Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-12-28
HAPPY PEASANT LIFE.
The AzOreau Farmer One of the Most
Primitive on the Earth,
BLENDING LOTSOF FUN WITH TOLL.
BE Threshes With BlindfOlded Oxen, Uses
Tools Most Ancient,
AND LIVES IN POETICAL MODESTI

FAYAL, AZORES, November 25.-After
all, the human rather than the scenic or
other interest in any land holds mind and
heart closest. And in these human activi-
ties, sometimes think, the living, doing
and environment of the lOwly furnish truest
means for Judgment of the relations of all
classes; and certainly provide the most
lasting impressions an earnest traveller may
gain.
OF the two divisions of the lowly in the
Azores the peasantry are infinitely more
captivating than the lowly of the towns
The servitors and the beggars Of the score or
more Azorean cities are in appearance quite
the same as those the traveller will find in
Havana, Lisbon, Barcelona and all Mediter-
ranean ports. Two delightful exceptions in
their favor exist. They are the most kind
hearted and sunny-faced folk that live; and
the water-carriers, chiefly women and girls,
are so remarkably picturesque class that
they are really entitled, in poetry, romance
and art, to extraordinary attention and dis
tiuction. Among every manner of city
serving men and women there is ludicrous
ehivalry in interchange of civility such as L
have found among no other lowly people.
Their gravity and dignity in this regard
are really wonderful The cumulative sd-
jeetives applied to intensifying the formal
expression of mutual regard and leading up
TO those highest titles of respect, Senior and
Senhora, never reach lower plane than
''most adored," "truest regarded" ''most
heart thrillingly beloved" or exceeding
and most illustrious
"MOst dazzling and beautiful neighbor
and maiden, has the thrice-execrated ca
tarrh left the roof OF thy more than angelic
nose?'' grandly asks the barefooted Pietro of
wench at the fountain, who as gravely re-
spends:
"Nobly conceived son of mother radiant
beyond naming, the poison OF its noxious
presence sped away with the warlocks at the
bidding of goat's-milk cheese bound at
night time on my pain-rscked forehead.
Our Lady's blessing on thee, thy household
and all thy kindred, for the friendship
shining like stars through the anxiety of
thy ever-prized asking!"
NO WONDER WAGES ARE VERY Low.
These poor. ignorant beings seem to think,
act and exist in precisely such windy and
wordy heroics. After knowing it in every
possible conscious and unconscious condi-
tion of their experiences for weeks, one
needs no further information to understand
why wages of all manner of servants in the
Azores do not exceed IS cents per day.
Even the beggars speak to each other in Just
such fantarOnde; and 1 never found
one here yet who, on my declining
to contribute after his poetic appeal,
IL HGD Al
God!' as is the custom, did not follow to
bless, aud pile on his blessings, until my
cheeks crimsoned with shame at the un-
earned benedictions showered upon me. In
deed it is difficult to convey by pen any Just
conception OF the apparent utter absence of
resentment, the complete self-sbnegation,
and the ever-present, never-varying sunni
ness of heart and act, in these lowly ones of
home and street. 1t is found in all, and the
minutest, Instances. Come suddenly upon
halfnaked child playing upon the damp
stones of some grimy entrada, or tossing the
elittering brown lava sand back into the
sparkling plume of the incoming surf, below
the quays and it will look up into your own
with face beaming with positive radiance.
Distrust and all its train of hateiulness
have no place in their composition They
possess nothing; acquire nothing; have burn
ing ambitions for nothing. A bit of meal
bread washed down with water is a repast.
Add to the bread bit of fish, or a few
swallows of wine, and it is feast. The
stinging scourge Of necessity for providence
with which the rigors OF winter whip and
lash our own poor is incomprehensible here
AT their backs are mountains and valleys
green to the sun and sky the whole year
through, and never failing in their rich
yield OF fruit and grains. At their feet is
the sea alive with luscious food free for the
taking. None ever become rich. None
ever arrive at our own most modest idea of
competency. None know how to even think
how riches can be desirable. 1t may seem
strange to you and me.
GREAT BELIEVERS IN PATIENCE.
The wonder with them is that anvone
should strive; that any human being should
ever be in q hurry. As with the Cubans in
their languor-breeding cline whose MANA
NAP (tO-morrow) is the key to their torpor
and vassalage, ''PaeienciaI' or "PatienceP'
tells the story here. Something is wrong
with that one who would hasten. Crime
surely turks under leanness and vigor. And
good Citizen Train with his doleful proph-
eey that Fat is DeathI'' could awaken no
response to his hygienic shibboleth save one
of placid suspicion in the Azores.
But the mountains and valleys of these
islands give home to a folk possessing all
the winsome sunniness of the lowlv of the
towns without tithe of their apathy and
Eluggishness. You NAV read all the pas
toral poems ever written, from the idylls of
Theocritus to the LA Nencia' of Lorenzo.
and you can gather no more coloriul picture
of pastoral lives in endless content and
peaceiulness than your eyes NAV behold in
an hours ride or walk in any one of these
Ina 1od r1a De- -. =. IL.
sun and sky, the earth and air, the home
and field, in all men and all nature. I do
not mean that no labor is per ormed. But
all labor done has in 1t the seeming of mere
dalliance with toll. The senses are not sur
felted with odor, luxuriance and the elmost
intoxicating profigacy of nature as in the
tropics. Every active exertion of human life
does not betray, as there, the superlative in
dolence painfully effortful in the bare proc
ess of existence. But restfulness pervades
these sea-kissed lands which reveals elation
instead of soddenness; jovousness instead of
sensuousness; peace rather than passion and
pain. Just as upon our own land when the
October days have come. / do not say the
Azorean peasantry know this as you and 1
are conscious OF it. But to the beholder's
eyes these humble people so touch and color
the scene upon which he looks that their
presence is an inseparable element in its
essential harmony.
FARMING UNDER LIFE LEASES.
The peasant tenant farmers of the Azores,
the land caseiros Of the islands, retain their
holdings under life leases, and pay rentals
TO the morgados, the owners Of the estates, or
the gentleman farmers" as they are here
called, sin kind" It is sort of tithe sys-
TEN always amicably adjusted between
owner and peasant, and at no time in the
history Of the islands have agrarian disturb
ances been known. grade below these
caseIros are class corresponding to the En-
gish. Scotch and Irish cottiers. These
L.. IL, ..r LII. ..E IL.