The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-15
ALONG HISTORIC COAST OF BARBARY TripOli Set in Fringe of Fer
 tile Land CITY LITTLE KNOWN Some Glimpses of Oriental Desert Life in the Markets and Streets
 of Ancient Coastal
 Cities
CITY LITTLE KNOWN

IHlDOll III bdtpdl A4i0 l Li iAA7tA NAN3 '
 stands up wonderfully behind it's long
 walls. as viewed from the deck in the carly morning Its distant buildings
 show every tint of buff and amber and
 creamy white. with here and there a
 dash of pink or soft blue. Seven minarets. each with tip or spire of emerald green. point the way of heaven to the faithful, and two frown- ing gray fortresses threaten the way
 in other direction to nfidel assailants.
 The view is distant, because there is
 no harbor and the wide bay is shal-
 low Ships must lie well out in the
 offing.
 Here is city little known to the
 world though so alluringly in the cur rents of the worlds travel and trade. | Pew traders and fewer tourists visit l rripol Probably not many persons
 could even tell you exactly where this 1 Turkish desert colony is.
 The landing is made in small boats, and passports or passes consulaires
 must be shown a the little landing i stage before permission to land is feranted. It is well to repair at once
 to the British, French. or Italian con- 1 sulate, to obtain the escort and pro- 1 tection of a kavass, for the native 1 Tripolitans are none too well disposed
 toward casual foreigners. Under the guidance, then, of the kavass or panis- sary, a resplendent ebony individual in 1 q gorgeous uniform and bearing the baton or big stick of office, We ex- plore the city.
 One realizes at once that one has left European soil and the methods of European municipal governments. The streets are dirty, narrow and i'll paved; everywhere are evidences that the city
 is left largely to govern itself in. the approved Turkish fashion. But it is full of novelty and varied interest Here is a great market square, with areades at. the sides, and with a rude but massive. stone fountain in the cen ter Vendors squat on the ground be- hind strips of mating, on which are little piles of oranges. lemons, figs vegetables. grains, nuts, fish. dried To- custs and other unedible looking edlbles.
 Scenes in City's Streets
 Cooks fry fritters in oil over basins of glowing charcoal. Laden donkeys push their way through the throng, camels strut sul1eniy by children shout and play and all the daily life of d busy Oriental mart unrolls itself. Far ther on are the long. covered alleys of I9e cnlei DaHd1s the Spuk CT luIc i1eie are ivory and ostrich feathers an1 quaint native jewelry. In another di- rection lies the Hara or Jewish quar- ter, giving glimpses into queer little shops and into the patios or interior
 courts of the private houses.
 In the very center of the city we are reminded that Rome. the universal, has been in TrIpoli. Here stands a solid and ornate trfumphal arch, built in the comparatively rare form styled quadrffons. of marble once white. now darkened and defaced by time. An in scription still legible records that il was erected by qudestor under the joint reign of Lucius Aelius Nerus and Marcus Aurelius. It stands low, for il is half buried in the accumulated soil, and one of it's portals is deba sed 10 the pur- poses of q native cooper's shop. But it's carvings still preserve something of their ancient beauty and the structure standing there in the heart of an alien city and civilization during all these centuries speaks of the power and pres tige of the days of the Caesars.
 The desert comes close up to Tripoli on all sides. There is no hinterland, as there is with Tangier and Algiers and Tunis. Doubtless that is why Tripoli remained unmolested by the great pow CTS across the Mediterranean It had not seemed worth conquering or pos StSSilik. ct llleTt hIc III ttdIlA ITCH resources in the sands behind il, stretching away southward to the Fez- gan. to Cura and Gadames, to the Bornu and the Wadai and so to the Sudan. Witness what the French have done and are doing with their deserts, the English with theirs. south of Bis kra. even to Touggourt in French Al geria he sand stretches are dotted with the artesian wells of the engin- neers. lawlessness has been tanned, trade and travel are safe. commerce has received an enormous impetus and Is yearly increasing in volume. In Khar- tum, now British, there is q college and a tourist office, in place of khal- ifa's prison.
 City an Oasis in Desert
 But in the Tripoltaine there is no at tempt at control and development The city carries on indeed a limited caravan trade with the interior as it has done from time immemorial. but the trade is
 attended with difficulties. The desert tribes are fierce and savage. and they rob and kill. No European no Tripolitan even, can possibly venture into this part Of the Sahara unprotected When the caravans go, 1t is in vast numbers, com l prising 200. 500 or even 1000 cames, with armed attendants forming private amy and their return, months even
 two or three years later, Is a matter of excited interest and graduation for the 1 whole city, just as the return of the East 1 India merchantmen used to be for Salem l We drive out beyond the walls, our con-
 sular escort perched in grandeur on the | high seat beside the native driver. Firing | ing the city are scattering suburbs arti- l ficial oases, and a limited area of fertile l fields. The latter are irrigated and made
 green by means of primitive wells whose l water is drawn up in buckets by OK power or donkey power, and automatically tipped into small stone reservoirs. From these reservoirs itais released upon the land as needed. These square well structures of whtewashed. stone form a peculiar an l striking feature in the level landsca pc Beyond the oases and fields few sparse olive trees are seen. and castus and wiry I desert grasses; then in all directions the desert sands.
 Many Races in City's Walls
 Tripoh. the city. has between 35,0CO | and 10000 inhabitants: the indigenous rGces. Berbers Arabs, and negroes. of J course. making up the bulk of the popu- ! laiion There are 5000 Jews and 4COo Nal tese. The Europeans are almost negIi- 1 gible; the Italians ochiehy Siciians). who l are most numerous, tallying about 660 The Turks consist only of the few troops and the governing officials, at whose head l Is the governor general pasha He Is l of course, the personal representative of I the Sultan. The desert population of the entire vllayet or province is very dif-
 lcult to estimate, but in the most recent I local and official reports it is given as