scores of curious interested Clark
tourists. And of course we bss:c:-
ed the shops. Clark 5 Grand Orien.
tai Shopping Expedition must an
nually delight the heart Of the
merchants in Europe, Asia Aid
Africa.
Hardly any two Of us saw just
the same thing. Some boasted Of
having been through the Governors
palace, others escorted by a French
soldier went through the old Moor
ish quarter (Which would have been
absolutely unsafe at night and
yet others stumbled upon funeral
procession and falling in line be-
hind the mOurners went to the
cemetery and saw the strange Moor
ish burial. When we came back
to the ship, the deck was filled
as in every port by merchants
with wares Of every description.
Oriental embroideries Algerian
curved daggers brass work and
again the feminine spirit of bar
gaining came to the front. We
never, never pay the price first
asked and often get the article for
half the original cost. We are all
fast becoming Shylocks.
We sailed at 4 p. m. and many
of us found it interesting to- 90
upon the hurricane deck and watch
the management Of our big liner
by our young English Captain
Hambleton Handsome in full uni
form) as he brought us through
the narrow harbor entrance to the
breakwater.
AS / write, we are plouehinp
the blue waters of the Mediterran-
can and heading for Malta where
we arrive tomorrow. The sky il
cloudless, the air invigorating and
we wish we We're sailing, not only
to Egypt but-around the world! :
Marionites all well and having