Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-02-21
BALEARIC ISLANDS.
A Trip on the Mediterranean
Sea to Palma City.
WAkEMAN'S WANDERINGS.
A Hint in Home-Building to AmerIcans-A
sunlit zephyrus Sleepy HarboE
Scenes of Color and Great
Beauty In Palma.
Copyright, 1892, by Edgar L. wakeman.1
PArAIa MAInRICA Ian ic6o

| Copyright, 1892 by Edgar L. wakeman1
| PALMA, MAJoRIcA, Jan. 81. 1899.
In these days of strong and swift steam
ers plying between England and all Med
iterranean ports, it is but voyage of two
nights and day from Gibraltar to the city
OF Palma, the capital ofthe Spanish depend
ency and province of Balearica, comprising
the Balearic Islands; or, if yon are winter
ing in Southwestern Spain, you may Jour-
ney in a night from Valencia or Barcelona
| to this least visited ana 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 pleasant
| nearneSs of other human interests and
| quiet and restful sense of companionship
upon this great land-locked sea, although it
| is longer than the Atlantic is broad between
| Newfoundland and Ireland, I have never
| known or felt on other waters. However
treacherous the Mediterranean has been to
| others, have never seen its face save in
| its blandest, sweetest mood; when its
skies were fair, the sunshine above it mild
and loving, its airs zephyrus and dreamful
| and its fact as blue and smiling as rift of
June day heaven.
Then, too, before the tropic night settles
! softly upon sea and land like a perfumed
translucent cloud of darkening pearl, there
Is spread before you such a reach of grand
| and glorious coast-line-the real 'tAfric's
coral strand'' of transcendent 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 hori-
ION by the eternal peaks of the Atlas
heights, which even under tropic suns soar
above the clouds to the region of silences,
| ghostly and phantomful with their crowns
| of snow and ice.
| Fha aiT.tr s,
with thyme and balm. The fancy, quick
ened by tradition and oriental mysticisms,
builds wondrous creations surprising the
widest and most fabulous tales of the
ARABIAN Nights.n Snug in a 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 enthralled, 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 phosphorescent sea pulses and
| throbs in pale flames beneath, you near this
radiant haven of this radiant, stored sea.
| Then for a time all is still. The night
| and sleep and languorous tropic airs enfold
and hold until the dawn has come. The
great steamer with her now silent enginery
softly tugging at her anchor chain, has
| drifted with the tide until her stately PROV
mods gracefully to the quaint city upon the
| heights. Your chair happens to stand
| amidships upon the port side. There are
sweetest zephyrs playing through the rig
| gings of the curious craft upon the bay.
These kiss your face until your eyes open
| lazily, as one who awakens in regret at the
dispelling of Il pleasing dream. And yet
litsIsy open as though you are but knowing
7 another dream. They awaked upon morn
| ing in Palma; morning SO really dream. so
dreamful reality, that no painters art has
ever caught 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 yellow
| spars but a moment since like giant reeds
| above the cleaning of shadowy marsh,
now pinked from tip to socket with the
| glorious sunlight, which hints in its play
| upon their gapdy enSigns of the far lands
where their home Ravens lie; while far
out on the waters horizon, rounding Cape
| Figuera behind, comes the morning feet
of fisher boats, their sails of every striking
hue, and the songs of the fishers stealing
across the distance in faint but melodious
trythm.
I Here and there are Turkish vessels with
tremendous single sails, square built fore
and aft like q settlers log cabin. Scores of
Ionian islands, the chebecs of the Arabs,
and the identical great-boats of the olden
pirates, lie low in the water roundabout,
lstheir 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 Chioggia 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
yaldemosa, and on the bow of each craft is
pam ed an ef1gy of the Virgin, an endless
sHpplication to the waves against every
1form 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 AL
eiers as tropical in type and seeming as
Havana, the ampitheater like city of |
Palma; once the brightest pearl of the sea-
grit isles; still, stately, silent, beautiful; |
with tone and tint of the ORIENT in It's |
pinnacles and minarets, its dome-Shaped |
belfrles and its weird and shadowy palms. |
Lovingly contemplating the exquisite |
picture, its romantic history old and new |
sRatters from the hiding places of memory |
and troop clear and distinct into your mus |
Ngs; even as the mourning doves of Palma |
sweep from the thousand shadowy homiug |
inches of its massive cathedral, and alight- |
ing on buttress peak, battlement and spire, |
form professional SilhouettS of FURNISHED |
puce and blue against the eastern sky.
Out of the mythic days come brave old |
tales of the folk that fourished here The |
inhabitants, a heroic race, fought naked |
with sings, and from the dexter1ty of the |
warriors the islands became known as |
Balearica. country of the strong-armed |
singers. The old legends have it that their
marvellous proficiency with this weapon |
was attained through the mothers refusing /
their children food until "they could sling |
it down. from beams or branches on which |
it was hung. This very city of Palma is |
built upon the ruins of the old Roman town
founded by Quintus Cecilius Metellus,
swho conquered the islands with galleys |
u 'plated with OK hides and skins as q pro-
lection against the fatal strokes of the |
Balearic singers"
Ruled in turn by vandals and Goths, the