The Coolidge examiner., 1935-11-29
Prepared by National Geographic Society.
Washington. D. C.-WNU Service.

Prepared by National Geographic Society.
Washington. d. C.-WNU Service.
n EOROCCO, long an empire
M guarded from the coveting
" = eyes of Europe by the will
of a proud and exclusive people,
remains in her subsection a land
tempting to. the traveller in search
of new and even rude experiences.
She is a country up-to-date, ac-
cessible, civilized; yet barbarous,
antique, and forbidden. She is
French, Spanish, Berber, Arab, and
Jew. She has been nursed for a
thousand years on the subtle poll
cies of the Orient. though farther
west than the greater part of Eu-
rope. - =; =. ....-
Her emperors, some of whom
were lords and masters of Spain,
built great cities and castles and
palaces and fortresses, before
America had come out of the Land
of Dreams. They endowed univer-
stiles and colleges for the cultiva-
ton of learning, the terms of whose
foundations resemble those at Ok
ford and Cambridge; with some
of which they were contemporary.
The same clustered beauty is to be
found in both; the same lofty
ideals of faith and devotion.
They assembled in their prime,
great armies for the conquest of
the world, and fleets that swept the
Christian seas. Though children
born of the desert, they arrogated
to themselves great pretensions
claiming the Divine Right, not mere
ly as kings but as saints by lineage.
Their tombs, where ruin has spared
them, remain as lovely as any in
the world; their gardens of running
waters are still delight to those
permitted to enter them
And yet, half the population of
this country lives on in the ways
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Orient and Occident Mingle.
She Is an eastern land in the
marrow of her bones, though placed
in Africa; and she has been pene-
trated through centuries by Euro
pean influences, which lie deep. un-
der the surface of her oriental life.
Her camel caravans remain coeval
with the airplane; and tribesman
of the desert, wounded in battle,
can find himself carried through
the air to a French hospital across
the whole width of impenetrable
Atlas. Twenty centuries have here
been compressed into as many
years. '..~ -..
She includes within her borders
mountains almost as stately as the
Rockies or the Alps; valleys pro-
found and lovely; cedars as noble
as those of Lebanon; olive groves
like those of Delphi; vines that
grow wild, or are as cultivated now
as those of Provence; cities like
Fes which belong to the Arabian
Nights, and Marrakech the Grana-
da of Morocco, which glows in her
fierce sunlight girdled by palm
GASES, within a days march of
snow-covered. SUBMITS, white as
salmon" as Drake observed them
in the course of his circumnaviga-
ton of the world; cities and peO-
pies passionate with the fury and
excess Of Africa, yet profoundly in
spired by the worship of the One
God. their compassionate and mer-
ciful Allah!
For these and other reasons this
country grips one, though the world
be at ones disposal. Each year
the pacified frontier of this violent
and poetic land marches on into re-
giOns unknown. Each year one finds
some new tract becomes accessible; =;
old castles unsuspected. and chief
tains living in them in medieval
state; clans and tribesmen at war,
now gathered into the fold; maps
that record a twelve-months' prog
ress, with all sorts of lines and
spots and frontiers marked on
them, each with its fascinating tale
of valor or industry to tell.
The history of Morocco is one of
violent unrest and order in contin-
ual balance.
Rebels Still Exist.
Since the magnificent failure of
Abdel-Kri who. all but broke the
power of Spain in Africa and went
near to reconquering Morocco from
the French, the tricolor now blows
beside the flag of the sultan over
nearly all of French Morocco; but
not quite. There are regions in
Great Atlas where die-hards still
maintain their freedom, delivering
shrewd blows at their conQuerer
from time to time; and, in the des-
ert spaces Of Saraha, horsemen and
cameleers who ride acknowledging
no lord.
1t Is these gentlemen who keep
France busy, and offer her young