The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1911-10-28
TRIPOLI, ITALY AND TURKEY


sort for a white man: that is, not for a
thousand years or so.
Tripoli consists Of a strip Of not
very fertile territory, running along
the Mediterranean from Egypt on the
east TO Tunis on the west and an oasis
dotted expanse Of desert reaching
south 10 the TropIc of Cancer. Not
very lengthy description, but the coast
line aforesaid is longer than that
from Jacksonville to New York, and
all our states east OF the Mississippi
and south of the Ohio combined
politan hinterland.
The coast line is broken by a few
shallow rivers, indented by a number
of inferior harbors and dotted by a
moderate number of small towns and
villages. Tripoli. the largest city, has
about 10000 people Dernah. the an
cient Cyrene. and Bengazi, are the only
other important coast towns. Murzuk,
far down in the desert, once the cap
ital of the sultans of FeZZan, is a col
lection of mud huts around few
mosques and markets in an unusually
large oasis on the principal caravan
route to the Soudan. The entire coun-
try contains about a million square
miles and perhaps a million people.
1t wasn't always the barren country
that Ii is today. So thick are the
buried cities along the coast that the
Arab not only builds his hut in a GEM
etery, but walks in the dust of the
dead; most of them better men in their
day than he is now.
This world was evidently old before
it occurred to men to write history.
1t is true that history is only, sa Ma
poleon said, fiction agreed upon, and
il is only by comparing the lies of our
predecessors and accepting their most
probable statements as possibly true
that We can arrive at any idea of
what may have happened in the
twentyfour centuries since Herodotus
took into his head to write. II he had
been born 10000 years sooner we
would know more. But we can figure
out from the feet-worn pathways in
the rocks, from the ruined cities dead
so long that even their ghosts are
forgotten, from the monuments cary
ed SO many ages ago that their deep
cut inscriptions have almost faded
from the solid stone. from the relics
of lost races in the caves and glaciers
and torrent beds, that this world is
very old, that men builded towns and
forts, and had government and COM
merce for many ages before the Muse
of History ever set goosequill or split
reed to papyrus or sheepskin.
Its very likely that the first mer
who peopled North Africa were the
Arabs. And the Arabic is the mos
Interchangeable of races. 1t is recorded
only that the Arab has accepted three
innovations, iron, the Koran and gun
powder. Otherwise, he proba bly, live:
just as he did when Adams grea
grandfather was a little boy Nine
tenths Of the people in a belt thou
sand miles wide, from the Euphrate:
to the Atlantic are Arabs, and so IA
they have proved as uncomfortable a!
the sands that form nine-tenths O.
that terrible territory. They have re
ceded from the battle ranks of Egypt
Greece, Carthage, Rome and Turkey
but they have always come back.
1t is almost certain that the frs
civilization impressed on Tripoli wa
that of Egypt. From the most ancien
ruins found, we know that it was
part of that great Egyptian empir,
that for a very brief time held swa,
from the Atlantic to the Caspian
After the Egyptians came the Picnic
ians, who built more lasting domain
of trade that ruled the western Med
iterranean for a full five centuries
After or with the Phenicians, AM
their children. the Carthaginians. cam
the Greeks, who at one time or an
other in the half a dozen centurie
after the fall of Troy built a city OIL
almost every harbor on the Mediter
ranean. Eastern Tripoli finally Wen
to Egypt and the western portion t.
Carthage, and Rome eventually con
quered both.
Under the Roman Empire, Tripod
attained its greatest prosperity. Tn
Roman kept all that was good of tn
peoples that had preceded him am
added his own law and order. Trad
throve, art and science fiourished
roads and aqueducts were built
pirates were eXterminated on tn
coasts and robbers were driven ia
back into the desert. OF all men, tn
Roman alone has ruled the Arab OF
his native sands: he took the son o
the desert into his armies, and whel
he learned to think more of the eagle
than of his parents, he sent him GU
to thrash his brethren. This polio
prevailed. the Roman built his fort
south than amy white man had before
or since. The long coast line wa
bordered with cities, whose harbor
were white with the sails of the ship
that came not only to bear away tn
fruit and grain of the fertile terri
tory, but the ivory and gold dust an
ostrich feathers that came in with tn
long caravans that wendell their wa
from oasis to oasis, thru the Sahara
from the far-off Soudan. Its proXimit
to Italy made these North Africa
provinces of particular Importance, an
then. as now, the principal caravan
route from the center of the OAR
Continent ended at their principa
port.
Strange to say these two provinces
Cyrenecia and Africa. nine tenths o
which were built on the shifting sand
of the desert, were more stable i
their allegiance than what SCENE
more solid lands. and remained com
paratively quiet and loyal long afte
the center of the empire had been eat
en- out with rebellion and the othe
frontiers beaten in by the barbarians
Meantime the cross had displaced tn
eagle on the Roman standards, blu
the Arab knew no difference betwee
Jupiter and Jehovah. and remained
fetish believing, image worshiping pa
gan until Allah came.
1t seemed like the Arab had bee
waiting thru all the ages for the re
ligion of Mohammed. with its vision
adise to refresh his sun-scorched an
Of y