Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-23
Arabs, who made the country Mohamme
dan, as 1t is today.
A Bird,s-Eye View of Algeria.

Algeria consists of these rich lands of
the Tell, of the high plateaus of the Atlas
just below them, and OF the foothills run
ming down to the Sahara. The country
is just about long from east to west as
from Philadelphia to Cleveland, and as
wide as from Washington to Boston by
way of New York. 1t contains altogether
much land as all New England added
to New York. Pennsylvania, New Jersey
and Louisiana.
1t is divided into three provinces. each
beginning al the Mediterranean and cut
ting across to the Sahara. The largest
of these is at the east and is known as
Constantine. 1t Is almost as big as Mime
sofa and 1t has several hundred thousand
more people. The next is Algiers, which
is not far from the size Of Missouri, with
a population of sixteen hundred thousand,
and the other is the western province of
Oran, where l am writing. Oran is just
about the size of Pennsylvania and its
population is more than one million.
The total population of the whole country
now approXimates five millions, and of
these almost four hundred thousand are
French. There are also several hundred
thousand other Europeans, made up of
Spaniards, Italians. Maltese and Jews. The
rest of the Algerians are Mohammedan
Africans. and three out of every five Of
them is an Arab. There are also about
seven hundred thousand white Africans
known as Kabyles and about fifty-three
thousand Jews.
Here in Oran there are large number of
Spaniards and many negroes who were
originally brought across the Sahara as
slaves and sold in the market of Algiers.
In some of the Algerian GASES the people
are about all negroes. and see many here
in the town. The negro women often act
as shampooers in the Moorish bath houses,
and many of the men are beggars who
dance about singing weird songs to the
clashng of queer iron cymhals. One such
IN ,,,- 7
photograph of him. His dance was a sort
of a Nautch dance. consisting of con-
tinuous contortion of the hips and twist
ing Of the waist.
The Port Of Oran.
But let me give you a picture Of this
town Of Oran. 1t Is the chief seaport of
western Algeria, and is the second city of
the whole country in size. 1t contains about
one hundred thousand people, and it is more
French than Algiers itself. It Is situated
not far from the borders of Morocco, and
almost directly south of Cartagina in Spain.
The Strait of Gibraltar Is about as far away
as the distance between New York and
Boston. and it takes about two days to go
by ship from here to Marseilles. The port
has a fine harbor. consisting Of a beautiful
bay with high ragged mountain looking
down upon it. East of the mountain there
Is a gulley or canyon with low hills ex-
tending off to the eastward, and in and on
the sides of this is the town of Oran. There
Is some fiat ground for the wharves, but
back Of them the buildings of the city climb
the hills, in three great terraces, giving
every house an outlook over the Mediter-
ranean sea.
Down near the port are great warehouses
filled with alta grass, bags of wheat and
oats, great hogsheads of wine and other
stuff ready for export. The wharves are
piled high with such wares: and immense
drays, each carrying four or five TONS are
hauled up and down the hills by mules.
have seen here seven huge hogsheads of
wine on one dray drawn by four mules
hitched up tandem, and other drays carry
ing loads that would seem an impossibility
in the United States. All traffic here goes
upon two wheels and that from the load of
five tons on a cart with bed twenty feet
long to a pushel or so in the little store