The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1914-04-17


OF desert. silver pale and shining If 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 beated blossoms of fragile pink 1t
is thus almost dramatically that enters the
desert from the stony alfastrewn ways of the high
plateaus. No longer needed 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 a sub-tropical land quivertng in the burning
sunlight.
It is the fashion to say of Biskra that she has
been spoit 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 fattering an aspect
and it has made him conceited and self-consclous
But he is really no worse at Biskra than he IS IN
Tunis Immense and luxurious hotels have sprung
nm to supersede the simpler caravanserais OF for
mer days when the little town was favorite but
quite questionable resort OF french people IN
search Of simplicity and sunshine. But am IN
clined to think that Biskra is unspollable. Inc
Heart OF the Desert" as the Arabs afectonately
and the famous Third Legion sojourned In that
wonderful and fertile oasis which can now De
reached on the fifth day after leaving London.
"Two things are necessary, says Stevenson, IN
any neighborhood where we propose to spend a
nfe-a desert and running water Blskra pos
sesses these essentials in abundance, and she mas
tho additional advantage of constant, almost per-
netual sunshine. Her palm and olive ana orange
groves are watered by springs that nave never
failed Close to her-so close, indeed tnat she
oImost seems to mock at its parched infertilty--
les the white splendor of the desert with It's pallor
90 ~ calm sea family touched with blue haze
Tho noonlight-colored city with its bianened
.treets lies surrounded by a fringe OF perpetual
vardnre Watch the dawn waking iris-hued IN the
eastern sky painting the Aures mountains 70
doenar rose and drawing flmy amber ven across
the sands and think you VIII agree viii uie
that Biskra is unspollaeie
There are many simple sights that cannot ran
= in+erast the unaccustomed visitor from the
- - ~ account of their novelty. The Arab
s,I NTH the brighteyed, inattentve little tur-
hrad or befezzed scholars, llstlsssly recltlng
rras from the Koran, under the aegls OF the
| $40 or schoolmaster; the marketplace teem-
49, ,,itb native vendors, story-telers and SAND
| si,iners. the groups of picturesque ARABS
/ .r.nned in their white burnouses or snapoy era.
! haiols. the caravans arriving almost dairy from
,ha south with their loads OF dates the s"aSl,i
| 1,,cuins within which the women travel on tne
p,. t.crs hidden and mysterious; the fine
49, - Count Iandon, wish its lovely tropical
/ 800 and flowers the village OF Old blckra, Win
i - oi.v built huts swarming with dark-eyea chlF
49, thase are but few OF the picturesque
/ it or beautiful things that Biskra oners 70 the
/ i;tor che nomad camps, too are source q
| tarest with their tents of cameEnar eioth,
! ,uarded often by white haoyie uos'