New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1917-02-16
ALGERIANS CLEAN
Streets OF PARIS
Kabyles. Imported to Brighten
Lives Behind the Trenches

Paris, Feb. 15.-Sixty tall Kabyles,
| m ountaineers from Eastern Algeria,
descendants from the hardy and re-
doubtable race of Berbers, have lent
useful hand to the solution of the
Paris street cleaning problem.
Garbage boxes that are now set out !
OF doors in some quarters as early as
10 O'Clock in the evening, to the dam
age of many shins in dimly lighted
streets, are encountered in other quar-
tiers as late as o'clock in the after
noon, all on account of the lack of
help. Paris thus has been enjoying
seventeen hours of continuous con-
temptation of city refuse that is stirred
shaken and overturned. in the mean
time for rags, paper and bones. The
Kabyles have done so we'll toward
remedying this situation that 800 more
of them will be utilized in the work.
There are now 10000 of our peo-
pie in France for the national de-
fence says ST Salah ST Ahmed, Caid
1izi- Ouzou in Labylie. Neither the
climate nor the conflict daunts them,
he added. 81 Salah was sent by the
5000 inhabitants of his Douar to tell
the French government it may count
upon them for anything it wants.
The experiment of Algerian help in
the field and factory in France has
been great success. These men, par
ticularly those from the mountain re-
gions, have wonderful endurance, are
very Industrious and easily contented.
They are working alongside other
Mussu1men from Morocco ana Tun1B,
while a great many others are In the
ranks of the Algerian r1demen at the
f,pn1, I'M - SaoI
no apprehension need be entertained
! this climate; they have shown quite a
taste for farming, have learned quick
ly the use of machine tools in factories
and their apprenticeship in municipal
work has perhaps heen the greatest
| success OF all.
The Annamftes from the French
colony Of Indo-China also unskilled,
| have been quick to learn and are prob
ably more fastidious In their work
than the kabyles: as cleaners in the
harvest field last summer, they were
| said to have never overlooked q spear.
The Moors are better fighters than
they are farmers, yet they are taking
| to agriculture and French observers
| who are watching the experiment look
to the result of most beneficial influ-
ence upon the future agricultural de-
| velopment of Morocco.
| The question was. raised in the
! chamber of deputies recently as to
! what complications might develop
| from the presence Of so many colonial
| 1aborers in France at the end of the
| war. The general sentiment was that
! more effective than the Sengalese in
! on this score, and that 1t was even less
| nenacing than the formidable exten-
sion of the use of women in mechani-
cal labor The Kabyles, Indo-Chinese
and Moors, it is held, will, after they
nave laid up a little money, he glad
enough to go back home where their
| savings will enable them to play the
| "nabob."
Nearly every ship arriving from AL
geria now brings more of the Kabyles,
| who are more and more counted upon
| to solve the question of labor. They
! are taller than the average Algerian,
with features resembling somewhat
those of the peasants Of Central
France. They are not uniform in COM
plexion, some being dark and some
light, with fair hair. Their language is
| the Berber. although they use the Ara
| bian letters. The possibilities of the
experiment may be Judged from the
| fact that Kabylie is the most populous
| part of North Africa, having 1853 in
! habitants per square mile.