Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 141, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 June 1918 — APPEALS TO EUROPEAN EYES [ARTICLE]

APPEALS TO EUROPEAN EYES

Picturesque Island of Zanzibar Has a Charm Possessed by Few Other Places In Africa. The little island of Zanzibar is one of the most picturesque places in Africa—one of the few places of the dark continent that is picturesque at all. That is because it is an old, historic island, with traces of vanished peoples, accretions of old customs, memorials of forgotten events. The greater part of Africa is primitive, nature in a state of nature, and nature is magnificent, beautiful aweinspiring, terrifying, but rarely picturesque. The latter is a characterization of the works of man, which comes to them with time. The frame is what makes the picture, and it is only man who builds frames. The narrow streets of Zanzibar, the massive carven doorways, the stern old houses, the timeworn markets, the crooked, mysterious alleyways, -the riot of color and the babel of tongues, the still heat that throws over it all an illusion of vagueness like a play, seen on the stage, make a picture that will remain fresh in the memory for years. The island is set like a fluted emerald in a green sea, with a still blue sky burning changeless overhead. In the past Zanzibar was the home of all the wonder and cruelty of the East, settled and harried by the Arab and Moslem traders from Egypt and Turkey. Today it is a British protectorate, with a figurehead sultan, who spends much of his time and money in European travel.