Page:The Burton Holmes lectures; (IA burtonholmeslect04holm).pdf/212

 THE WHITE FOLK, UNMISTAKABLY FRENCH

THE SPAHI BARRACKS

means of communication with the outer world. Curious to investigate, we obtained from the military authorities a permit to send a telegram from that tower to Chicago. "A telegram?" you exclaim, "but there is no telegraph." And you are right, for Touggourt had not yet been reached by that ever-spreading network of electric wires which enmeshes almost the entire world. In the desert they still relied upon the optical telegraph at the time of our visit in the year of 1894.