Elizabeth Sinkler Coxe's Tales from the Grand Tour, 1890-1910

Chapter Two: A Stop in Algiers, 1893

21 u chapter two A Stop in Algiers, 1893 The route from America to the Old World often began with a stop in Algeria . In this letter from Algiers, Lizzie and Eck were enjoying the beauty of French-dominated Algeria. This was the height of colonial empire. The Mediterranean was a secure inland sea for traveling Americans. The steamships were large and comfortable. The destinations were French- or British-controlled. There was every accustomed convenience, from English chemist shops and English tailors to English churches and fine, well-staffed hotels with beautiful gardens. Cooks Steam line had offices in Algiers. There were English hairdressers, English-made piano stores, English cigar stores, riding schools where ladies were taught and escorted, steam dyers and cleaners (where English was spoken), English shirts readymade or made to order, with scarves and foulards of all kinds, millinery stores with a large assortment of hats for ladies and children (advertising English spoken ), even a store called Old England at 4 Boulevard de la Republique, Algiers, where there were ladies’tailors for dresses, riding, hunting, and tennis suits. Indeed, everything was available to make the English, American, or French visitor totally happy.1 It was extraordinary that Lizzie and her entourage of young ladies were totally comfortable in a society with such different cultural mores.Women were treated like slaves.“The position of the Arab woman in Algeria is theoretically much preferable to that of her sex in Morocco or Turkey. The strictly equitable nature of the French rule forbids her being treated with harshness or sold into slavery; but practically she is not much better off 1. George W. Harris, The Practical Guide to Algiers, 9th ed. (London: George Philip & Son, 1899), 5–74 (advertising section). 22 Tales from the Grand Tour than in other Oriental countries. She is the victim of a stupid and brutalizing social code, founded on and bound up in a religion whose theory is pure, but whose practice is barbarous. She is either condemned or maltreated ; a toy to the rich, a beast of burden to the poor.”2 Why indeed was Algiers so popular with the well-to-do traveler? Climate and health were two popular explanations. Individuals with bronchitis, asthma, afflictions of the heart, Bright’s disease, and pulmonary consumption flocked to Algiers because of a winter climate that was dry and warm. “According to recent statistics, the proportion of deaths from pulmonary consumption among the European population of Algeria during a period of six years, was one in forty, while the proportion of deaths from the same disease in Paris and London was one in five.”3 Lizzie and Eckley began what was to become a lifelong passion for travel in each other’s company. Lizzie wrote to her sister Caroline Sidney Sinkler (1860–1948), fondly called Carrie and sometimes Cad. Carrie lived with Lizzie at 1604 Locust Street in Philadelphia. She also had her own estate at the Highlands in Ambler, Pennsylvania. Lizzie often brought her nieces and nephews with her on these travels. On this trip she included Julia Ursula Sinkler (b. 1872), the oldest daughter of Wharton Sinkler (1845– 1910). Wharton, Lizzie’s brother, was a prominent neurologist in Philadelphia , and had been a protégé of S. Weir Mitchell and other famous medical men. Hotel Continental Mustapha Superieur, Alger4 Tuesday, January 16 [sometime prior to 1894] 2. Ibid., 16. 3. Ibid., 1–7. “Algiers does not offer the same distractions as Nice, Cannes, or the winter resorts of Italy. The chief attractions of Algiers are its climatic advantages . Apart from the Municipal Theatre, . . . there are no local festivities worthy of the name. . . .Visitors to Algiers should not miss viewing the sacrifice of the hen which takes place in the winter, every Wednesday morning. . . . The Governor General’s ball, which is given about the 15th of March, is a very fashionable gathering ; it offers to the visitor the means of studying the local society of Algiers, and . . . it affords the facility of contemplating the Arab Sheiks and Aghas in the full glare of their dashing costumes. The Caids, with their red burnouses are there in overwhelming numbers” (65). 4. Mustapha Superieur was a comfortable English- and French-dominated suburb of Algiers. “Persons who intend spending more than one or two nights in A Stop in Algiers, 1893 23 Dearest Carrie, This picture does not give you a very good idea of...