Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1918 — FEZ, A STRONGHOLD OF ISLAM [ARTICLE]

FEZ, A STRONGHOLD OF ISLAM

Capital of Morocco la Regarded as a Fair Specimen of What the Culture Produces. Fez is the capital of Morocco. It Is an odd mixture of progress and medievalism, or tolerance and fanataclsm, of learning and superstition. These generalizations are the typical reaction of the occidental visitor to the life and manners of Fez. As a matter of fact, writes Niksah, Fez Is no city of

contradictions, but quite consistent in view of the fact that the culture of the Orient and Occident have proceeded along somewhat different lines. Fea is a stronghold of Islam and a fair specimen of what the culture produces. There is much poverty, much oppression, much disease; there is also much charity, a justice that is sometimes disconcertingly swift and an atmosphere that can only be described as one of resigned cheerfulness. Commerce is conducted on a ludicrously diminutive scale, but the total of a month’s trad ing in a six by ten emporium often mounts into staggering figures. Slaves are still to be had by those who know where to buy, and religious feeling runs so high that several Europeans have been killed for polluting the sacred atmosphere of mosques with their presence. . Popular ignorance often reaches to the point where the individual in question is not cognizant of the existence of the American continent, and in the library of Fez are numerous absolutely, priceless treasures in’ the shape of ancient tomes of learning. Certain books of Euclid, never seen by European eyes, are said to be guarded here. A garage sign in Yokohama say® “Cars for Rent” in seven languages.