Morning journal and courier., 1889-12-21

ous base and asch, huge column, and tre' mendous entabliture, supporting buildings whose insignifcance is ludicrously startling. In the churches and few of the more prominent public buildings the architecture is Moorish, and the facades invariably fanked by immense square towers and the dreary Saracenic domes. Most of the side streets are narrow, and so shade trees will not grow. There are but two streets, or short stretches of streets, like some of our American "places," which are widenec and beautifed by trees. The general plan of shop and abode in the thickly settled parts of the city is the shop below and the home above; or the lower story is used as sort of entrada to walled in home structures in the rear, or the habitation above. In the latter case these entradas are temporary shops for itinerant cobblers, cutters, saddlers and the like, or lounging places for beggars, donkeys and goats. But however unsavory may seem the ground floor of, or the street en- trance to, any structure, the upper stories of the same, or the pretty home nests behind afford abundant compensation in picturesque groupings and scenes. Balconies in the Azores are as universal as in Havana, Lisbon or Madrid. Some project from supports of carved stone; others rest with airy insecurity upon fancifully wrought timbers; and still others may be seen in the daintiest patterns into which brass and iron may be wrought. All are latticed; and in this lattice work are odd little slides and gates. From these, as you pass, you will catch glances from fair eyes, and often see smiles and eoquetting looks from lovely, roguish faces. The Fay
 al maidens must not look upon you in the street; but social custom gives them the blessed right to airt with you desperately from the lofty and safe outposts of their ba1conied alcobes. The court yards or saga os have an inviting look through these care- lessly kept entradas. There is a suggestion of snugness in the high enclosing walls. The open court shelters the home gatherings and belongings of the average family. All its members are more or less there. Many lovely flowers and clambering vines light up the place in winter as well as summer days. Frequently interior galleries add to the pie turesqueness, for people live in these courts and on these galleries more than in the cheerless aleobas to which they lead. Be- sides, there are none so poor that the glad- dening songs of rnatchless brown Azorean canaries not always heard above, or blending with, the gay and murmurous un- dertones of lazily done domestic affairs.
 ,.s Nor can one ever tire of the street scenes of Horta. There are few fountains and one misses the graceful red ewers of St. Mi- chael's upon the women's heads. But there are wells everywhere, and at all these are constantly seen groups of women dropping their odd horn cups, filling their churn like casks, lettering and gossiping, coming and going, with much laughter the whole day long. Here and there throughout the streets bevies of giggling senhoritas, never alone and always conveyed by some bright eyed old duenna, pass from shop to shop, ever seeming to avoid, but ever in reality com polling most ludicrous antics on the part of all males from eighteen to eighty. Roaring and tearing down from the hills as if pur- sued, comes one of the half score of Horta's cocheiros with his ranshackle barouche, to which are harnessed three donkeys abreast. He has been nowhere. He is going nowhere. He lashes and screams and calls his beasts vile names. Suddenly the outlandish outfit comes to halt. In an instant the wild CO., cheiro is asleep on his box, and the donkeys' heads droop dolefu1ly between their knees. Now and then horse and rider will be seen.
 The horse is piebald. The rider is a gen. tleman farmer; s'morgado," he is called here. He sits on his beast in semi milita- ", semi cowboy style; holds his bridle reins high in air; wears spur and mustachois of wondrous dimensions and ambles through the changing scene like a hesitant, humbled Quixote. Everywhere are little donkeys car rying fat people; burdened with furze, brushwood, dried corn leaves and stalks, rushes and straw, completely hiding them; packed with twice their own weight of boxed oranges going to the quays; or driven double with great timbers across their backs. "Ande!-Andel" their drivers shout, as they prod them with iron pointed bikes as long and heavy as pitch fork handle. These and OK carts with box like half section of a huge wicker basket, and solid wooden wheels with iron spiked rims which creak and shriek like Red River train in the sixties, are ] ceeselassly vending their way along the thoroughfares and to and from the country, ike only means of freightage; while each donkey and cart is accompanied with more able bodied, ever yelling muleteers and cart men than are necessary to convey every ounce of produce or merchandise upon their own broad and lazy backs. Over from Pieo every morning come boat loads of market stuff and peasantry. The latter are more colorful and picturesque than the Fayalese. The women are bodiced; their heads are dressed in gay kerchiefs and wrappings; and they bring along. with every manner of small produce, some of the prettiest feet and legs the barefooted habits of many, and the short skirted petticoats of all, ever give un- conscious display. The crates, casks, has- kets, ewers, wheel like and gigantic wooden platters, that these women bring with them and carry up the beaches and over the quays upon their heads, are of incredible size and weight. Thick. goitre like necks are the re- suit; but their grace and brightness while beasts of burden are very winsome surely. Along with these come, infrequently now, g folk who live in the farthest upland wilds of Pico whose manner and dress recall those of the Arran Islanders. Tall, lank, grave and austere, their slack like garments hang limp to the primest of knee brooches, which lead to stockings of wonderful colors, while their feet are covered with raWhide sandals to
 which the hair still clings. These are fast ened across the toes with rawhide thongs, forming an exact copy of pampootas seen in the Arran Islands, the earliest form Of foot covering known to man. Interwoven with all these odd folk and ways are the Fayalese peasants and the lowly of Horta. Capote hidden women from the hills; city servants with their endless castinet like clinking of wooden shoes upon the pavements; grim men from the fields leaning upon their huge staffs; the important, apish and wasp waist ed military attaches dancing here and there in blue, buff and green; grave and comforts able padres; half naked urchins with won- derfully bright faces; beggars with sunny faces, as cheery over rebuff as reward; and an hundred other folk and factors so tonched and tinged with the semi barbaric and Ori- ental, that one awakens from the weird fans cies the scenes and sights conjure, in half dismay that where he stands is eight hun dred miles away from Europe towards American civilization, and still eight hun dred years behind even the drowsy progress of the Europe of to-day.
 Fayal is tiny spot in the great Atlantic. The gradual and regular elevation of it's sur- face towards the lofty, but peakless, center of the island, gives seeming CT scenic i'm portance and nobility to the soft outlines of it's distant heights. Numberless pleasant ex-
 cursions can be made within the distance of
 an easy days journey from Horta-indeed
 between rising and bed time you may visit any part of the island but the grand object
 of ceaseless interest to stranger or native is the vast Caldeira (Portuguese-kettle, oaul- dron) sunk eighteen hundred feet in the apex of the low eoned islands center. The Azores are of volcanic origin. Oyer there | just four miles from Horta is Pico with its eight thousand feet high still smoking chim- ney, at whose top recently passed night. And this Caldeira is 30 far as can learn, the largest known extinct crater upon the