New-York tribune., 1879-06-06
A LIVE SPANISH CITY.
TIE IRON TRADE OF BuBAO.

IFRoM AN OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBUNE
BILBAO, Spain, May 15.-Any American making
his first entry into Spain by way of Bilbao may
make up his mind at to have all his precon-
ceived impressions and ideas relative TO the coun-
try and its people speedily set at naught. Nine out
OF ten of our fellow-cOuntrymen who have never
visited the land of tho Hidalgo and the Don will
tell you that the cities are decayed aud dead the
country villages fun of squalor and poverty,
and the people in both idle and aimless.
Never was popular error greater, so far
at least as it applies to these North
ern or Biseay Provinces general, and to tins city
of Bilbao IN particular One finds here all the life,
social. commercial and industrial that character
lies any active American seaport town. Very many
of the dwellngs-they are generally four or five
stories hlgh-remind one of those on upper Fifth
ave-. about Central Park. The stores are stocked
"a elegantly as any in Broadway or Sixth-ave.;
there is rs much dressing and fashion as one secs
on the boulevards OF Paris, and heard an Italian
opera company sing the " Bailo on Maschera last
evening in q theatre considerably larger than
Wallacks, and they sung it, too. In style which
would have won plsudits even from the hab'tu6s oil
our Fourteenth-st Academy of Music.
Every one of the thirty odd Thousand inhabitants
OF Bilbao retains lively recollection of the Csrlst
siege in the early months of 1872. Don Carlos,
II
surrounding mountsins. and during three months
time threw four or five thousand shells into the
houses, stores. churches aud public squares, per-
foctly regardless of consequences. The mountains
overlook the city so completely that the BilbaOns
could frequently see Don Carlos aud his staff out
for their morning ride gaoping over the neiehbor-
ing slope. The Carlist pickets came mp to within
half mile of the heart of the town. alternately eX-
changing tobacco and bullcts with the sentries of
the beseged forces. But, as said, they never cap
tured the town, and Bilbao is to-day handsomely
rebuilt modern style, and the jewellers sell sleeve
buttons and other jewelry of gold inlaid with the
iron of CaTlist shells, as souvenirs or that eyentfu
epoch.
The New-Jersey mania for laying ont cities away
out in the fields, with macadamzed or asphalt
streets. curbed sidewalks gas lamps, long
lines of young trees, and a sample cottage
here and there 10 invite Others has broken out here
Convent walls, ancestral gardens vlne-coveTed
ruins old hedges and all the conventional features
of the Spanish landscapes one sees in the picture
galleries are going down in the enviroDs of Bilbao
before the advancing, and all destroying Surveyors
lines and labOrers pick. Many miles of new streets
are laid out and curbed wide avenues and bOule
wards sweeping away to two or three miles distance
are staked OIL, long rows of really palatial stone
dwellings, costing between twenty and thirty
thousand dollars EACH are going up almost before
the surveyor has determined the line of the street
on which they are to stsnd-in short IT reminds
Of the palmy days of New-JeFsey real estate when
corn-fcld lots on Eghty-ninth-ave. and Two
hundred-and-ffty-ffth were selling at $1,000,
$40 down and the balance on 100 year mortgage.
Yet the movement here, | ought to add has more
of sohdity and peunancnce about it. 1t is 10 real
estate speculation but done by tine city govern
ynent principally, aud furnishes subsi iantal evil
dence of the great Teawakening which Bilbao has
experienced within the last five years in cOnse-
0uencc of her newly developed trade in iron ores.
1T Is Of that especially that wish to speak When
] say that during 1878 $500 vessels. and over
1000 of them steamers, came here for ore, ii Will
give some idea of the enormous traffic which has
suddenly sprung up and given all this new life to
Bilbao The Cantabrian Pyrenees, it is claimed,
contain iron enough to supply the world for all
time. Pliny wrote home to Rome, about noun
tain named TrianO" III this locality, which he
described as "made of Iron." From time imme-
mortal the peasants living in the mountains have
had lttlo primitive fouudries of their own where
they melted the ores which they dug out as they
needed them, and made hOrseshoes, nails, and
such rude implements as they could. But the
mines never began to be systematically worked
until the attention of foreign, and more especially
English capitalists was directed TO them. Some
English vessels that came out here with material
for a railway carried back some iron ore on spocua-
Sion. This was IL 1859 and SIX years later the de-
mand for the ore had increased to such extent
that a railway eight miles long, connecting the
mines in the mountains with the river, was CON
structed by The Bilbao capitalists and the business
took regular form. Since then four other rail-
WAYS have been bulr for similar purpose, loading
stations with the most improved modern machin-
cry, have been constructed on the river bank, and
to-day sea-going steamers or sailing vessels can be
loaded with "A prOmpttade which elects the ad-
yniration of every live American ship captain who
comes here for cargo. An American brig, the
Eugene Hale, of Calais. Me-. is now hore taking
load of the ore for delivery at Jersey City,
The situation of Bilbao is extremely favorable for
the development of tins trade. Approaching from
she sea one finds the coast bold and mountainous,
with steep bare slopes extending down 20 the
waters edge, and seeming, from distance, 10 bar
further progress. But u nearer approach dlscloses
the Bilbao River winding inland among the noun
fains with towns and villages nesting on ITS banks
wherever Nature has left room for them. UP this
river al point seven miles from the sea IS BiDa0,
situated very much as are the towns in the Lehigh
Valley or those along the Erie Railway IN South
western NewYoTk, but with this difference shat
here the surrounding mountains are much higher
entirely bare of trees and crowned each of them,
with either q fortress, q chapel or monastery.
The mountains from which the ores are taken lie
along the southern side OF the Bilbao between the
city and the sea, and are connected WIN
the river by five railways OF which three
are owned by English capitalists one by
FrancO-Belglan company, ana one by Bill
bao people. There are some Six aud hslt millions
of dollars invested here by the English alone The
locomotives, cars, and eouipmoDts are from Man
chester OF Birmn sham aud one meets with Eng
iIsh managers, oYerseeIs, and contractors every
where from the moment be lands. Stlil other coun-
tries are largely represented. krupP, tho great
German cannon man, is interested IN oDe OF the
railways and mining companies and has five large
ships running from here 20 Rotterdam 10 supply bis
works at Essen. France IS represented by the
famous Creusot Iron Company, which ships LARGELY
20 Boulogne, Dunkirk. Bayonne and La Rochelle
10 which latter port large iron steamers carry
E,,arl rltNi ali
Company OF Cardiff the Consett Company, OF Sun
derland; Bolkow u Vaughan, oil MlddleborQ, and
Sir John Browne Of Sheffield. The famous house
of YbaIa d Co.. of this city, stands at the head Of
The SnaniSn INVESTORS.