The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1873-11-28
MISCELLANY.
A Curious Country and Peculiar Peo.
pie.

There are some peculiaities about life
in the Azores which q recent issue of the
London Times brings out in rather bold
relief through the medium of its cores
pondence. Everybody has heard of
those islands in the Atlantic, but beyond
what our geography lessons taught us in
days long gone, very few of US can pre-
tend to know much about them or the
people who inhabit them. And this fact
makes what the London Times says worth
looking at, by way of supplementing our
early education on this head.
The climate of the Azores is singular
ly equable and agreeable, the tempera-
ture being never above eighty in sum
mer nor below seventy in winter. About
$50, 900 persons inhabit the group of is
lands, and here they live Sleepy Hol-
low sort of life, the main components Of
which are pride. poverty, Incidence and
strict conservatism. There is no drunk
enness, no street-fghting, no rudeness.
In certain sense there are aristocratic
and democratic social partitions, but no.
bility is often favored with financial
stringency, and this, as every one knows,
is not the meat that Csesars of society
thrive on. Poverty is subject to subdi-
vision under system whereby the sons
of man worth $1,000 year are each
forced to set up for gentlemen on $500
apiece per annum. Along with this
necessity of keeping up social caste on
small capital comes compulsory pro-
cess of living more or less like pig
while attending to the externals of gen
tility. In the streets are plentiful foun-
tains of good water and also men carry
ing casks Of the same upon their backs,
singing "Aqua;" butts of wine are trans
ported in frames rugged ny between foul
donkeys; and knife-grinders attract custo
mers by amateur performances on the
, "Paris pipe" You can buy a turkey
for 54 cents, a duck or pullet for q
cents, mutton for cents pound, pota
toes at less than one cent a pound. Blu
bread is relatively high priced, and su
gar, burdened with governmental exac
tions, costs % cents pound. Architec
, ture is nowhere, art at discount, ant
Y aesthetics generally get no devotion from
t these take-it-easy people. Their build
ings are droll-looking affairs, and tn
n commoner houses are made solid in blac
lava, looking like the ruins of the cit
r po.bor Tbara ;e NO hank those w n
have money hoard it in their cellars O
loan it at thirty per cent. interest Clel
n gymen are scarce, too, but here we wi
% let the London Times, corresponder
e have his own say:
% "They- want clergyman, for the
1t wait years for a British man-of-war, th'
b. the chaplain may baptize their childre
ID and marry their young ladies, who al
"a brides at twelve summers in this prec'
K cious cline; and SO it was that when HI
r Majesty's ship Challenge called he
lately the babies could walk to the fror
is and brides in pinafores were at the alta
or Governesses have here a harvest on the
e own terms, as yet unreaped. An illu
e. trated paper or copy OF your paper
he handed about until it becomes illegib
re. and while the palate revels in luxur
,is and the focks of blackbirds and canari
Id chatter in the fields, the food for brai
is at famine prices, and no one seems
,at undertake the noble duty of carryi
mt hither light, commerce and religion"