The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1916-03-07
WHERE LIFE is HAZARDOUS
War Adds Little to Dangers Of Daily
Occupations of Tripoltans.

The National Geographic society at
| Washington, D. c., in recently issued
statement says that the new industry
Of war, which the people of Tripoli
have exchanged for their former peace
time industries, adds little to the nor
NAL hazard of Tripolitan life.
Danger is the daily bread and meat
of the dweller in Tripoli, and, in this
county fiecked with occasional GASES
and fringed with narrow strips OF
coastal vegetation, even the principal
native pursuits for wealth and hap
piness are accompanied by hidden ter
ror and grave FISK. The three princi-
pal sources of income to Tripolitan are
tnose OF sponge gathering, of esparto
picking, and of carrying on the trans
Saharan caravan trade.
whether the native son seeks to
make his pile searching the Shiny bot
| tom of the Mediterranean for sponges,
or gathering esparto grass In the morn
| ing mists of the desert, or following
| the caravan of a thousand camels back
| from the coast through $500 miles of
| Saharan desert to the distant Soudan,
| he stakes not only his labor and cap
| ital for profit but also his health and
life. More often than not he yeaps dis
ability or death as his reward.
The wild seas that now and again
| boil over the nothern coast of Africa
are the smallest part of the Sponge
Do, c1,Fes ie, ntxtfa NC
| Just ahead of this yenturesome labor
er, who, day by day making foolhardy
| rapid ascents from the sea bed under
press of keen competition, sooner or
| later experiences the re turn to ship
board in terrific dizziness, which forms
| the usual prelude to partial or COM
| plete paralysis Strange as it may
seem. many partially paralyzed divers
| are able to continue their calling, and
the untitled, helpless cripple in the up
| per air feels normal circulation return
| to arm and legs when lowered into the
sea on the sponge grounds. And the
Arab divers of Tr,.9oli, believing the
| disease Indispensable to the vocation,
! and Injured to hazard in their peculiar
fatherland, dive phlegmatically through
ed by their chosen trade.
| Back in the plateau lands of the Sa-
hara, behind the coastal greens in the
| silent, treeless, untenanted desert
| wastes. where the alluring mystery of
| the desert broods under the blfghting
| heat of day and beckons in fanciful
| shapes over the dunes at night stretch
| vast fields of wiry esparto grass, from
which paper Is manufactured in great
mills in England. In these fields.
working for the starvation wage Of
| twenty cents day or less, picking the
grass and tying it in large bales to be
loaded on camel trains for Tripoli city,
| the port OF Tripolitania, is another
corps of workers who adventure their
safety in their work.
DAY begins for the espartc picker in
| the moonlight OF early morning In
the chill of the desert morning, the
picker leaves his nearby shack for the
field, and begins his rapid task OF
breaking the longest wiry blades, leg
| high. from the most matured clumps.
And in the heart of these clumps, ever
and again, turks his danger in the form
of his arch enemy the deadly viper.
the clumps, also are hidden the ven
emous North African rock scoruions
whose stings now and again prove fat
al. 1t is the poisonous vipers, how
ever, that make the work of esparto
picking a sporting game with death
"Of the s2,000,000 OF exports trade
enjoyed by Tripoli before the war, one
| fifth of it was produced by the sponge
divers, more than one third of it by the
esparto piclers, and considerable more
than one-sixth was brought over the
wide, treacherous desert from the
Soudan. Many caravans, some of a
few and some of thousand camels,
fitted out in Tripoli, undertook the dan
ger-iraught Journeys to the great marts
OF Soudanese trade-Timbukto Kano,
Kuka, Bornu and Wadi. These jour
ueys sometimes last two years around,
and brought their undertakers into
every species OF danger that the desert
affords Robbers infest all the lanes
across the desert, and, besides these,
all the inner desert lies subject to the
vengeful caprice OF the masked Tua-
regs, the strange people who are at
war with all who cross their paths and
do not pay sufficient tribute. The
bones OF the camels and men of N.Y.
Rad of caravans of the past bleach
along the desert trails, caravans that
mostly came to harm at the hands of
marauders. but there are some among
them destroyed by thirst, by the sand
s,orm, or Dy the water of wells poison
ed by inter-tribal wars. OF all three
risky Tripolitan trades. the caravan
trade is the most risky; and the old
caravan men will find little in the in
dustry of war from which their peace
time labors have not fully prepared
them"