The sun., 1918-12-15

Ben Hadj All, son OF Hadj
AL OF Sus Morocco, Africa.
With slightly less particu-
tartty It is also the story OF forty
other Arabs whose acrobatic feats
daily draw wondering approval from
the patrons OF Everything at
the Hlppodrome, Over the tale, like
en- ancient SPELL hangs the shadow
Of the Prophet For under Western
skies Mahommed is no less Mahommed,
and three times a day the praises of
Allah merge curiously with the jangle
OF Manhattan.
II Is truism that, wherever you
ind an Englishman there you find the
spirit Of England. He carries his
country with him. He Is only re-
motely amenabie to the suggestions
OF environment It is SO with the
Arab. He IL always bounded on the
west by the Red Sea. Albeit his habi-
tat may be an apartment house IN
Thtrty-ninth street, Manhattan, when
no bows his head to the ground at
sunrise the plain black stone" of
Mecca dwarfs the skyline, and the
breeze that touches his cheek Is heavy
with the scent OF the palm groves.
blayman Ais father was a mer-
chant with department store Ieanings.
Unable to advertise everything for
sale from a needle to an anchor"
he partly rescued his ambition by
touching the two poles of Eastern
TnnrChandtGA
UP his stock, and the whole north
west coast OF Africa was his territory.
Slaynan says that at Sus Morocco
the landscape is black with olive
trees, and the branches seem to groan
with the weight OF their burden. bend
ing heiplessly TO the earth. He misses
tAs sight here, but then, he agrees,
there are things that intrigue the eye
more potently than dropping olive
trees. not the least Of them being the
small manila pay envelope which he
receives every Saturday from the Hip
podrome management. Slayman is a
poet But he Is much more pro-
nouncedly a man OF sense.
There Is the very breath Of the des-
ert In his account OF his fathers traf-
ficking in camels' The Arabian camel
belongs to the one-humped species,
and as everybody knows, its vehicular
possibilities in the Arabian peninsula
have been rather exhaustIvely can
vassed. Slayman's father bought the
animals wholesale from dealers who
came from the Sahara, and he would
retail them at gatherings correspond,
Ing roughly to our country fairs.
The journey to Sus Morocco was an
arduous one, and IT was the practice
OF the desert dealers to send scouts
ahead to find favorable camps within
the sound Of water. Birds too were
cunningly used for this purpose. And
the aid Of Allah, of course, was fire.
qpentiy invoked. The whole thing
sounds as fantastic as q page from
the Arabian Nights
But Slayman Ben Hadji All tired OF Il
all. There were other things In the
world besides camels and olives, and
his fathers wish that he espouse agrt-
cultural pursuits. the while he became
letter perfect In the Koran, didn't
awaken a single sympathetic impulse.
80 one day he ran away from home
with travelling ttoupe of CircassIan
aerobats-tust as any venturesome
small town lad in our prosaic Occident
might have run away with a circus.
The bands destination was Maya
dor, travelling by caravan. On the
way a stop was made at Agadir. There
61ayman encountered his first expert
ence with the outside world. Agelul.
the ruler OF the surrounding district,
took a fancy to him. He wanted him
to become part of his personal body
guard. Slayman refused Each day
his eyes had opened on a new horizon.
and the mystery Of the world beyond
the sunset held him In thrall.
He was made a prisoner. but es-
capped after fifteen DAYS confinement.
At Msgador. having lost touch with
his original company. he Joined a sec
ond troupe, and in this way reached
Tangier.
That was in 1904. Slayman being IS