On this page
-
Text (1)
-
96 SOCIETY IN ALGIERS.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Second Abticxe. Al Attempts Geria As Aga...
against tlie Arabs , or dangers run by European colonists coming to Algeria . There is something in the air of Africa which
excites the nervous system and _predisjDoses to deeds of violence . Perhaps , too , the intermingling of so many different races is the
cause of frequent quarrels and assassinations . Each of these nations has its particular manner of killing , and an experienced physician
can tell by inspecting the wound by what hands it was probably inflictedwithout asking any questions whatever . The Italians
ha-, bitually use the stiletto , or a poignard with a straight sharp blade ; the Spaniards the common knife , rarely ever fire-arms ; the Arabs
; use guns , knives , but chiefly a large stick , which they handle with . amazing dexterity . The number of suicides in Algiers has _heen
prodigious , sometimes two or three in one day . I have remarked that when the wind blows from the south , which wind is here called
the sirocco , the increase in the number of crimes is very re-¦ markable animals are ; not also onl more y irritable are men and inclined more to inclined commit to suicide acts of , violence but all .
The most usual motive for suicide is _disappointment in love ; and it is a curious fact , that women rarely commit the crime from this
motive , in twenty-five years of experience we have only known of two cases . One of the most curious characteristics of the European
pO inventing _23 ulation - and is the spreading great deli abroad ght false which news the . peop If le a vessel seem to is delayed take in ,
and does not arrive at the time expected , it will certainly be said that the vessel has been lost , and all its passengers have perished . It is
very common to hear that the commander-in-chief has been assassinatedand that the Arab tribes have risenor that thore is a
revolution in , France and a new government proclaimed , , or that a European village has been attacked and destroyed by the Arabsor that the
, cholera has killed half the troops stationed at such or such a place . The tendency to lieing and exaggeration is one of the attributes of
the people of the South , and from the peculiar circumstances of the see climat ¦ with e and their life minds in Alg rather iers , this than disposition with their has eye increased sand by ; the thinking people
aloud give Tent in words to every caprice of the imag , ination , founded sometimes upon an almost invisible atom of reality . A great proportion
of the population of a new country is always made up of those who are not wanted in the old countriesand this has been par excellence
the case with Algeria . An immense , number of people usurping false titles and qualifications have made their appearance in the colony ,
and generally have been very successful , and have often been appointed by Government to posts of responsibility . -Some were convicts
who had escaped from the French galleys , and a great many from the Spanish and Italian prisons . We remember one who pretended to
be a professor from a university , when he had only been the porter ; anotherwho proclaimed himself a physicanhaving only been a
, , student for some months ; another offered himself as a captain , only
having served as a common soldier ; another proclaimed himself as
96 Society In Algiers.
96 SOCIETY IN ALGIERS .
-
-
Citation
-
English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Oct. 1, 1860, page 96, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01101860/page/24/
-