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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 4, 1904)
a WW r J .' 4' A' .A J S Z 1 V - LVc fa mm, v V r Mm ifLIII'f '1 HARLES FRANCOIS, a French-Amertean en gineer whose profession haa kept htm In the desert of Sahara for more than tour years. was married three and one-half years ago, and lnce that time he and his wife liave been divorced and remarried thirty-two times. This Is not the strangest feature of this ex traordinary record, either; for under the laws If wtilch Mr. Francois and his wife llvs she has been mar fed thirty-two times in the Intervals between her divorce hid remarriage to tier husband. The divorce records of the orld contain no stranger case. Charles Francois left Chicago five years ago to re im to his native land, France. He was born in France klrty-three years ago. but resided m the United States from le time he was 7 years of age until five years ago. He was lucated as a civil engineer and wheiv he secured an oppor nlty through Influential friends of his father to go to Igerta as an engineer In the employment of the government sW S m i 1 aW2. f-i .vC.Y -'Ml. '""kfSlii.n. it V -7 of France he went. Tbe French government, after Its treaty with Great Britain In by which the latter nation re nounced all claims to the Sahara region south of the Al gerian frontier to the headwaters of the Nile, decided to survey a route for a railroad from Biskra to Lake Chad, across the broadest part of the great desert of Sahara. It Is In this work that Charles Francois has been employed. In letters written to a cousin In Chicago Mr. Francois as described the famous desert which, by the way. Is far t'aa iprriDia tt rritiuii uiau mv uiu bb "iuudi, wci viviuicu II ana ns nai sent d&ck many pnuiugraiJiiB ui mv men, women, and children of the region that until a few years ago was supposed to be inhabited -by semi-naked savages. To prove that the people of the desert are not savages, that they are not Arabs, or negroes, Mr. Francois sent his Chicago cousin a picture of his wife, a young woman of the Kabyle people. Her photograph shows her to be of the Span ish type of beauty. Her features are softer and more reg ular, however, than those of the Spanish women. Mr. Francois married his Kabyle wife three and one-half years ago, after he had been in Algeria less than a year. She was then 12 years old the age at which Kabyle girls usually marry. Under the ordinary laws of the Kabyle peo ple Mr. Francois would have purchased his bride outright and there would have been no further ceremony; but she was not an ordinary girl. Her father was wealthy and had seen something of the world. He had traveled to Cairo, crossed the Mediterranean to Italy, visited Paris and Madrid, and returned to Algeria, satisfied with his own land, his own people, and his own laws. His daughter. Ma rah, had ac companied him on his Journey and was not, therefore, an untutored child of the desert. More than that, she had been educated to speak French and Syaninh, knew something of muslo and the refinements of civilised life. I . Francois married her under the laws and customs of her people. This was a concession both made to native senti ment. Otherwise they ordered their lives by European ( models. Mrs. Francois had shocked her own people by re ; fusing to veil her face In publlo upon her return from the ,citlnent. Never again would she hide her face. But the married life of Charles Francois was not with out Its own troubles. How these troubles began, and how they led to thirty-two divorces and slzty-four marriages lis best told In a letter written toy Mr. Francois to his cousin in Chicago. He tells his own story as follows: , . . And now having finished with business affairs 1 , 1 1- V2f V - I will writs briefly of those mors personal Tou will re member In my last letter I told you of my first Quarrel with Marah, my wife. Well. I have been In the fiend's own trouble ever since. "I think I told' you that Marah has a temper of her own. Usually she is the sweetest and most amiahle of girls; but once 1n awhile we quarrel furiously. Of course, when I'm angry Its all over In a minute; but with Marah it usu ally requires about two days for her good nature to get the tetter of her. Then she is so sincerely repentant, so loving, and so dutiful that a man with a heart of brass oouldn t help forgiving her. Our first serious quarrel taught me the queer complex ities of the Kabyle divorce laws. Marah, In a fit of anger, threw her wedding ring on the floor and went home to her lather. "This, under Kabyle law, , constituted an absolute di vorce. I didn't know It. however, until two days afUrwards. " I waited two days for Marah to come home and then went after her. She was repentant and the same loving, af fectionate girl; but when I asked her to come home shs shook her head " ' I cannot; tt In unlawful.' M8he couldn't explain and called her father. " I'm sorry, my boy,'- hs said, but you see you and Marah are divorced. She could not return to your home wlflhout a great scandal.' " ' Why can't we be remarried, then?' I cried. "Well, you might; but first Marah must marry some other man. Then, If he will consent, she can seoure a di vorce from him and remarry you.' " I was In despair; but Marah, with her woman's wit, found a way. ' " ' I might marry Scotch John,' she said, demurely. "Scotch John, you know, la my assistant. He Is a true blooded Scotchman and would go through fire for me; but I didn't like the Idea of Marah marrying him, even as a for mality. He might not be willing to give her up. " ' Trust me for that,' said Marah. " Scotch John couldn't see anything funny about It, but he agreed to marry Marah, on her solemn pledge to secure a divorce lrwtanter. This is called the mostahlll ' under Kabyle laws. Well, to make a long story short, Marah married Scotch John under the quickest and simplest ceremony known to Kabyle customs, and five minutes afterwards she threw ths wedding ring at him and went home to her father. The pext day we were married again. "That was two years and a half ago. Do you believe H, ws have gone through that thing thirty-two times? Well, we have, and every time good old Scotch John has come to the rescue. Thirty-two times that blessed Scotchman has married my divorced wife, and he is getting used to It. " The ceremony is always the same, a.'d Marah, Scotch. John, and myself have reduced H to a system. We have become so expert that Marah and 1 get a divorce In the morning, she marries Scotch John In the afternoon, end by evening she Is Mrs. Charles Francois again." There Is probably not another divorce record in the world to equal the experience of Charles Francois. Mr. Francois says It Is a mistake to think that civiliza tion Is not making progress In central Sahara. Up to a few years ago Kabyle women lived In the closest seclusion. They never appeared in public. They were Ignorant of their more enlightened sisters In more civilised lands. But as ths French have opened new caravan routes across the desert the con tact with Europeans has given the Kabyles a new view of life. Wealthy tribesmen have visited Algiers and even made journeys to Alexandria and Cairo. They have been quick to see the advantages of civilization and to appreciate its re finements. The Kabyle women have profited by the change. Many a wife and daughter wear European clothes, ant) they have the same intuitive skill In dressing in good taste that is so characteristic of the French. Just now the Kabyles are the mont warlike people In ths desert regions of Africa, but they have been described as the Japanese of the 8ahara. Already the men go to war with repeating rifles, smokeless powder, and machine guns. The women are wearing dresses bought In Algiers, and in time the Kabyles promise to be a considerable factor In Al gerian life. Charles Francois writes to his cousin in Chicago that In another year he hopes to return to the United States and that he will of course bring his Kabyle wife with him. Hs will have to cure her of her fondness for divorce, however, If he expects her to be contented in the United States. : 4.-.- k - .- uiJ - i - - 'Bk. -t . r jst & mr . . w 0 l, I 3 jJa.S SSBBJHjBttSJSMSSSJBalSBHBSSk