The Holbrook news., 1912-04-26


 of the London Express, gives
 O a picturesque description of his perilous voyage across the
 Tripon desert in company with an Arab caravan. MT. Ostler was on his way to join the Turkish forces at Tripoli.
 There lies on either side of the frontier line that divides Tripoli from runis, an arid desert-land; a dreary, windy waste of sand and camel-thorn ecrub, wherein houses are as rare as ightships in midocean, he writes. Here and there, the long, low booths of nomad Arabs may be seen; but these houses of hair-cloth are set down at dusk and taken up at dawn. There Is no place where you may count on finding them. Therefore, the traveller bent on entering Tripoli from the western side, unless he carried tent with him, will sleep unsheltered. be- neath the stars or the falling rain, as the seasons shall decree.
 For me, the season decreed rain of the African variety. Stand in such rain for sixty seconds. and you will be Rs wet as though you had lain in the bed of a river. For two nights I slept in it huddled with shivering. curBing camel-drivers, under the use less lee of a rampant built of barley sacks. For three days, on the back of . dripping camel, I progressed towards gray horizons came no near er; and almost without intermission, the rain fell heavily and chill stinging the face from time to time with icy gusts.
 The desert is cold now. The desert, indeed, ike the little girl with a curl flown the. middle of her forehead, knows only extremes When 1t is hot, 1t is very, very hot; and when 1t ts cold, 1t is horrid. The wind moans over the sand dunes, whistles through the stiff, unyielding branches of the camel-thorn, and searches you to the very bone. Never have I known such bitter biting cold as I have known here, in an African desert
 Voice of Greed.
 When the French officials politely but firmly deprived me of the serv- Rnta and baggage animals with which [ had meant to cross the desert, managed to hire camels from the lead CTS of a caravan carrying barley into Tripoli. to sell to the Turkish army.
 Not even an American lady tourist could have said of these men that they had nice faces. Their general appearance, since they were armed to the teeth, was picturesque, but think z never saw more villainous counten- ances, nor heard voices more expres- sive of violent greed. Yet, as they came in sight, the camels reeling stately across the desert, like ships in gentle swell, the men draped and hooded, perched aloft, or pacing, with harsh cries, alongside. saw in them a vision of deliverance.
 The striking of our bargain was diff dcuh. Arab-like, all spoke at once, ex- tending rapacious hands to receive the | 'foos" before starting, crying in say age, high-pitched tones that, if seen | with a "Nasary" they would be set | upon and killed, and each protesting that he alone, of all the band, was to | be trusted. What little Arabic I | speak is that of Morocco, and Morocco | is as distant from this country as is | Spain from Italy. Therefore, though | the main structure of the Arabic | tongue, held together by the Koran, Is | the same throughout the north of Af- | rica, idioms and accommodations differ, | and found 1t hard to make myself | understood, and harder still to under | stand. But in the end the shouting, | shivering conclave broke up; 1t was | agreed that I should accompany the | caravan for thirty francs, and was presently seated upon one camel, with | my baggage disposed upon divers oth- CTS.
 The train of camels moved along, each beast choosing it's own road, and | browsing at will upon the stick-Iike, wfthered scrub. The drivers are slow to beat their beasts of from this in- termittent grazing, for they do not give them any other fodder than that which they thus find for themselves. Only when some finger far behind the rest, tearing at some peculiarly dainty growth, do the men, hurrying back, fall on them with blows and curses. and drive them on their unhurried way.
 It had been cold all the morning. The rain began to fall at noon To wards dusk we halted in the shelter less waste, and the camels knelt, grooming bitterly, to be relieved of the sodden barley sacks. With these a