Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-02-14
GIBRALTAR
And Round About That His
toric Fortress.
WAN behring's.
Glowing Pen Picture of the Famous Spot
and Its Impressive Surroundings.
Its Possession Hostage of
Civilization and Peace.
Copyright, 1892 by Edgar L. wakeman,l

1
GIBRALTAR, Jan. 60 1892
believe that one of the greatest glorie
! of intelligent Americanism lies in the fact
: that as a people, we are receptive of
| reasonable and Just ideas, and are susceD-
| tible of conversion from hereditary pretn
/ dice and the mean and little spirit of hatred
| and envy, towards another nation because
| of any superiority of policy or possession it
| may be great enough TO pursue or enioy
This conviction came to me more over
whelmingly than ever before, as we
steamed away from the land of the Moors
| and took our way across the strait toward
| the city and rock of Gibraltar. Upon this
northern pillar of Hercules, the English.
| flag has foated for 1SS wears. And / am
glad of it; glad that Sir George Rookie, in
the war OF succession. was cunning and
brave enough to take it; that iron-hearted
Elliott IN the four years. siege was soldier
enough to hold it against the combined eff
forts of France and Spain; and that all the
powers of, Latin ana MusSelman arms and
diplomacy, with the cowardly Vaccinations
of English traitors at home, have never
availed to hand over this key of the whole
Levant to Spanish or other possession or
retrogreSslon; because;
Just so long as England holds Gibraltar
the trade of the Mediterranean and the East
is peacefully open not only to England but
to every nation of the earth with spirit
lea, whose English speaking and thinking
people now twice outnumber those of tine
motherland, in common with Great Britain
in trade, in travel, and in all those things
tending towards the worlds enlightenment
and progress. will enjey through England's
logged possession of Gibraltar, a common
guarantee of security and respect
If, as have done, you viii tramp through
the provinces of France; wander afoot from
FinisJerre by Valladolid TO Madrid and
thence across the Spanish sierras to BARGE
Iona and the sea: know Portugal from Lis
bon to the Mediterranean gates; idle
among the peasants and shepherds of Italy
from the Pyrenees to rennotest Apulian
shores tramp from Sicilian Catania over
old 4Etna to fair Palermo; aad then, in AL
giers and Morocco, come close enough to
the people to know the repulsive nature
and life of the Arab and Moor; you will
never have to learn from any other source
this true thing-that, at heart and as
whole. the Latin races whether in Southern
Europe or in South America, possesses as
deep and lasting hereditary hatred of all
who own and speak the English tongue, as
fadeleSSly fires the A1oslem heart in its
fanatical dream of sometime everywhere
planting the crescent above the cross.
Differ as grievously as Americans may
with Engllshmen regarding the justice or
injustice of this or that, on these large lines
of tremendous import we cannot but remain
one and indissoluble. Looking out of the
history of the centuries that were, and
from among the possibilities of the centu-
ries to come, the mighty Rock and It's arma-
ment fades from sight as mere stuDbornlv
held possession and menance. It's mythic
name, tbs Pillar of Hercules, merges into
the Pillar Of Peace. And Gibraltar in the
possession of the English speaking and
Christian living race VIII remain the hos
tage OF Christian civilization for all time to
come.
All ones preconceived notions of Gibral-
tar fall far short, l think, of conveying its
true grandeur and iInpressiveness. From
whatever direction you approach it-from
the westward over the Atlantic, from the
Mediterranean on the east, from Tangier in
Africa across the strait, or from the Span
ish sierras to the north-it has always the
seeming OF majestic mountain of stone
rising sheer out of the blue of the sea. As
we approach it, some struggling clouds
which had formed among the peaks Of the
Spanish sierras, carried by northern winds,
werestretched in thin folds across its upper
HEIGHTS They gave the huge rock alter
nate bars of ebony shadow and golden light,
and. shutting its top altogether from sight,
e4fphaslzed the impression OF mysterious
altitude.
SEven when one mas landed. the easiest af-
fair OF its kind in all Europe, as Gibraltar
is a free port, this impression IS not dis
PEELED. The white city pile of huddled
terraces at the waters edge at the only
spot on all Gibraltar where habitatious
could be patchedrIik nests of birds upon its
ragged sidesgfs but thin line OF human re
sEliESSri dnG above the shore. Wherever
the eye rests is sea beneath and rock above,
not very PERCEPTIONS on the city side, yet
rising in escarped height on height until
one feels certain that inaccessible heights
are shut from sight beyond
My own first impulse, as believe must
be that Of al first visitors here, was 10