The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-03-17

with the Christian. Yelled Mohamme- dan ladies whi have just left the harem of some rich Arab pass by, wearing white pantaloons, each leg of which is as big around as q four barrel. Their pan- taloons hang in folds, and l am told that il takes fourteen yards of cloth to make gil ordinary pair. They are tied in at the calves or the ankles, and are some times loaded with shot to keep them in shape. Bare-faced Jewesses, dressed in gay eolors, with bright shawls, and with thin black handkerchiefs glued to their foreheads, walk along in couples. and Kabyle women, bronzed-faced and tat tooed, ragged and dirty -gowLed, come close behind. As the hour of o'clock approaches the Rue Bab-Azoun is packed and 1t then looks like a great cave. with a stream of all colors flowing drought it.
 Like Europe.
 The stores here are like those of Eu- rope. The windows are well displayed and the goods are usually French. Most of the wares have price marks and as rule they cost no more than in France
 Another fine business street Is the Rue dIsley This is the main road to Musta- pha Superieur, the fashionable villa cen ter on the hills high above tho city. It has many new buildings; the old struc- lures have been torn down, the fortified wall which once girdled Algiers has been removed and many Improvements are now being made. The city is rapidly growing, and 1t has now, with its sub urbs. about one hundred and fifty thou sand people.
 Ten-Cent Telegrams.
 It Is down in the French quarter that the city postoffice IS situated. The French have given their colony the best postal facilities, and at rates much lower than we have given Hawaii, Porto Rico, the Philippines or even ourselves All kinds of goods can be sent by mail at low rates and there Is an enormous mail order business with the mother country.
 The telegraph and telephone lines are under the government and the rates show the benefit of government management. They are as low as in France and less than half of our charges either at home or in our colonies. One can telegraph be- tween any two cities of Algieria, which Is a country more than five times as large as the state of Indiana, for one cent a word the minimum telegram cost ing ten cents. He can send a telegram to any part of France from any part of Algeria at the same rate. Cables to Great Britain and Germany cost only cents a word; to Italy, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland and Belgium, only 6 cents, and to Gibraltar but '. These are rates for from any part of Algeria to any part of the countries mentioned. They are, I venture, about the lowest telegraph rates of the world,
 As to telephones, all the chief Algerian cities have them. The rate for business houses in Algiers is forty dollars per year. and one can have a three minute conversation to any rart of the city, or to anywhere fifteen miles outside it. for 8 cents. And all this Is in this black, ar-behind-the- times continent of Africa!
 Theatres and Libraries.
 Algiers is a city of amusement halls, libraries and schools. It has city the atre which is subsidized by the govern ment tc the extent of $10O,00O a year, a casino which Is a kind of second-class vaudeville, and regular concerts by the military bands in the Place du Gouvern- ment and at Mustapha Superieur It has many clubs, and .n the winter there are fashionable society gatherings. The gov ernor-general then gives balls and re- captions, and .he French army adds to the gayety Mustapha Superleur has magnificent villas with tropical gardens situated on the hills six hundred feet above the harbor, which are occupied at that time by r,ch Europeans, and there are also large winter hotels which are then filled with Americans and English.
 Algiers has street car lines. equipped witt our own ThompsonHouston electric service, which go to all the suburbs