The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1898-05-26
TALKED ON SPAIN.
PERSONAL "REMINISCENCES Oh
TRAVEL BY S. w. MAYOR.
SPANS TAXES ARE ENORMOUS
1t is Crime to Raise Tobacco in SPAIN
All Controlled by Trust-Trip to
Alhambra, tire Spot Made nous
by Washington Irving.

New York harbOr Nov. 3, 1895, aboard
the Augusta Victoria, of the North
German Lloyd steamship compeny.
We were off for Spain and ten months
among the lions of travel.
For nine uneventful but unmonoto-
nous days our majestic steamer plowed
through the deep, often no doubt cross
ing the invisible trails of the small
flotilla of frail craft that 400 years be-
sore followed the dauntless Columbus
as through many weeks he bore west
ward, seeking a new world, and then
we came to Gibraltar, grand, imposing,
glowering!
While waiting for our luggage to be
brought ashore little glimpse of
Spanish life was afforded us, for Spain
is in Gibraltar as servant and cavalier.
Fully a dozen lusty Spaniards, some of
whom afterwards INDUCED in blood
less, free-for- all fight because the bag
gage wouldn't go around, clamored for
my little grip.
A walk anywhere about Gibra'ter is
interesting, but the one remembered
with most pleasure was out beyond
Europa point. A funeral procession
was part of the scene that fingers in
memory. A company of Scottish lad
dies from the garrison followed de-
ceased comrade to the sweet, mournful
strains of the Land O. the Leal, !"
made more mournfully sweet by the
Highland pipes. At the farthest point
of the island we lay down amidst
flowers, even at this late season, and
looked out toward Africa, disappointed
that the cholera at Tangiers would not
permit visit.
But there were abundant themes
for rehecrion-and mOre-could we
have recalled the whole history of the
great rock upon which we we're lying.
Here the one eyed Moslem chieftain,
having conquered northern Africa,
landed in I'll and his followers called
the place GebeI Tarik (the rock of
Tarik) whence comes our later form
of Gibraltar. The one relic of Moorish
occupancy is castle, marred and
scared by cannon balls, looking forth
from it's vantage grounds of a thousand
years.
When, seven centuries later, the
| Moslem was driven out, Spain in her
short-sightedness only occupied Gibral-
tar with nominal garrison and it re-
named for England recognizing it's
Importance as the key to the Mediter-
ranean and the east, to wrest it from
Spain in l704 as trophy of war. All
too late Spain appreciated the value of
her lost prize, but repeated attempts,
aided by France, at recovery proved
| futile and now for more than hundred
years England has remained in undis-
puted possession.
Eight o'clock on a brilliant southern
morning found our party en- route to
Granada, the city of the Alhambra.
The scenery from Gibraltar is most
picturesque, with mountains all the
way. An enthusiast declared it equal
to the grandest of Colorado, but as he
hailed from New York his testimony
WAS taken with grain of salt. Albeit,
there were deep, wild canyons, patches
of fertile valleys, and lofty peaks, and
aside from the mountain scenery, olive
ard orange orchards, with fruit just
Iripening, added a novelty in the land
scape to one who had never seen the
like before. Then, too, mandarins and
the most luXuriant cacti abound, for
the climate of southern Spain is really
tropical. Cork wood is the timber for
the most part, and we had the priv
lege of occupying the same compart
ment (my first experience in Euro
pean jail on wheels) with merchant
dealer in cork who spoke English.
From him we learned that the bark,
from which our corks are made, is
peeled every eight years. 1t occurred
to me that the cork industry in Spain
ought to be very good, since the Span
iards themselves are so addicted to the
use of bottled goods.
This merchant was an intense pat
riot, who believed that Cuba would be
conquered, affirming that 1OO,O 900 Span
iards more could go to quell the rebel
lion, If necessary. He thought it
rather hard that America, which owes
it's discovery to Spain, should side,
even tacitly, with the Cubans. (The
earthquake of American sympathy
was slumbering them He denied that
Spain was too poor to CARRY on war.
The common people are poor, very few
owning land, because of excessive tax
alton, which is regulated at Onetwen-
tieth of the property valuation. Upon
purchasing, man must pay 3 per cent
! of the purchase price to the govern.
ment and then re-purchase his prop
erty (by taxes) every twenty years.
Who wonders at the poverty! But it
is easy to believe that Spain is rich
nevertheless. The government and
the church-clergy, satellites and