El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-05-06
BY Holger Porst.


Il story from Hansen himself. Not
because of any false modesty.
but for other quite different reasons.
I have it from one OF his friends.
1t had been a miserable summer and
fall. and as Hansen felt that his health
demanded a trip to southern climates,
he decided to spend a month or two
in Algiers and other places in northern
Africa
Algiers is wonderful country. and
Tunis is almost as charming. Hamil-
cars. Hasdrubal's and Hannibafs
troops have fought here; Roman le-
of the desert, and to this country fled
the Moors, when they were driven
out of Spain. When, to all this, you
add that greedy Algerian pirates have
terrorized peaceful merchant vessels
in these waters for years, you can
understand Hansen's desire to meet
the descendants of these interesting
people close by.
To a certain extent, however, he had
misjud ged the character of the people.
probably because he had not studied
them well enough He expected to find
and meet noble minded. proud war
riors, worthy scions of their ances-
tors, or faithful followers of the
Prophet whose word of promise was
as sacred as an oath.
Far be it from me to say anything
bad about the French. but I dare say
that Ia grande republique" has GER
Tainly neglected the moral education
OF her colonial sons.
Well, Hansen arrived at Algiers a
beautiful day in December and took
rooms at hotel Splendide Mustapha Su-
perieur. He chose this hotel because
1t was patronized by Americans and
possessed every modern comfort and
luxury.
From the very first he began to
study native life and spent many
hours nightly in the dirtiest native
parts of the city until he was admon-
ished to go home by a policeman or
military patrol.
There was something exciting about
these excursions, which increased his
thirst of adventure. He wanted a real
romantic experience to bray about
when he returned to Copenhagen, and,
having heard that the Caravans from
the south usually made halt at Champs
de Mano1nore, he became a frequent
visitor there, not without many quar-
rels with the troops OF cavalry who
drilled here, but this did not affect
him in the least Hansen has many,
faults but he Is certainly energetic
fortunate enough to meet dirty fell
low named Abduliah Ben Berkir, who
had come to Algiers to sell dates, and
their acquaintanceship was only a few
hours old when he invited this worthy
to have drink with him in fifth
class cafe, where they began to dis
cuss Hansen's hope to meet with q real,
exciting adventure.
My warnings were wasted on him
and 1 decided to act. / had a private
interview with the worthy Abdullah
and briefly explained to him what
kind of man Hansen was. honestly,
I did not want to carry my practical
joke so far. even if I did put certain
ideas into Abdul1ah's curly head.
A few days afterwards, when 1 had,
left on the steamer for Marseilles,
Hansen was seated rather uncomfort-
ably on the back of camel. en- route
for Laghent, prepared for meeting
with or an attack of the reckless Be-
douins, and carrying with him whole
arsenal Of firearms. He also intended
to do some big game hunting, and if
possible bag q lion or two, not know
ing that no lion had been seen in
these parts for more than 20 years.
Hansen Travelled only very short
distance each day, for ne did no. en-
joy riding camel, but he was great
~ disappointed at meeting no game
OF any kind. far less lions and he told
sAdbullah so in plain words, much to
the disgust of that gentleman, whose
pay was to be in proportion to the
number of exciting experiences.
couple of times shots were fired
at them. but these shots were so poor
~ aimed that Hansen would have
caught on to the joke, If he had been