The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-04-03 00:00:00

A RAILWAY IN THE BALEARIC
ISLANDS.

A correspondent of The Times gives a description of the
opening of the first railway in the Island of Majorca, from
which we take the following extracts :

The line at present runs a distance of 29 kilometres
(a little over 18 miles), from Palma, the capital of the
Balearic Islands, the population of which is between
50,000 and 60,000 inhabitants, to Inca, the commer-
cial centre of Majorca a town of about 6,000 inha-
bitants. The construction of a new railway 18 miles
long in these days would not in itself appear to be a
very remarkable undertaking, but in the Balearic
Islands, cut off as they have long been from the
outer bustling, busy world, such an event is a social
revolution. Generations of people in these islands
had grown up in the belief that a railway was a
thing of another hemisphere, and that the travelling and
carrying wants of even Majorca—an island of about
225,000 people—were amply provided for by the old-
fashioned rattling: springless diligences of the ancient
French type still in use, and by mule carts. A day to '
come and a day to go to and from the adjacent towns
and villages was accepted as an irremediable condition
connected with the pursuit of business or pleasure
away from one's home. The railway which was
thought to be the dream of Utopians has, however.,
been at last opened, and it will assuredly tend greatry
to develope the ha-hidden resources of this highly-
favoured and beautiful island. The district embraced
by this railway is one of the richest.and most populous
of the island. . . .
The construction of this railway has been purely a
local undertaking; the whole of the capital stock,
8,500,000 reals, about £BB,OOO, having been subscribed
by the natives of the islands, in shares of 2,000 reals
each, when the company was formed in May, 1872.
It has thus far been completed within the preliminary
estimates, and without the issue of obligations or bonds
a remarkable feature in Spanish railways, while it is
probably the only railway in a Spanish Province that
has been constructed without the aid of foreign capital.
The line is built on the harrow gauge system, the rails
being 36 inches apart. The materials and rolling
stock manufactured by Nasmyth, Wilson, and Co., of
Manchester, and Brown, Marshalls, and Co., of
Birmingham, were imported direct from England
during the past year in seven British vessels and one
Spanish steamer.
The ceremony of inauguration, which was an inte-
resting and peculiar one, was performed on the 2 ith of
February. The event was the occasion of a general
holiday in the Capital and in the towns and villages
along the line of railway. The station of Palma is
situated at the Puerta Pintada, just outside the grand
old city walls, which were partly pulled down when
the Republican Party first came into power. Here two
very pretty triumphal arches were raised. One on the
inner side of the wall. under the direction of the Pro-
vincial Deputation, and the other outside by the
Ayuntamiento of Palma. At the station, which was
gaily decorated inside and out with banners, myrtle,
and flowers, and the arms of each town on the line,
'another arch was built. Outside the station, on
the passenger platform was erected a temporary
altar, where the preliminary religious ceremony
of blessing the engines and carriages before
starting was performed. Invitations had been
issued for 9 a.m. At that hour, in the presence
of the Captain-General of the Province, the Civil
Governor, the Consular Corps the Provincial Deputa-
tion, the Ayuntamiento of Palma, the railway direc-
tors and authorities, and a number of other distin-
guished persons, and half the ladies of the city, the
religious ceremony was performed. The chief vicar
(in charge of the diocese vacant by the death of the
late Bishop), assisted by from 30 to 40 priests in their
vestments, and preceded by a large golden cross,
arrived before the altar chanting the prayers used on
the occasion, and when those prayers were over the
chief priest walked along the line to each carriage
and sprinkled it with holy water.
The religious ceremony over, the priests and gentle-
men took their seats, many of them for the first time
in a railway carriage. "But why are all these priests
going ?" innocently asked one of the by-standers who
had not been invited. They are going to give absolu-
tion to the killed and wounded," replied his neighbour.
"And the doctors, too; why are they going ? ' "Ah !
they go to cure the maimed," was the reply. "I don't
believe it will go without mules," exclaimed a country-
man in jacket and blue calico Moorish drawers.
"How should it ? " said his companion, a hand-
some, dark-eyed girl, probably his daughter, "don't
we put fire on our hearth all the winter nights,
and did any of U 8 see the kitchen start off? I don't
believe in it a bit." "They won't take me in with
1
their smoke," said another countryman. "We have
none-of us been allowed to go near the train. What
will you bet that the mules are not concealed between
the wheels?" Amid these comnientaries the last
shriek of the engine mingled with the strains from the
band of music stationed on the platform, and at 9.41
the trair4 gated, Nothing could be more agreeable