Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1914-04-17


of desert silver pale and shining as IL encrusted
with gems little wind came up from the south.
blowing the fine white sand into my face, re-
minding me of the desolate solitudes that lay be-
yond, the endless empty sands dipping far south
ward Groves of date palms grew close to the
river bank and hedges OF wild oleander still
showed few belated blossoms of fragile pink. 1t
is thus almost dramatically that one enters the
desert from the stony alfa-strewn ways of the high
plateaus. No longer needed now were the fur
coats and foot-warmers that had been SO neces-
sary at the hour of our early departure from Con-
stantine We seemed to have passed suddenly
into subtropical land quyering in the burning
sunlight
1t is the fashion to say of Biskra that she has
been spoilt since The Garden of Allah" awakened
the world to her hidden beauty made her popular
to the hordes of Cooks tourists and gave fresh
impetus to the loafng profession of guide which
the Arab is always only too ready to adopt He
Is. indeed somewhat more of a pest than he used
to be; he knows that he has been written about
and perhaps presented in too iattering an aspect,
and it has made him conceited and self-conscious.
But he is really worse at Biskra than he Is IN
Tunis Immense and luxurious hotels have sprung
up to supersede the simpler caravanseras OF for
mer days, when the little town was faYorite but
quite questionable resort Of French people In
search of simplicity and sunshine But am in
clined to think that Biskra is unspoilable. THE
Heart of the Desert" the Arabs affectionately
call her she was the AID Pscinam of the Romans.
and the famous Third Legion sojourned In that
wonderful and fertile oasis which can now be
reached on the fifth day after leaving London.
Two things are necessary" says Stevenson lin
any heghborhood where we propose to spend a
| life-a desert and running water" BiskTa pos
sesses these essentials in abundance. and she has
the additional advantage of constant, almost per
| petual, sunshine Her palm and olive and orange
groves are watered by springs that have never
| failed. Close to her-so close indeed. that she
almost seems to mock at its parched infertility-
lies the white splendor of the desert with its pallor
as Of a calm sea family touched with blue haze.
The moonIightcolored city with its blanched
| streets lies surrounded by a fringe OF perpetual
verdure. Watch the dawn waking iris-hued in the
eastern sky painting the Aures mountains to >
deeper rose and drawing nlmy amber veil across
| the sands, and think you will agree with me
that Biskra is unspoiable.
There are many simple sights that cannot fail
to interest the unaccustomed visitor from the
North, on account of their novelty. The Arat
school, with the brighteyed inattentive little tur
baned or befezzed scholars listlsssly recitinf
verses from the Koran, under the aegis of the
tolba, or schoolmaster; the marketplace TEEN
ing with native vendors story-tellers and sand
OWNERS; the groups of picturesque Arabs
wrapped in their white burnouses or shabby gra;
haicks; the caravans arriving almost daily fren
the south with their loads of dates; the swayint
paIanquins within which the women travel on thi
camels' backs, hidden and mysterious; the fin
! garden of Count L.andon with its lovely tropica
trees and flowers the village Of Old Bckra. witt
| its clay-built huts swarming with dark-eyed chill
| dren-these are but few Of the picturesque
quaint or beautiful things that Biskra offers 10 tn
visitor. The nomad camps, too, source o
interest with their tents of camelhair cloth
guarded often by white Kabyle dog. The noma