The record-union., 1892-02-20
WAKEMAN'S WANDERINGS.
First of a Series of Pictures of the
Balearic Islands.
On the Mediterranean Seattle Suniit.
ZephyIrus, Sleepy Harbor and City
of Palma-CoIorful Scenes and Ways
"A Hint in Home-BuiIding to Rich
Americans.

Especial Correspondence of the RECORD
UNION. Copyright, 1897
PALMA (Maiorica), January n, 1892.
In these days of strong and swift
steamers plying between England and all
Mediterranean ports, it is but a voyage OF
two nights and day from Gibraltar to
the city of Palma, the capital of the
Spanish dependency and province OF
Balearica, comprising the Belearic
Islands; or if you are wintering in South
western Spain, you may journey In
night from Valencia or Barcelona to this
least visited and most beautiful OF all
Mediterranean regions.
Your steamer is seldom out of sight OF
some huge or tiny Mediterranean craft,
and there is always consciousness of pleas
ant nearness of other human interests,
and quiet and restful sense of COM
partnership upon this great land-locKed
sea, although it is longer than the At
lantic is broad between Newfoundland
and ireland. / have never known or felt
on other waters. However treacherous
the Mediterranean has been to others,
have never seen its face save in its bland
est, sweetest mood; when its skies We're
fair, the sunshine above it mild and low
ing, its airs Zephyrus and dreamful, and
its face as blue and smiling as rlft OF
JUne-day heaven.
Then, too, before the tropic night set
ties softly upon sea and land, like per-
fumed, translucent cloud of darkenlng
pearl, there is spread before you such
reach of grand and glorious coast line
the real "Afric's coral strand' OF tran
scendent beauty, and not the dread coast
of the old missionary hymn-aS renders
true picturing impossible; the whole
changeful panorama of headland, beach,
forest, glittering village and noble bay,
backed along the ragged southern horl-
Zon by the eternal peaks OF the Atlas
nights, which even under troplc suns
soar above the clouds to the region OF
silences, ghostly and phantomiuI Win
their crowns of snow and ice.
The very air upon this sea Is odorous as
with thyme and balm. The fancy, quick
ened by tradition and oriental mysti-
ciSmS, builds wondrouS creations sur
passing the widest and most fabulous
tales OF the Arabian Nights" Snug in
steamer chair, one reclines and dreams.
Subtle essences as from lotus flowers
mingled with subtler rose affairs touch
the sense and bind in sleep. The deck
stewards must be similarly enthralIed,
for you are never rudely disturbed as on
the Atlantic liner; and through all the
caressful night, while the stars grow and
glow above, and the silent phoSpboreScent
sea pulses and throbs in pale flames be-
meath, you near this radiant haven Of this
radiant, storied sea.
Then for time all is still. The night
and sleep and languorous tropic airs en-
fold and hold until the dawn has come.
The great steamer, with her now silent
enginery. softly Juggling at her anchor
chain. has drifted with the tide until her
stately PROV mods gracefully to the
quaint city upon the nights. Your chair
happens to stand amidshipS upon the
port side. There are sweetest zephyrs
playing through the riggings of the Curl
Gus craft upon the bay. These kiss your
face until your eyes open laZily, as one
who awakens in regret at the dispelling
Of pleasing dream. And yet they open
as though you are but knowing another
dream. They awaked upon morning in
Palma; morning so really dream, so
dreamful a reality that no painters art
has ever caught a single recognition of its
glory.
Here, just as the sun is rising, between
the seas bed of crimson and the awaken
ing city, are swaying on the gentle tide
hundreds of strange and curious craft a
wild conglomerate of the marine archi-
lecture of the Mediterranean, their yell
low SparS but moment since like giant
reeds above the cleaning of a shadowy
marsh, now pinked from tip to socket
with the glorious sunlight, which hints
in its play upon their gaudy ensigns of
the far lands where their home Ravens
lie, while far out on the waters horizon,
rounding Cape Figuera behind, comes
the morning fleet of fisher boats, their
sails of every striking hue, and the songs
of the fishers stealing across the distance
in faint but melodious rythm.
Here and there are Turkish vessels
with tremendous single sails, square built
fore and aft like a settlers log cabin
Scores of the clumsy feluccas from Crete
and the Ionian Islands, the chebecs of
the Arabs, and the identical great boats of
the olden pirates, lie low in the water
roundabout, their half-naked Greek or
Arab sailors, 1.-the of limb and nut-brown
of face, wildly recalling those glorious
days of BarosSa, booty and blood. But
quainter than all are the rare old tubs
from Ghioggia and Venice, with the same
high prows and sterns they had in the
days of the Doges. They come with the
glass of Murano, and carry back the corn
oil and wine Of the Soller and Valde-
mosa, and on the bow of each craft is
painted an effigy of the Virgin, an end
less supplication to the waves against
every form of evil and peril at sea.
And there, facing the shining sea and
colorful harbor scene, rises from the
shore more gracefully than Naples, as
fair as Algiers, as tropical in type and
seeming as Havana, the amphitheater-
like city of Palma, once the brightest
pearl of the seag;rt isles; still, stately,
Silent, beautiful, with tone and tint of the
Orient in its pinnacles and minarets, its
dome-shaped belfries and its weird and
shadowy palms. Lovingly contemplate
ing the exquisite picture, its romantic
history, old and new, hutters from the
hiding places Of memory and troop clear
and distinct into your musings; even as
the morning doves of Palma sweep from
the thousand shadowy homing inches of
its massive cathedral, and, alighting on
buttress peak. battlement and spire,
form professional silhouettes of bur-
nished puce and blue against the eastern
sky.