A NATION OF "SLACKERS."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 1 November 1907, Page 4

A NATION OF "SLACKERS."

The Daily Telegraph' has a most inforniativo article on Moorish duwacteristics, by i correspondent who evidently knows his subject thoroughly. The Moors, ho says, are a nation of "slackers," to use a shing word which may one day be good English. Many of them possess energy, acuten* ss, and a start of perseverance; but they have neither the. power nor the desire to finish anything completely. To be thorough seems to involve a trespass upon the rights of Providence; system is tin abomination to them. "That horse you aie buying will break down in a weJk," one may say to a man; "ho is goiuy lamo now." "Wliat would you hav«? It is the gaii that Allah gave him; he will do to get along with." The tribal fight is perhaps tho most perfect specimen ef tho inconsequent and unfinished things in Morocco. If a fraction of tho flghta wore fought to a fin'sh, and the spoils of Victory duly seized, the oountry would become a desert. But the Moors never fight to a finish. The present Sultan was onoe pursued to the walb of Fer, which was ready to welcome tho rebeh. But tho rebels merely stayed before the town for a fev,' days, indulged ui much firing of blank cartridges—their favorite diversion—and then left tho Sul. tail to rr.lly his scattered forces. The writer has seen Moon fire for hours at marks .it joint-Vank range and never hit them, and yet show no feeding of irritation. The handling of deadly weapons and the noise seem to satisfy them. "J>t .:s fire away. If .Allah wills, we shall hit the pomegranate." He once saw a man turn over a stcne in a pool under which were some fish. The fish <l?rtod up a narrow channel to the next pool, and the man exclaimed, "May their fathers be burned, wicked ones; they have fled from me." It had never occurred to him to block the channel. ; 'From tho Sultan, who is ready to spend his last most painfully acquired loan in importing Circassian women or fresh troupes of dancers, to the came' driver, v/ho eats up tho provision ho has made for a ten days' journey in tjlie first two, the Moors aro in this particular alike, they do not shut- their eyes to consequences —there is no need for such exertion; their nature and their religion combined enab'c them to keep their eyes open and yet see nothing."