The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1899-11-23

motely resembles q flower r-decked or
feather r-trimmed bonnet. Neither are
there any tailor-made women, or
bachelor girls, or old-maid men, or
bicycles, or automobiles, or other fin
de steele inventions in this happy
kingdom. While the peasants array
themselves in the dull blues and reds
and purples and yellows of nearby
Africa, displayed in fantastic combi-
nation, black appears to be the favor
ite color of the upper classes, at least
for street wear. According to the
universal Latin fashion, whether met
in Europe, America or the isles Of the
sea, the gowns of the ladies tip up in
front to the shoe tops, and sweep the
dirty streets in the rear, while their
wearers saunter gracefully along the
promenades; but the black lace man
till-last remnant of the Moorish veil
of their ancestors-enhances the dark
eyed beauty as no modern headgear
could do. | am told that not always
was there such a dearth of bonnets
in Oporto; it came about with King
Acadeo's reign in Spain, whose ex-
treme unpopularity banished every
thing, even remotely French. from
the whole 1berian peninsula.
Oporto is said to be the cleanest
city in Portugal-and if that is true,
heaven save the dirtiest! The peo-
pie, as rule, seem to have no idea of
that virtue which is said to be akin
to Goodness, and unnamable abomi-
nations to sight and smell everywhere
abound. But it is city of marked
contradictions, of lights and shad-
ows, riches and poverty, sharply con-
trasted. The streets rise in terraces,
directly from and parallel with the
quay, in some places appearing to
overhang one another; crossed at
right angles by other streets, climb
ing the hills so steeply that few can
be traversed by wheeled vehicles.
Two or three streets near the waters
edge, and those on the summit are
wide, well built up and comparatively
clean but the heart of the old city
is.composed of dark and crooked al
leys, filthy beyond compare, some of
the houses built on activities so
nearly perpendicular that they are
reached by steps cut into the rock.
Buildings of six or more stories, rising
close above each other, shut out the
sky, and being set back to back, al
low no ventilation.
In this pestiferous labyrinth the
poorest classes are packed, as closely
as the sardines that form their staple
diet. AS for sanitation, as we know
it, there is absolutely none in this
noisome quarter. All waste matter,
vegetable, animal and human, is
carried off-if at all only when
heavy rains fall, from the cesspool in
the court yard of each house, down
the sloping streets in open cutters.
No water is ever laid on, and the peo-
pie have to carry the little they use
for household purposes from the pub
lie fountains. No wonder that this
locality is the seat of the bubonic
plague, which seems impossible to
stamp out. 1t victims yet average 40
or so a day, of whom twothirds die.
To the terrible condition of the
place is added poverty so abject that
the people 90 hungry from birth to
death-and generally make a short
trip of it. Because of physical weak
ness, owing to insufficient nourish-
ment, they fall an easy prey to the
first disease that takes hold of them.
Some say that the plague originated
in the entire fish diet of the people;
others that it developed spontane-
ously, from the same conditions of
life that produced the great epidemics
of the Middle Ages. Meanwhile,
dIdlUlHcu Ny COIuOH vi pOllCe,
the wretched denizens of the infested
quarter, cut off from employment,
are hourly growing hungrier and
rendering themselves better subjects
for disease.
Doubtless the irregularity of the
climate contributes something to the
unhealthfulness of Oporto. There is
often difference of twelve degrees
Centigrade between sun and sun. A
sea fog comes up the Douro every
night at the turn of the tide, and at
its best the climate is damp and
chilly.
The plague made its first appear
ance early in June, in Fonte Taurine
street, down near the river. The first
victim was Spanish porter, named
Gregorio Blanco. He was so years
old, unmarried and very poor. He
had long been in feeble health, and
his neighbors were so used to seeing
hime come tottering home, faint and
melancholy, after his days work, that
they paid no attention when he re-
turned one night sickcr than usual.
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