Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-01-02
ATRAMP In PORTUGAL.
Lisbon's Charms Those of Diversity
Rather Than Magnificence.
THE SPIRITED HARBOR SCENES.
Streets, Parks and Architecture of the In
teresting Old City.
EDGARL. wAKEMAN'S NEW DEPARTURE
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE DIsPATcH.r


LISBON, Dec. est requires nearly four
days of steamship travel from Southampton,
England, to reach Lisbon, the seven-hilled
CITY upon the broad Tagus. The first land
YOU will see is the grand promontory OF
Roca, the last upon which Columbus looked
when, nearly 400 years ago, he sailed away
from Lisbon with his three miserable little
ships and his 120 men. Like white dove
wings spread upon an emerald scarf, 1alr
Cintra CLEANS against old Roca's sides
Shortly your steamers course is changed 10
the east. Cascase is passed. You have
entered a noble bay which is alone rlvaled
bv that of Naples, and the horn OF whose
southern crescent terminates in lofty and
somber Cape Ispichell. Mountains rise
picturesquelv to the north and east behind
this crescent purple and fair, and suggestive
of ilIimitable lands beyond, where the great
river makes its way through the heights
from its sources round about the Spanish
capital: emerald or puee where the sun,
from its liquid bed in the west, lights the
far forests and flames the serried heights.
Quaint old outlying forts appear;
for.resses of defense and salute. Then the
outer bay narrows to the Ria de Llsboa,
Lisbon's mouth, and a narrow mouth and
throat they are; bristling with forts, capable
of perfect defense in these DAYS without
fort at all: and after a passage of perhaps
six miles through this deep and narrow
channel you have entered an inner harbor,
20 miles long. and from to IN width,
where 10000 ships could ride at anchor III
water scarcely stirred by wave or ripple the
whole year long.
A City Set Upon the Hills.
Lisbon is set upon the hills along the
northern shore The entire estuary is edged
with villages and villas. Here a church.
gray and old, half shows from some YER
dure-clad defile. There a fishing town is
checkcred with white cottages and splatches
Of driving nets. Nonder a half-ruined mon
asterv, with its little hamlet OF houses
creeping up TO its walls like patient beggars
for protection and aims, tells its story of
suppression and conversion TO workaday
use Here and there are quaint and an
cient docks reminders of where the olden
galleons were built which bore the most in
treIid of all men to conquest and discovery
of utmost lands. What wondrous change
upon the whole world : surface, what
mighty revolutions in civilization, what
volumes of history had their humble origin
here. Not to Rome, nor England, should
Americans come, reverentially and with
guide books in hand, as to the cradle spot
of our race. We were born on the shores
of the lordlv Tagus. We are Portuguese
in inception and conception. Our baby
hood was rocked in the three old tubs which
bore Columbus from Ria de Lisboa to far
San Salvador.
The harbor scenes of Lisbon are full of
color and charm. Towers and castles,
churches and monasteries, shoy from all the
surrounding heights The city itself, al
most as white and luminous as Algiers ris-
in- from the sea, is fair TO look upon. Craft
of all nations are here. Up through the Ria
de Lisboa the west wind is speeding a feet
of fishing smacks and feluccas. The la
teen sails are of every color and tint in the
yellow sunlight Heaps of silvery sar-
dimes flash and glitter beneath the sails.
Nvriads of lowering gulls bear the vast
fleet company, for their wise instinct tells
them the fishermen never begrudge them
a share of their daily harvest from the
deep.
Scenes in the Beautiful Harbor.
Every manner of the smaller craft known
TO the Mediterranean waters are PLYING
back and forth. Boats full of customs
officials dart from vessel to vessel, now and
then converging toward a narrow archway
at the waters edge where the fruits of the
chase are tithcd and stored. Gentry and
peasantry from the surrounding villas and
farms are coming and going in the out
landish craft pointed like gondolas at both
ends, propelled by swarthy boatmen with
breasts open and hairy to the waist TIE
blue and white flag of Portugal hutters from
countless harboT masts. There are music
and laughter on boat and on shore The
slv above is the sllv of Italv. The waters
beneath have that tint of azure which hints
OF bloom. And when one has landed at
Lisbon and is at rest upon some pretty
balcony, air and sky, sea and mountains,
street and garden, courts and fountains, men
and beasts, women and voices, all sight and
sound and seeming, prompt to delicious
siesta and enchant to tender repose.
Lisbon is neither so fair as Florence, so
dazzling as Palermo, so brilliant as Paris,
nor by any means so impressive as Rome.
But its situation. its surroundings and its
striking contrasts lend the city and envi-
rons a deep and lasting charm. Palace,
church, monastery, convent, public build
ing, home and shop are jumbled together in
picturesque confusion. Its parks are many
and pleasant, somnolent and restful, rather
than brilliant and grand.
Down by the waters edge is the fine broad
quadrangle, Praca de Commerce., or Black
This is bordered by the huge Stock Ex-
change, the India House, the "Alfandega"
or Custom House, the splendid naval ar
senal, and the broad quay at the shore of
the Tagus. In the center is the hugest me-
mortal in Lisbon, the heroic statue of King
Jose l., whose historic reign was cotem-
Dorary with our revolution. Forty tons of
bronze are in the statue alone, supported bv
a marble horse and elephant carved of equal
size for symmetry.
Pleasing Studies of City's Life.
Leading out of this square to the north is
a magnificent triumphal arch; and within
the quadrangle, from river to arch, are
pleasing studies of the great city's COM
mercial life in its relation to the trade and
affairs of foreign nations: while picturesque
groupings of Lisbon boatmen mingled with
Portuguese officials, officers from foreign
wer ships, debarking and embarking
steamer passengers, with all manner of
strange sailors and men-of-wars' men in
their various strange costumes, continually
change and enliven the scene
To the east a little distance along the
broad fine quay is the Praca dos Romulares,
which leads into the Attero, magnificent
seaside traffic thoroughfare of perhaps two
miles in length. In the former are denser
crowds OF boatmen and waterside folk, and |
here is located the Caes do Sodro where |
strangers are usually landed. AT all hours |
of dav and night it is an interesting local |
itv. The Lisbon boatmen have no other |
homes but their boats. In them they cook |
their meals and sleep. Until long after |
midnight YOU can come upon little fleets of |