The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1899-11-16

]
! agined than between the floating pal
aces of the American and German
! lines, with their fashionable crowds
and elaborate dressings for dinners,
and life aboard vessel of the Linha
Portuguezes. However, the trip is
not long, and we who are fresh from
the wilds of Spanish America feel
quite at home amid jibbering tongues
and odors of grease and garlic. The
captain sits at the head of his table
and treats passengers as honored
guests at "a private banquet, while
from stem to stern of the ship the
exaggerated politeness of the Latin
prevails, down to the barefooted fell
lows who scrub the deck and yank
their frowsy forelocks whenever a
petticoat appears.
Barring North ern prejudices
against certain oily and oderiferous
cOmponents Of the menu, the danger
is of stuffing, not starving, with five
meals per diem. At a. III. coffee is
brought to your berth with bread
and fruit Breakfast at ten o'clock
is served in several courses, with good
OportO wine, without extra charge.
Dinner at ) p. IN. is a great event of
the day, Il lengthy and elaborate
meal, adorned with salads, such as
Americans can never learn to make,
figs, grapes and olives to remind you
of the sunny lands ahead, and wines
of so many varieties that the unwary
voyager who fOrgets the Kentucky
advice against mixing his beverages
is liable to lose himself under the ta-
bic. At o'clock comes supper; and
just before turning in for the night a
handed IN. Strange to say there is
almost no seasickness under this gen
erous regime, which seems to show
that NAL de mer is best prevented by
keeping the nerves of the stomach,
which cause the trouble, busy in di-
gesting food, as pleasant occupation
is said to stave off hysteria in nervous
females.
1t is only seven days from New York
to Oporto-hardly time enough to get
ones sea-legs on, as the sailors say
to learn what time it is at Eight
bells and five bells and the mean
ing of ''starboard" and "larboard"
and other nautical terms, By the
way We are bound ~ sse Iani's
whence came those Ale-honored
words The early navigators, who
crossed the Western Ocean to hunt
up America, said questa borda when
borda for that side Abbreviated,
the words stand sta borGa and ia
borda; and naturally the clumsy
English tongue corrupted them to the
words in present use. They sound so
much alike that frequent errors oc-
CURED sometimes causing serious
accidents therefore the Admiralty
some years ago substituted the word
port for larboard. Land-lubbers
on their first voyage may know which
is which by remembering that ''star-
board is the right-hand side of the
ship and the light carried is green,
while port is the left and its lantern
color red.
In these days of rapid transit one
approaches the opposite hemisphere
regretting that the voyage is not Ion
ger. To be rushed into new lands
without giving the imagination time
to daily on the borders of the un-
known is to rob ones self of half the
delights of a foreign tour. Spain and
Portugal are one in history, and in
the habits and traditions of their
peopls-almost one in language, saw
ing a few extra his and o's in the
westward provinces. The very
thought of sunny Spain, land of vine
yards and olive groves and fandan-
goes, of guitars and gypsies, brigands.
senoritas and caballeras, warns the
heart like draught from it's famous
viptages. When Washington Irving
made similar journey he wrote:
I'VE set out with a genuine disposi-
tion to be pleased. With such a dis
position what country is Spain for
the traveller, where the most misera-
BILE inn is as full of adventure as an
enchanted castle, and every meal is
in itself an achievement" In a SINH
lar frame of mind we hurried on deck
before sunrise of a misty morning to
watch the passage of the bar at the
mouth of the Rio Douro. The great
river, navigable for smaller craft more
than a hundred miles above, stretches
away across Portugal to the border
of France. The Pyrenees frown upon
it's upper waters, and somewhere
along its banks is the Valladolid of
song and story, and Braganza, cele-
brated in opera bouffe. Oporto (Por-
tuguese for The Port), lies three miles
H. L.