Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-18

HE experience am about to relate
Jared on my nerves in the Fall OF
1916, during the World War.
was at that time ailing on account
of an unhealed wound, and being
temporarily unfit for field duty, I was en-
gagged in drilling native recruits. My battalion
commander sent me to take charge of couple
OF hundred young natives who had been called
70 the colors and were assembling near the
village of Rabelais which is located about 100
miles south Of Algiers.
The village of Rabelais was built q score of
years ago by French immigrant farmers. The
surrounding country Is a semi-wilderness in
habited by q shifting Arabian population. How
ever, it is now a tame, perfectly safe territory.
But 1 knew something about that part Of AL
geria which intrigued me uncommonly. In the
year I845, the bloody year of the conquest of
Algeria, my grandfather was a young lieutenant
Of the 53rd Line Regiment which was COM
manded by Col. Saint-Arnaud.
The French soldiers Of King Louis Philippe
were at that time tearing down the stubborn
resistance of the Arabian tribes. Dressed in
sttR -cOllared TUNES and heavy shakos, armed
with breech-loading guns, their undertaking
was q feat that men of our effete age could
never accomplish. And their temper was not
Ek It's best, for the Arabs were given to q
practice which is now followed only by desert
Beduins. They tortured their prisoners to
death with a cruel skill which in more modern
dtans and by the people Of Indo-China.
Three miles south Of the place where the
village Of Rabelais is now located, Q stream
called by the Arabs "Chabet Ell Bir," had carved
ACROSS the centuries q winding cave into the
ode Of Q hill. This was the Cave of Dirha,
where in the past about 500 tribeSmen of the
Sbeha Arabs hid at the news that Saint-Ar-
naud's troops were approaching Saint-Arnaud
learned from his scouts of this fact. He de-
tAd he ShahaR because
pushed, seized and tortured isolated parties
Of his men. He decided to surround the Cave
Of Dtrha and capture those who were hiding
there.
It was the middle of August and the Chabet
q Bir dry. The cave had two entrances,
distant from each other about q hundred yards.
But when the soldiers appeared in front Of
both passages and warned the Arabs to come
sout and surrender, the tribeSmen answered
with crashing salvos Of musketry.
CAINT-ARNAUD was a hard man. He
~ thought that. after ALL these Arabs were
murderous brigands. and he ordered the regi-
mental sappers to fill one of the entrances with
gravel and rocks. Then ne had loads of wood
and dry grass stuffed into the other entrance.
The soldiers applied blazing torch. When the
section Of the cave in front of them became
filled with flames and smoke they piled loose
earth and stones on that second entrance too.
For an hour the companies stood with ready
guns in front of the two blocked passages, ready
TO seize the Sbehas If they should succeed in
breaking through the obstruction and to shoot
them down If they still showed fight. But evil
IDENTIFY the flames had consumed quickly what
ever oxygen was In Dirha'S grotto and the
mOnoxide gas developed by the smoke had
aSphyxiated the SbehaS. The two piles Of earth
and loose stones piled IN front Of both passages
remained untroubied.
At length Saint Arnaud retired with his troops
70 the hiILs Of Ain-Meran, where. while the
sIyIi .as q Lsr a. 4