Morning journal and courier., 1892-02-13
wAKEMAN,s WANDERINGs.

Gibraltar and Round About-GIow- ing Pen Pictures of the Famous Fortress and It's Impressive Sur the EngIish-Speaking and Chrfs- tian-Lfvins Race, a Hostage Of Civ- nfzatlon and Peace.
 GIBRALTAR, Jan. 20.
 To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 believe that one of the greatest glories of intelligent Americanism lies in the fact that, as people, we are receptive of req sonable and just ideas, and are susceptible of conversion from hereditary prejudice 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 en- joy.
 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 towards the city and Rock of Gibraltar. Upon this north ern Pillar of Hercules the English flag has foated for one hundred and eighty eight years. And I am glad of it; glad that Sir George Rooke, 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 efforts of France and Spain; and that all the powers of Latin and Mus selman arms and diplomacy, with the cow ardly machinations of English traitors at home, have never availed to hand over this key of the whole Levant to Spanish or other possession or retrogression; because:
 Just so long ss England holds Gibraltar the trade of the Mediterranean and the east is peacefully open not only to Eng land but to every nation of the earth with spirit enough to compete for it; and North America, whose English speaking and thinking people now twice outnumber those of the motherlaud, in common with Great Britain, in trade, in travel, and in all those things tending towards the worlds enlightenment and progress, will enjoy through England's dogged possession of Gibraltar, a common guarantee of security and respect.
 If, as I have done, you will tramp through the provinces of France; wander sfoot from Finisterre by Vallsdolid to Ma drid, and thence across the Spanish sierras to Barcelona and the sea; know Portugal from Lisbon to the Mediterranean gates; idle among the peasants and shepherds of Italy from the Pyranees to remotest Apu- lisn shores; tramp from Sicilian Catania over old Etna to fair Palermo; and then, in Algiers and Moracco, 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, possess as deep and lasting a hereditary hatred of all who own and speak the English tongue, as fadelessly fires the Moslem heart in its fa- natical dream of sometime everywhere planting the Crescent above the Cross.
 Differ as grievously as Americans may with Englishmen regarding the justice or injustice of this or that, on these large lines of tremendous import we cannot buI remain one and indissoluble. Looking out of the history of the centuries that were, and from among the possibilities of the centuries tu come the mighty rock and its armament fades from sight a mere stubbornly held possession and men ace. Its mythic name, the Pillar of Her cules, merges into the Pillar of Peace And Gibraltar in the possession of the English speaking and Christian living race will remain the hostage of Christian civil ization for all time to come.
 All one's preconceived notions of Gib- raltar fall far short, think, of convey ing its true grandeur and impressiveness From whatever direction you approach il from the westward over the Atlantic, from the Mediterranean on the east, from Tangier in Africa across the strait, or from the Spanish sierras to the north-it has always the seeming of a majestic mountain of stone rising sheer out of the blue of the sea. As we approached il some struggling clouds which had formed among the peaks of the Spanish sierras, carried by northern winds, were stretched in thin folds across it's upper heights They gave the huge rock alternate bars of ebony shadow and golden light, and, shut ting its top altogether from sight, empha- sized the impression of a mysterious alti- tude.
 Even when one has landed, the easiest affair of its kind in all Europe, as Gibral- tar is free port, this impression is moi dispelled. The white city, pile of hud- dled terraces at the waters edge at the only spot on all Gibraltar where hsbita- tions could be patched like nests of birds upon it's ragged sides, is but thin line of human resort upon and above the shore. Wherever the eye rests is sea beneath and rock above; not very precipitous on the city side, yet rising in escarped height on height until one feels certain that inacces- sible heights are shut from sight beyond My own first impulse, as I believe must be that of all first visitors here, was to mount its utmost crag and study its topo- graphy with my own eyes, while feasting upon the matchless panorama thus afford ed. In two hours time, including the dig nified delay required in the issuance of permit by the military secretary, in Gun ner's Lane, I stood alongside the signal tower, Fl Hacho, from which, it is said, with powerful glass the Bay of Biscay can be seen, while the valley in which is built the capital of Morocco, the city of Fez, is plainly discerned.
 Impregnable Gibraltar, upon which one now stands, is the outjutting promontory of long, narrow strip of land and rock, forming peninsula on the eastern shore of the Bay of Gibraltar, or Algeciras, as it is sometimes called. The latter is shaped like horse shoe, open to the south, it's western shore extremity terminating in | Cabrita Point. This bay is perhaps eight | miles long from north to sonth, and five miles DrOAu 1TOtn esst lO WtsI 1ut ptulu- sula terminating in the rock slopes grsdu- ally down from the Spanish mountains to | the Spanish lines, just north of the ruins of the old Spanish Notifications, and be- | tween this and the rock is what is known as neutral ground, flat sandy reach. mile and half in length. Upon this, close to the rock, are the English race | course, the drill-ground and the Jewish | and the garrison cemeteries. The narrow strip connecting Gibraltar with the main | land has every appearance of having been | beneath the waves at TO remote date, and | the English have rendered Gibraltar unas-
 sailable by land force through engineer | ing contrivances by which the entire strip could in an instant be blown to power and
 covered by the sea
 At the southern end of this sand-covered | bed of mines the rock rises almost psrpen- dicularly for over fourteen hundred feet. | Many fancy its contour resembles a lion
 couchant, with its head reared aloft to the
 north and towards Spain. It is grand
 enough without the simile; breaking away | in lessening crags to the south and again
 confronting Africa with a lesser but none the less insurmountable wall of stone, | about whose base the sea ceaselessly roars
 and lashes, finging the spume and spray to tremendous heights among the erags at Europa Point It is three miles from its land ward face of rock to it's seaward front
 of stone. The average width of the huge
 mouolith is three-fourths of mile. The
 rock, practically ses-enoiroied, is com