The Raymer enterprise., 1914-04-02


Of desert silver pale and shining as if encrusted
with gems. little wind came up from the south
blowing the fine white sand into my face re-
mihdlhg me OF the desoate solitudes that lay be
Eohd' the endless empty sands dipping far south
ward Groves Of date palms grew close to the
river BANK, and hedges OF wild oeander still
showed few helated blossoms of fragile pink Il
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 footwarmers that had been so neces.
sary at The hour Of our early departure from Con,
stantine We seemed to have passed suddenly
into a subtropical land quiyering In the burning
sunlight
Il is the fashion TO say Of Bskra 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 a 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 hattering an aspect.
and il has made him conceited and seconscious.
But he is really no worse at Biskra than he is In
Tunis. Immense and luxurious hotels have sprung
up to supersede the simpler carayanserais OF for
mer days, when the little town was favorte bu.
quite questionable resort of French people In
search Of simplicity and sunshine But | am in
clined to think that Biskra is unspoilabe. THE
Heart Of the Desert as the Arabs affectionately
call her she was the Ad Pisclnam of the Romans.
and the famous Third Legion soourned in tha:
wonderful and fertile oasis which can now be
reached the ifth day after leaving London.
Two things are necessary says Stevenson I'm
any neighborhood where propose TO spend
lfe-a desert and running water" Biskra pos.
sesses these essentials in abundance, and she has
the additional advantage CT 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 parehed infertty-
lies the white spendor OF the desert with its palor
OF calm sea family touched with blue haze.
The moonlightcolored city with its blanched
streets lies surrounded by fringe of perpetual
verdure. Watch the dawn waking iris.hued in the
eastern sky, painting the Aures mountains to
deeper rose and drawing h,my amber veil across
the sands, and think you will agree with me
that Biskra is unspoilabe,
There many simple sights that cannot fail
to interest the unaccustomed visitor from the
North. on account Of their novelty. The Arab
school, with the bright.eyed lnattentve little tur-
baned or befezzed scholars lstlessly reciting
verses from the Koran, under the aegis of the
tolba, or schoolmaster, the marketplace. TEEN
ing with native vendors story-telers and sand
OWNERS the groups OF picturesque Arabs
wrapped in their white burnouses or shabby graz
hacks; the caravans arriving almost daily from
the south with their loads of dates the swayine
palanquins within which the women travel on the
camels' backs, hidden and mysterious the nne
garden OF Count Landon, with Its lovely tropical
trees and flowers. the village of Old Bickra with
its clay-built huts swarming with dark-eyed chill
dren--these are but few of the picturesque,
quaint or beautiful things that Blskra offers to the
visitor The nomad camps. too. are a source Of
interest with their tents Of camelhair cloth.
guarded often by white Kabyle dog The nomad