St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1895-04-26
LETTER FROM GIBRALTAR.

letter descriptive of places ION the
continong," from which we are priv
LEGGED to make the folio wing excerpt
Gibraltar, March 21st, 1895. ut is
very hard to realize that | am /.
Reading and Cambridge and John
son seem dream places, not realities.
We reached Gibraltar March 5th,
after wonderfully smooth and de-
lightful voyage. Every day was
pleasant, and we had long lazy times
sitting on deck enjoying the sky and
water. had a taste Of sea.sickness,
but did not miss my five meals each
day.
1t would be quite impossible to
begin to tell you all the beauties we
have seen, or the strange sights and
sounds we have seen and heard. |
will tell you where we have been,
and refer you to Truing's Alhambra,
and Murray's Spain for all details.
AS | said, we landed Tuesday,
March 9Th. One day was devoted
to Gibraltar, and the second day we
went over to Tangier, distance of
about three hours. Tangier is the
strangest place lever saw. The peo-
pie are living there just as they did a
thousand years ago. Such filth and
poverty We hired guide in Gibral-
tar, who was with US all through
Spain. He knew Tangier we'll and
took US to the bank, the prison, the
harem and the market place, where
we saw and heard the story telling,
the snake charming and many other
typical sights. shall never forget
the dignified handsome Moors, nor
the white (?) dressed women with
their faces so discretely covered.
After day of sight seeing, we left
for Cadiz, lovely, white complete
city. Iquote the guide book when l
call it an ivory city set in emerald.
That description is very good and
true. At Cadiz we saw the last pic
ture of Murillo, a madonna painted
on the wall above the altar of a
monastery. First we went to Seville,
which is a city full Of interesting
things. We saw the Giraldo Tower,
said to be one of the finest in the
world, the old cathedral, twenty-one
Murillos, very beautiful, (some origi-
nails of which we have copies) the
town where Don Pedro kept his
wives-a curious Moorish structure
the Infanta's palace, the tobacco
factory where over six thousand
girls are at work, bull fight ring,
Seville is the home of the bull fight,
the shop of the barber of Seville,
Murillo's house, a fac simile of the
house of Pontius Plate, which is
wonderfully beautiful with carving
and tiles, and the Alcazar, an old
Moorish palace, which is at certain
seasons the home of Spanish royalty.
| have not begun to tell you all |
could about Seville, but you see from
what | have written how rich it is.
From Seville we went to Cordova
to see the mosque and an old Roman
bridge, which seems as stout now as
possible. Next came Grenada, beau
tiful Grenada! We stopped at the
Washington Irving hotel, which is
within stones throw from the AL
hambra. never dreamed that the
Alhambra was so beautiful. We wan
dered about three or four days, and
could not get enough. Such carving
and coloring Such situation !!
From the windows of the hall of the
Ambassadors there is magnificent
stretch of valley and snow. covered
mountains. We saw Washington
lrving's rooms, and the very balcony
he was so fond of sitting in. Our
guide took us everywhere, and tried
to be as interesting as possible. We
were little amused when he told us
that an American by the name of
Washington Irving once lived in the
Alhambra and wrote book about
it.
We stayed at Grenada as long as
we could, and expected to go on by
the Werra to Naples, but the railroad
broke down, and rough weather de-
layed the boat from Malaga, so we
were unfortunate enough to miss her
by about one hour. So we are here
in Gibraltar for two weeks. | am
not really sorry for this enforced
| stay, except on account of letters
and we have telegraphed for them tc
be sent to u.s."
This ends the part of the letter in
teresting to the public.