The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1886-05-28

|
ed in French, while the poor man was dumb
and struggling to escape our wrath, expect
ing he would be annihilated for the intru-
sion: he managed to push half out when the
porters jammed him back, nearly fattening
his nose in the door. In moment shout
of victory went up ON the platform, and the
door snapped its fastening, making him an
unwilling prisoner. He looked the picture
of despair, and summoning all his linguistic
erudition to his aid, he said merely Pardon
nez moi; could net help myself; but it is
no use, nobody speaks English" At once we
owned a kinship, and extending sympa-
thetic hand, we all burst into merriment over
the ludicrous scene. The poor fellow left
the train to get glass of water
for a lady, and in making his way
back to his carriage the porters,
presuming because he did not speak French
he did not know what he was about, took
him in hand to put him in the nearest car
riage. We improvised a seat out of packs
| and rugs at our feet, making him quite COM
Portable for two hours. His joy and graft
tude were unbounded to find he had not
fallen into an enemy's camp. After a tedi-
GUS ride of twenty-five hours we reached
Nice.
| Nice is a beautiful city, full of gay life.
1t is backed on the north and east by high
mountains, and open on the south to the
Mediterranean, which at times is wondrous-
| ly colored, being patchwork of emerald,
deep blue and purple tints. Nice does not
boast heritage of pictures and sculptures,
neither has it been the scene Of memorable
| conflicts between nations, but the church
| looks back to it as the battle ground where
| her disciples, under the banners of Arian
| and Athanasius, fought desperate battle of
| words We drove along the shores, where
| the fishermen were busy with their nets,
men were twisting ropes, women knitting,
| and the lads and lassies gossiping and loung-
| ing about the piers and orange stalls as if
they had: not care to-day or athought
for the morrow. The gardens were sweet
| with violets and roses. The walls were
| overhung with oranges and lemons, and the
| hillsides green with olives. All these things
| made pretty pic lures in front Of the dreamy
blue distance of the maritime seas.
RIDE TO GENOA.
As Genoa was our next obje ctive point, we
chose to drive along the bays of the Medi-
terranean as far as Alas.io, rather than make
the journey by rail, as the railroad takes so
many short cuts by tunnels that the traveller
loses the pleasing pictures of the country.
In distance of hundred and thirty miles
on this line the train passes through eighty
tunnels, which is most annoying expert
enee, as no sooner does one catch an occa-
sional glimpse of enchanting vistas, than he
is hurled into the blackness of despair. Our
route took most zigzag course over the
bluffs, from which we could command both
sea and country. A few miles out from Nice
we turned into fishing hamlet, where we
could see the home life of the common French
and Italians. Here everybody was busy at
work, and not straining their wits to extort
the last centime from tourists. The wharves
were lined with the queerest looking boats,
and the men, women and children were sing
ing, as they fitted about in odd costumes or
such tatters and fringes as could hardly
be called clothes. Even the poorest and
shabbiest have a iaunty way of putting on
their old rags, into which somewhere, either
in the turban, in a band on the petticoat OF
on the apron, they are sure to dash bit of
warm color, which catches the sunlight and
produces most striking effects against the
faded whole, which, no matter how many
colors it may have combined in its pristine
glory, is now reduced to the unnameable
gray of Mother Earth, into whose likeness
Nature blends all artificial hues, as surely as
she draws everything to her bosom at last by
the same slow processes of time and decay.
MONACO AND MONTE CARLO.
We left Monaco and Monte Carlo on the
right, riding almost over their heads. Could |
we have carried pocket telescope we might |
have peeped in upon the gatherings fellow |
traveller described to us. The miniature |
town of Monte Carlo, in the principality of |
Grimalti, is rented for 100000 francs for |
gaming establishment, which at present is
conducted by widow, and we were informed |
the only place of the kind in Europe, sane |
toned, or at least unmolested. by the law. |
From dawn to dawn a crowd of aged sires, |
young men, gray -haired matrons and young |
women of all nationalities haunt this place |
to deal cards and roll marbles, the latter |
falling into little pits marked at different i
values. The money is assorted in pigeon |
holes along the tables, and the gamblers |
constantly rake it in OF out and pass it over |
as the game fuctuates. Our informant-tvid
us that even the women became so absorbed |
as to be entirely unconscious of the crowd of |
visitors, who are possessed with strange
fascinat ion to watch these players, whose
very faces reveal the workings of greed and |
hate in their hearts. 1t is said that often
passion takes possession of their very souls,
and losing throw or unlucky deal turns
human beings into fiends.
We did not care to turn aside to see the
gaming, and are glad only to take with us
the memory of village of yine-clad and
pink-roofed houses, and of curving beach
washed by the listless waves of a tideless
sea. All along the way the peasants were
busy trimming their vines and digging up |
the soil around the olive trees. They cut |
down deep, exposing the roots, and put in
great quantities of rags, and various other
substances with manure to enrich the soil.
1t is thought the cholera was spread all along |
the Riviere by these rags, which are i'm
ported from the East. As we drove along
these highlands of fine gravel soil, and
famed on the north by the cold winds from
snowy mountain peaks, and on the south by
the invigorating breezes of the Mediterra-
mean, we felt the truth of what the inhabi-
tants say, that cholera is an exotic, and can |
be driven out of this region by sanitary reg
ulations. The women and children were
shaking the ripe black olives into sheets
spread upon the ground. As the green
oranges and lemons are shipped to America,
SO the green olives are picked for our taste,
and the natives let them hang all winter
to ripen and mellow for their use.
In the general appearance an olive grove
on the hillside looks much like an old apple
orchard, except that the foliage is a softer
and grayer sage green. When seen for the
first time by pilgrim from the Western
world, where the olive is not regarded in
view, it possesses touch of sa-
and when.at night the servant built
US fire of olive logs we felt it Dissertation,
but we shall long remember our gatherings |
about ancestral hearthstones, where we |
were comforted on many chilly nights by !
the warmth and glow Of our olive fires, such
as no other wood can impart. There hangs
over the trees, even in sunshine, certain
misty, dropping aspect such as coming
shower often casts over distant landscape,
which gives an olive grove a sombre pensiye |