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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 15, 1903)
About the Big French Colonial Empire (Copyright, IMS, by Frank O. Carpenter.) . 1AKI3, Nov. . (Special Corre fr"l I iondence of The Bee.) I have occn loosing into me rrencn- man's share of the white min'i burden. It attracts but little at- tention outside Ma own country, but It Is a big load and It costs him more than $.!0, CCO.000 a year. There Is a minister of the colonies at Paris who has charge of the expenditures, and In addition the province of Algeria and that of French India have representatives In the Chamber of Deputies to present the special want of their coun tries. Few people realise the extent of the French colonial possessions. They are greater than those of nny other nation ex cepting Great Britain. They are twenty times as large as France Itself; they cover an area greater than all Europe, and In Africa alone they nre as large as the United States proper. France has more ground In Asia than In France, Its South American possessions are as big as the state of New York, and It has also Islands In the West Indies, In Australasia and the South seas. Farts of Its territory are thickly populated. In all there are mora than 0,00,CCO inhabitants, of whom the majority ore as barbarous as any people on the face of the clobe. , The beet of all the French colonies is Al geria. The French like it most and they are spending the most money on It. They are building railroads throughout the prin cipal parts of It. ond tliey have already constructed about 2,000 miles of wagon roads. All of' the ports are being im proved, and every town of any size has now Its French quarter. The country ha a good postal service, and there are more than tOO telegraph offices, through which 2,000,000 messages are ser.t every year. Algeria has already considerable com merce, Its imports and exports approxlmat- ' lng 1100,000,000 a year. The most of this trade Is with France, and the French look upon the country as their chief granary and market garden. It lies Just across the Mediterranean, so near that fast steam ers can reach It In twenty-four hours, and thnt the ordinary, every-day passage Is twenty-seven hours. Winter vegetables and tropical fruits are now sent by the ship load to Marseilles, and thence distributed to all the cities of France, and even to Paris and London. The tine to Purls Is less than forty hours. Iiut first let me tell you svnethlng about Algeria. It Is one of the brst countries In Africa. Watered by the moisture from the Mediterranean winds, It has a rich soli and n oi me mosi aeugnirui c.i nates on the face of the globe. It la a lind of moun tain and valleys, backed ly the sandy plateaus of the Desert of Sahara. Its area la tbout four times as larco as that of Pennsylvania, and Its population comprises about 1,(00,000, of whom 300.000 are French. The natives are Berbers and Arabs, with an admixture of Moors, Turks and negroes. The Berbers belong to the same race as our own. They are farmers and very In dustrious. The French use them as labor ers, and with their aid are setting out vineyards, olive groves and orange or chards. They also cultivate the soil for them selves, raising rich crops of wheat and other cereals. One of the chief exports of Algeria Is figs, of which 27,0C'0,CC0 pounds are exported In a year, and another Is dates, which come from the date palms scattered over the country, and especially throughout the oases of the Sahara. In Algeria the French have materially Improved the condition of the people. They have established primary schools in every part of the country, and also schools of higher education and communnl colleges. There are 100.000 students In the primary schools, about 6,000 In the high schools and a large number In the colleges. About v fl.COO.OOO Is now being annually spent on education. The capital of AlKerla Is Africa's French metropolis. It Is the city of Algiers, con taining about 100.000 people, being consider ably smaller than Tunis, but far more Im portant In commerce and trade. The French have spent millions of dollars on the har bor and In beautifying the city. A long pier has been built ao that the largest steamers can coma In without danger. Great warehouses have been constructed, and there are fine hotels and good bust- iivm vmumiii-;-. tiv iuwu hub siieci ni and electric lights, and altogether the lower parts of It look more like Paris than Africa. The same condition prevails at Oran, the chief port of western Algeria, and at Constontlne, a thriving city in the east, each having Its French quarter. Adjoining Algeria Is Tunisia, which Is now under the protection of France. It has an African bey as its nominal ruler, but It Is the French governor who tells him how to act and handles the cash. A great many Improvements are being made there since the French took charge of the country. The canal which has been built connecting the City of Tunis directly with the sea has greatly Improved commerce and today there are large wharves along the banks of the canal, equipped with modern lining nglnes, cranes and port railways. Tunis ) K '4 Is the biggest city on the African sea board, and Its trade Is with all parts of the Mediterranean sea, and especially Eu rope. It Is connected by rallway.,with Al giers and Oran and by caravan with all parts of the Sahara. The population of Tunisia Is almost two millions, consisting chiefly of " Bedouin Arabs, Berbers and about 60,000 Jews. There are also 40,000 Frenchmen and 82,000 other foreigners, of whom 67.C00 are Italians. The French have been doing much to de velop education there. They have estab lished a large number of schools In Tunis, nnd In the Interior have 600 primary schools, of which one-third are for teach ing girls. The bulk of the population Is Mohammedan, and these girls' schools are to a large extent a new thing. Tunisia has now 600 miles of railway and several thou sand miles of telegraph lines. It has a small trade with the United States, ten days bring required to go from Tunis to New Tork. One of the queerest possessions of the French la the Desert of Sahara. They claim to own the whole western half of It. hav ing a territory about half as large as the United States proper, comprising hundreds ' of oasas and the best caravan routes. A big trade Is carried on across the French 8ahara from the rich countries of the Sou dlan south of it to Algeria and Tunisia, and it Is now proposed to build a railroad over these sandy wastes. This railroad will be about as long as from New Tork to Salt Lake. ' It will go from the Mediter ranean southward Into the Sahara, and will then branch out, one line going to Lake ' Chad, where It will connect with a line to Dahomey and the Atlantic, and the other going In a southwestwardly direction to Timbuktu and the regious of the upper Niger. The road can never be more than a military one, and It Is doubtful whether , it would pay Its running expenses. Today all travel across the desert Is by ca-neis. The beasts are raised . especially for freighting and .there Is a rcsrulcr busi ness of breeding them for caravan travel. There are freight animals and paos.-rger animals, the latter having a gait as easy as that of a good saddle horse. A g:od riding camel Is worth MOO and a giod freight animal can be bought for SCO. Many .of the caravans have D00 1 camels, GO C00 camels coming every year across the Sa hara to Timbuktu. These caravan routes are as well laid out as ral'.road iojt?s. There are no special tracks, bul the guides understand Just where to go and they al.n to take In the chief oases on the way. The French metropolis of the northern Sahara Is the oasis of Biskra, which Is reached by railroad from Algiers. Here there la quits a large foreign colony, nu merous French and other Europeans going there for their health. Biskra la 150 miles south of Conatantlne, and It takes a day'a ride on the train to the French oasis, having a population of not more than a half a mile wide at Its widest pluce. It Is one of the lurgeit of the French oases, having a population of about 10,000, Including LOOO French troops and about 1.S00 civil Europeans, mostly Fiench and Italians. The place Is noted for lis dates, of which it has 160,000 trees, pro ducing about 6,000 tons of dates every year. The trees are carefully Irrigated and each tree is taxed by the government. The French have an enormous territory known as the French Soudan, lying south of the western part of the Sahara. This strip goes half way across the continent, the British territories of Nigeria, the Gold Coast and Sierra Leone, and also Liberia jf H T , ... i ' V-, ..- .. WHERE TRANSPORTATION IS 8TTLL BT CAMKLS. " v - MADAGASCAR GIRLS PART and the Kameruns being cut out of It. It reachea the Atlantic ocean in several p'.aces and embraces the French Congo, Dahomey and Seneca!. This territory is practically unexplored, hut It Is being rapidly opened up. A mili tary government has been established at Timbuktu and alor.g the Niger, and the other provinces are governed from Dukar .In Senegal. It Is at Dakar that the French' governor general of West Africa lives, and there are the chief offices with secretaries and clerks. Each province has a lieutenant governor, but all report to the governor general at Dakar. Dakar is noted for Its excellent harbor, which Is now being widened and deepened by the French. The clfy lies right under the shadow of Cape Verde and is connected with St. I.ouls, the capital of Senegal, by railway. It has four French steamship lines, which make regular passages between It and France, and there are British and German lines to Liverpool and Hamburg. Tho F.ench are Jut beginning to de velop their West African provinces. They are laying out railroads In French Guinea and deepening the harbors. They have built a Jetty about 1,000 feet long at Con akry, the -capital and chief seaport, and they are cutting wagon roads Into the Interior. In Dihomey there are 6.000 natives now at work on a railroad which will eventually extend through the country to Lake Chad and there connect with the line across the Sahara to Algiers. Fifty miles of this road has already been constructed and the work will be steadily pushed. Rail roads are being built In the French Congo and also from St. Loul, in Senegal, east ward. These West African colonies are un healthy. Dahomey Is hot and malarious and the French Congo Is noted for Its fevers. The French can never develop the country except by native labor. They un derstand this and are ac'lng accordingly. They have set out p'antatl'ns In Dahomey some distance back from the coast and are raising cotton there for shipment to France. The cotton is better than the American, and I am told that It brings a higher price In Europe. Cotton fields have been laid out In the French Congo and elsewhere. The labor Is cheap, costing not r ! .4.- l I 5 J if- rr OF THE FRENCHMAN'S BURDEN. more than 10 or 20 cents a day. In soma of the colonies the people are very Indus trious. Education goes on apace. There are mis slonarles In nearly all the colonies and mlsBlon schools .as well as government schools. In the Congo colony alone fifty six schools have been established, and a proportionate number in Dahomey and on the Ivory coast. All these colonies trade chiefly with Europe. They buy bright colored calicoes, beads, knives and notions, trading Ivory, rubber, palm seeds and palm oil for them. 8o far the only thing they get from America la our leaf tobacco, which Is sent there in hogsheads, being first rliipped to Liverpool. The freight rate from Liverpool to Dahomey Is about three fourths of a cent a pound. The French have materially changed the conditions In Madagascar. They have claimed to own that Island for hundreds of years, but It Is only seven or eight yeirs ago that It was formally declared a French co'.ony. The queen was then deposed and carried to the French Island of Reunion, whence she was afterward taken to Al giers. Madagascar Is the fourth largest Island In the world. It has more land than France, and Its population Is 2,600,000. About one-third of the natives are Hovas, a most Intelligent people, who until the French came were the controlling element of the Island. In addition to them are the Sakalavas on the . west coast and other tribes on the east, north and south. la the coast towns there are many Arab trad ers and also many negroes from Africa, who were brought In as slaves. The Island of Madagascar consists of a high plateau with a fringe of unhealthy forest around the edges. Its chief port is Tamatave, on the east coast, and the cap ital Is Tananarive, In the heart of the plateau. The French are building a rail road from one to the other. It will be over a hundred miles long, and thirty-five miles have already been built. Tananarlvo stands on a ridge 600 feet high In the center of a rich farming coun try. It has comfortable two-story houses, and the Hovas, who form Its chief popula tion, have many people of wealth. The t (Contineud on Page Sixteen.)