The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-05-20
HOW TO ENJOY GIBRALTAR.
Treat With Scorn All Proffers frol
Guides and Donkey Boys.

Treat With Scorn All PronerS ITO"
Guides and Donkey Boys.
The way to enjoy Glib is certainly to
1 leave the faithful but too prosiac Murray in
your cabin, says the Pail Mall Gazette.
i When. you land, treat with scorn all prof
/ fers from guide and driver and donkey boy.
Cross the drawbridge as if to the manner
born; pass the semi-tropic garden that fills
the corner space to the entrance to the
town, noting as you pass on the right the
disused nook filed with graves where some
of the heroes of Trafalgar sleep, brought
there to die of their wounds. Next ask the
! first soldier the way Cd. A. CTS Office, where
pass is courteously given admitting to the
famous galleries. The summit is now tabu
| to all not employed on new works in
progress there, but the lower of the three
i tiers of galleries will amply suffice us. This
dates from the last century, and most of it
I was tunneled out during the great four
j years siege from 1889 to 1898.
Il leisurely stroll upward to the Moorish
castle takes US in right direction for the
entrance. We note the ascending alleys
i are named ramps, for we are in fortress.
[ One is lettered "Right-Shoulders-Fo For
ward,'. quaint word Of command of the
euyers Of Dundas. We reach an old world
guard-room, with large fig tree, leadess
1 now, for the time of figs is not yet. just
within the Moorish arch of the gateway we
are arrested by the trim artillery sentry,
with his Martini carbine on his arm. A
/ white gathered grenadier of Ligonier's were
more in keeping with the scene.
The corporal of the guard inspects our
pass and we write our names in book and
are then handed over to a warrant officer, a
master gunner, who has the keys of the gal
lery doors. We ascend by covered way
a b kho uO11 f<,NH co. hot
our heads are we'll below the surface-a sur
face liable to be swept in time of siege with
fragments of shell and whistling mitraille,
now carpeted with verdure among the jut-
ting rocks. Here spring is already at work
with her flower show. Already tall plants
spikes of reddish-white blossom, innocent
Of the scent of garlic, the badge of most of
the tribe.
y purple saffron, with orange. colored
center, nestles in clusters in the hooks, and
q shrub of genista is bursting out in golden
bloom. We soon reach the mouth of the
gloomy gallery, closed by strong palisaded
Bldoor. The tunnel is some 10 feet wide by
Jl2 feet high, and ascends gently. We pass
ehere under a water drip, which increases to
p shower bath after rain, and we notice
the grim, black guns have wooden water
proofs to protect them. Glorious are the
Views that are given by successive embras-
3Aures Far beneath, as cardboard model,
lies fort and casemate and the houses of the
town, but beyond them the azure sea. No
model is suggested by that.
3 Anon we reach battery where cannon
point to Spain. Beneath we see the race
course, already green, though worn bare
with the tramp Of MARI hing men; for it is
the drill ground of the garrison. Here,
with their backs to the Mediterranean sea,
'sare rows of targets painted with black
figures, reduced by the distance down to the
size of dots. These are being fired at by
squads of other black dots. Real live ones
these, for the king royal rifles are at mus
Eket,y practice. FAINT comes the crack of
Ethe Martins, and tiny are the puffs of blue
Esmoke. Beyond them stretches across the
:Isthmus the narrow gray mound of sand.
Epierced at the center by the broad white
road that leads to Spain,
Wayfarers must keep to this, for on that
3ank at intervals are nine sentry boxes.
Between them by night and day, year in,
rear out, pace the British sentinels that
watch the neutral ground. Neutral in tint
llso. level plain and bare, for here neither
rows grass, nor tree, nor flower. We guess
to be about a mile across to the Spanish
ines and the white walled houses of the
y little town which arises on the further
fTerge of this little desert.