Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 74, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 March 1913 — Page 3

Airship Startles African Cave Dwellers

VIATION has another feat A to Its credit. Flying high j\ over the desertß of northern Africa, a dirigible balloon, one of the.newest of the wonderful inventions 1 v —” of man, has just afforded another ultra-modern contrivance — tiie camera—its first -chance to snafl a group of dwellings as old in style as Vany that man ever built for himself. It was the Italian dirigible balloon “P 2” that accomplished the feat and gave the Italian invaders of Tripoli additional reason for patting themselves on the back and feeling like the vanguard of progress. While the balloon hovered high over the arid waste that lies back of the Mediterranean coast of northern Africa, the photographer trained his camera on a lot. «f holes in the desert —apparenty burrowed by animals. Instead of being that, however, they were all that was visible of villages teeming with hu-, man beings, of troglodyte villages, whose 1 inhabitants dig deep into the earth to find a home just as their forefathers did thousands of years ago, when the dirigible balloon and the camera and the Italian nation were things undreamed of 'this unique picture of underground dwellings taken from a point, far up in the air by the latest European visitor to the Cavemen has aroused renewed Interest in these African troglodytes, whom only a few have ever beheld. This most recent visitor sojourned among the cave-dwellerß of Matmata, back of the Mediterranean coast of Tunisia, and from these struck Mill further inland to the places where the “climbing troglodytes’’ dwell and the nomads of the desert store their grain and other valuables in storehouses which, though built above the ground, are fashioned exactly like the underground homes of their neighbors, thus leading scientists to believe that their ancestors burrowed into the ground. Curious, indeed, are the tales brought back by thiß latest adventurer into the land of the troglodytes. When he approached the underground dwellings of Matmata all the women whom he encountered ran away, covering their faces as they went. Me was taken Into homes deep down in the earth, yet furnished with carpets hanging from the earthen walls, with modern tables and benches. But those who went before him haye given us more minute details as to this extraordinary people. In 191 J an American, pointed out on every side as the first of his race to venture into the Matmata region and the dee ert spaces hidden behind it, sojourned for some time with the kaid, or chieftain, of Matmata, traveled with guides provided by this local potentate, far into the hinterland and gathered the materials for a long account of biß wanderings, to say nothing of a splendid series of pictured. Previous to this visit the troglodytes had entertained two French archaeologists and, still earlier —far back in the nineties, when they were scarcely known at all to the outside world —they opened their curious abodes to Brunp, a Danish explorer, who also lived with the kaid of his day and gave an interesting account of what he saw. . Frank Edward Johnson is the man who can lay claim to being the only American who has lived among the cavemen of northern Africa. While he was in Tripoli some years ago he became quite chummy with the kaid of Matmata. an intelligent native, whom the French masters of the land had appointed to rule over an inland tribe. This native later became kaid of Matmata and, happening to read in some American magaxlnes an article by Mr. Johnson on troglodytes, he wrote to the 1 author at his homl in Norwich, Conn., that he would improve his knowledge of the subject by paying his old friend a visit “I am a troglodyte myself.” the writer of the letter remarked. So Mr. Johnson left his Connecticut home, sailed across the sea to Tunis, transferred to a pmall coasting steamboat, which landed him at the desert port of Qebes, and after a wearisome journey over the sands, found himself within view of the village of Matmata. Or rather, he didn't find himself within of it. It was there, but he couldn’t see it. "Imagine arriving at a town of 6,000

inhabitants and nbt seeing a house — only a picturesque mosque built since the French occupation,” he said, in an article which he wrote for the National Geographic Magazine after his return to the United Stateß. When he finally looked groundward and located the village, he slipped, and stumbled down the sides of a huge hole dug in the ground, and found that It was a courtyard of his friend, the kaid, from which other openings led into living roomß and store rooms. Every house in Matmata 1b built in Just this way—one large hole, left uncovered, for a courtyard, and everything else leading out of it deep into the earth. The big holeß vary in depth gnd width, averaging about nine yards deep and fifteen yards In circumference. In the middle of each courtyard is a square masonry trough which pipes rainwater into a large cistern. This is a most important home adjunct, as water is very scarce. Every drop of rain is carefully preserved—so carefully that the unfortunate horses* goats, sheep, and donkeys belonging to the natives are watered only once in twenty-four hours. The kaid’B dwelling is a superior sort of place with its entrance walls whitewashed and several articles of European furniture disposed about the various holes that serve sb rooms. Another high-class dwellings of this undergroundvillage is that of Sheik. Ferdjani, who courteously invited Mr. Johnson to pick his way down the steep walls of the and pay him a visit. He describes the visit thus: =£ - "A young man burned a handful of dried esparto grass, which flamed up brightly and showed us the steps and turns down the tunnel. I almost fell over a donkey eating its hay. Great eyes glared at me from out of the blackness. On coming into the large round courtyard one would think the sheik the father of at least twelve infants, for children from two to ‘ten years old are curiously watching us. They are very fond of bonbons and sous. Whatever money one gives the , sheik is divided among the children.” He met the sheik’s beautiful little six-year-old daughter, who liked to be photographed with her playmate, little Ayesha, and her little brothers. After gratifying this taste for her a door of palm leaf boards was pushed aside and the American was ushered into the sheik's private room—or rather cave —cut out of the solid rock. In it was an old wooden chest, many guns, and a bedstead hewn out of rock, but provided with comfortable-looking native mattresses filled with wool and with native blankets. There was also an oil lamp made just like those the Greeks and Romans used. The kaid of Matmata was very polite to Wir. Johnson. Whenever the latter traveled about- in the neighbor hood to look up other burrowing communities he was provided with knives, spoons,.,forks, and napkins by his hospitable host He protested against this vehemently, as he was quite Willing to "rougbt it,*’ but the men accompanying him had received iron-clad instructions and refused to deviate from them the least bit. Under such auspices thß American bad ample opportunity to study the customs of the country, and he has much that Is interesting to Bay about them. Of the kaid's village he writes: “Matmata has its special code of etiquette. Never approach near enough to another' man’s dwelling to look down into the great circular courtyard and see his women. It is not only bad form, but it is dangerous. Bach dwelling has a number of white Kabyle dogs that keep a constant watch, and on your approach would fly out at you and like to tear you into pieces Never enter a passageway to a dwelling without sending in a small boy or girl to let the women know that you are coming In” From Matmata the American traveler went inland to Medenine, a town # most singular appearance, composed of thousands of “rhorfss," or cave-shaped dwellings, built abovq ground, and piled up on top of each other. The only way to. reach the upper ones is by means of projecting stones worn smooth by long centuries of use. The inhabitants leap from one to another of theae with the ability of monkeys, but to a stranger the up per layers of houses are practically

inaccessible, it is of Medenine that a French traveler said that its style of architecture is due to the fact that the forefathers of its present inhabitants were cave-dwellers and be-< queath to their their ideas of home-building, which the descendants proceeded t<s carry out, omitting only the mere detail of bur rowing into the ground. *• Medenine is. only partly inhabited. Most of the houses are used for storing grain by the tribesmen of the neighboring desert. It 1b a silent, melancholy place, likd a graveyard out In the desert. Beyond it are numerous villages peopled by what are known as "climbing troglodytes”—cave-dwellersi who dig into hillsides. They have a partiality for the most inaccessible eminences. “As soon aB I saw a particularly steep crag, a veritable eagel’s nest, I felt sure that It was honay-combed with troglodytes’ homes,” wrotes one French explorer, “and it usually was.” The reason Is that the French have only recefitly been able to introduce order and safeguard life in the sandy stretches where the cavemen live. Before the advent of French rule the district' was the scene of continual and sanguinary faction fights between the various tribes, of sudden raids by the nomads of the Sahara, who desolated any village that they caught unprepared, massacred its fighting men and carried the rest away to slavery. Therefore the natives tunneled and scooped out every peak they could find and stationed sentinels on the top most vantage points that the ap-

GREAT MEN IN COMMON CLAY

by C. A. BEATY

Models

The critics called him crazy when he said he would dare to take a little flyer and havlgate the air. they laughed when constant mishaps to all hie craft occurred, and chortled when he hollered some day he'd be a bird. But all things have a climax, be kept on sawing woodand cutting aerial didoes and finally made good. His freak machines went soaring athwart the skyline clear, no more was heard the horse-laugh, the hoot and mocking Jeer. The cr£tcs crowded round him and thumped him on the back, each one said be had praised him whc*. everything looked black. And now he takes it easy and lets the others fly, he sells to aviators and sees them sailing by- The dollars pour in swiftly, he bears an honored name, 'and thus rests well contented with fbrtune and with fame. Old Barth now suits him plenty, he scorns the dizzy flight, the hero bunk looks phony to Mr. Orville Wright (Copyright ISIS, by Universal Press Syndicate.)

proach of the enemy might be signaled in good season. One of the most striking of these eyries is Douirat—“a beehive mountain perched high over a deep ravine." It consists of countless caves and niches, dug in tiers along the mountainside, and surmounted by a “ksar" or citadel, now in ruins. “A huge, human anthill," the American traveler calls it.' Among the cave-dwellers of northern Africa is a. sprinkling of Jews, who do most of the business in the underground villages. In tlieir hands is an. extensive wine trade, lor, though the cave-men, like other Mohammedans, are supposed not to drink the juice of the grape, they are lax in their observance of this rule laid down by the Prophet. The people of Matmata and the rest of the troglodyte villages are miserably poon This is true to such an extent among some of them that they look forward with joy to a flight) of locusts, since by capturing plenty of these pests they can be assured of having something to eat for quit* a while. Strange as it may seem to one of the’ Western race, Imbued with certain set ideas about the East, those who have traveled among the troglodytes assert that their women, instead of being oppressed as Inferior beings by the men, possess great Influence in the community. They do a good deal of the burden-carrying, to be sure, but this Is because they pride themselves on their strength and insist on exerting it. Many have fine figures, cleanest features and beautiful eyes.

Words by BENE NORfiAM

ORVILLE WRIGHT.

The CIVIL WAR

FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK

March 17, 1863. A detachment of National troops under command of Colonel Spear attacked the Confederate breastworks on the Black Water, near Franklin, Va., but failed to carry them. The fight lasted for more than an hour. The Union, fprce lost one man killed and sixteen wounded. A spirited cavalry engagement oocured at Kelly’s Ford, on the Rappahannock river, Virginia, between a strong Union reconnbitering force under General Averill and a body of Confederate cavalry under Fitz-Hugh Lee, in which the latter, after a most desperate struggle of four hours, were repulsed and pursued six miles. By order of the war department Col. James B. Fry was detailed pro-vost-marshal general of the United States, in pursuance of section five of the act approved March 3, 1863, for enrolling and calling out the National forcer, and for other purposes of the draft act. The British steamer Calypso ran the bolckade at Charleston, S. C., and reached her dock without suffering any damage from the blockading fleet. Rear Admiral Farragut, on board the flagship Hartford, in front of Natchez, Miss., sent a letter to the mayor of the city informing him that If the Union fleet were fired upon by citizens or partisans he would bombard the city. - - i. Gold was quoted at Richmond, at four dollars and twenty-five cents premium. March 18, 1863. ' 4 Captain Perkins of the First Louisiana National cavalry, left Brashear City with a party of his men in order to meet a Confederate cavalry expedition which had attacked a squad of men of the Ope Hundred and Sixteenth New York at Berwick’s Bay. About half-past three he fell in with the Confederates at a point two miles beyond the National lines,- and charged them with so much spirit that they retreated hastily. The cavalry continued the chase, and, a running fight was kept up for eight or ten miles, where re-enforcemehts were waiting to receive the Confederates. Their numbers greatly exceeding his, Captain Perkins gave the order to retreat, but was closely followed by the Confederates, who kept up the fight for several miles of the retreat. Captain Jullen of the First Tennessee National cavalry was killed by partisans near Hillsborough, Tenn. ' Peace resolutions passed the lower house of the New Jersey legislature. During the debate on the resolutions James M. Scovel delivered an elaborate Union speech. March 19, 1863. The British steamer Georgians, with a cargo of medicines, drygoods and six pieces of field artillery of the Whitworth and Blakely patterns, was disabled and subsequently destroyed by the United States blockading squadron off Charleston, S. C. , The Union gunboat Chenango was launched at Greenpoint, N. Y. A party of soldiers sent to Rush county, Indiana, to arrest deserters, succeeded in taking sbn but while on their way to the cars with their prisoners they were attacked by a large body of Southern sympathizers, armed with rifles, who freed the prisoners. Two companies of infantry sent from Indianapolis again took the deserters into custody. A skirmish occured on Dusk river, near Franklin, Tenn. The schooner Fannie Lewis arrived at London, haring run the blockade of Wilmington with a cargo of cotton and turpentine. March 20,1863. A Confederate force under Generals Wheeler and Morgan was worsted by a National force under CoL A. S. Hall, 1 of the One Hundred and Fifth Ohio, in a battle at Vaught’s Hill, near Milton. Tenn. The battle was closely contested throughout, and well fought on both sides. Preponderance of force and support eventually decide in favor of the Union troops. The Federals abandoned an attempt to get to the rear of Vicksburg by the Steele Bayou route. March 21, 1863. A fight occurred at Cottage Grove, Tenn., between a force of Union troops stationed in that place and a body of Confederate irregulars, said to have numbered nearly two thousand men. The fight, which hung in the balance for more than two hours, was finally determined by the arrival; of Union re-enforcements, who compelled the Confederates to retreat, with severe loss. They were pursued for several miles. A large force of Union troops, under the'command of Generals Stuart and Bherman, in conjunction with the fleet of gunboats under Admiral Porter, returned to the Yazoo, after a successful reconnolterlng expedition to Steele’s Bayou, Black Bayou, Muddy Ba/ou and Deer Creek, Miss. In Deer Creek they were attacked in strong force by the enemy, but, after a contest of several hours duration, he was driven off with considerable locs. The expedition destroyed two thousand bales of ootton, fifty thousand bushels, of corn, and the bouses and cotton

gins of the Confederate planters afoiqp the route. March 22, 1863. At ten o’clock in the morning * scouting party of fifty men, belonging to the Fifth Missouri cavalry, encountered Quantrel’s partisans a few miies from Blue Springs, Mq. They were roughly handled, retreating after a short skirmish with a loss of nine killed, five missing and several wounded. The Confederate casualties were slight _.. j The steamer Granite City was captured off the Eluethera, Bahama, by the United States gunboat Tioga. Mount Sterling, Ky., garrisoned by a detachment of National troops under the commend of CoL John D. Rust, was captured by a body of Confederate cavalry, which left Beaufort, under Colonel Cluke. March 23,1863. The treaty between the United Stateß and Liberia, concerning the settlement of the African republic with negroes from the United States, was officially promulgated. The schooner Charm was captured at the mouth of Indian River inlet, , Florida, by a boat expedition, from the National steamer Sagamore. The expeditionary force of Union troops under the command of CoL John D. Rust, which left Beaufort. S. C., ou the nineteenth instant, arrived" at Jacksonville, Fla. The Federals, after a sharp struggle, retook Jit. Sterling, (Ky., which had been captured by the Confederates two days before. The Federals abandoned an attempt to get to the rear of Vicksburg for purpose of operating against ths stronghold by way of Yazoo Pass. (Copyright. 1913. by W. G. Chapman.) I —:

THOUGHT MAKES THE HOME

Most Liberal Expenditures, Without Tastes, Can Not Be Made to Produce ths Charm Desired. It is not necessarily the large and wealthy house that is the prettiest; .the cottage may far exceed it In beauty and present the most perfect picture of home, whereas the mansion may be cold and formal. Most of ns visit the house that never appears to be lived In, where there Is no charm, no taste, no warmth; yet the furniture is good, there is no lack of money to keep up a good appearance, and there are servants to do the necessary work. , The woman who Insists on her rooms always looking pretty will spend a little money each week on flowers or pot ferns. Small laurels In pots look well and last well; they also make economical window plants. Of course a window-box should find a place on the ground floor, sill If not above, and be filled witfl evergreens in winter and flowers in summer. Bias tiles or green tiles look well in flower boxes. Flctrue frames are often allowed to bang on the walls in a disgraceful condition especially white-painted frames, and those can so easily be . freshened up with a coat of enamel paint, which should not be stinted when required. Then, again, the material of upholstered furniture is sometimes as much soiled as ths picture frames, and its unfit condition is a great offense to the eye. It may not be convenient to re-upholster, bu at any rate chintz or cretonne loose covers could be provided. Let all draperies used in the house be clean, otherwise there will be » lack of freshness about the house. Send chair and soft covers and ctuvtains to the wash before their soiled condition is over-aggressive, and bear the same rule In; mind with re-. gard to cushion covers: The pretty home Is ths one that te clean and tasteful.

His Father’s Profession.

Frank Wllstach, the author of several Interesting, though as yet unpublished works, Is never without a new anecdote. This one concerns the answer of the small son of a western critic to a number of other children who were boasting of the bread-wlnnlg occupations of their respective parents. “My tether owns a drug store," proudly Insisted one. 'My tether owns a livery stable and all the hones,” boasted another. "My tether is going to be policeman.” insisted a third. And then up spoke the four-year-old, with definite and complete confidence in his own particular claim: “My father’s a dam-at-lt kick-lt.” Mr. Wllstach accepts this as further proof that from the mouths of babes and sucklings words of wisdom are wont to telL—New York Mali •

Historic London House.

A fine old Soho mansion, No. 7S Dean street, next door to the Royal theater, which la being offered for sale, has great hlatorie Interest. It was formerly the town residence of Sir James Thornhill, one of the fathers of British painting, from thin paternal abode Hogarth eloped with Thornhill's only daughter, Jane, who made him ad admirable wife. The house still possesses a beautiful painted staircase, the Joint wprk of Hogarth and his father-in-law. It waa at his Dean street residence that Queen Anne sat to Thornhill for her portrait She came In a sedan chair, and her visits are oommemorated by the title of a hostelry on the opposite side of the street, 'The Crown and Two Chairmen,” which without thla explanation would bear the most pussling public hdaae sign la —London Chronicle.