The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1899-11-16
A FLYING VISIT TO SPAIN
With 4 Brief Sojourn at Oporto,
Portugal, En- Route.
COST OF THE OCEAN VOYAGE.
Various Routes From the United States
The Manchester of the Iberian PENN
suIa Whence Comes the Famous
Port Wine.

OPoRTo, PORTUGAL, Oct. 81 In
the words of some forgotten poet,
''The dust is upon my sandal-shoon
and still am c pilgrim" But let us
substitute the plural for the singular
personal pronoun, hoping that the
readers who have followed me over
the length and breadth of Spanish
America, will accompany me on a
flying visit to Spain to> see how the
poor old mother country is bearing
up under her losses.
In choosing ones route to Spain,
there is less latitude for selection than
to any other seahoard country of
Enrope. American, German, French
and Portuguese lines, with their va
rious European connections, make
the journey from New York more or
less directly, most of them taking you
hundreds of miles out of the way,
and, of course, charging accordingly,
Thus, if money is mo object" you
may go by the Red Star line in the
well-known st. Louis or st. Paul;
passage, $50 to Southampton. At the
English port you take a Royal Mail
steam packet to Lisbon-$40 more,
plus So war tax. Add $50 or so more
for stewards fees and the usual Incl
dentals of long voyage and the cost
20 %
you are only on the edge of the
Promised Land, where the trouble
actually begins, for everybody knows
that the expense and vexation of
European travel is vastly greater
than in our own country. The Medi-
terranean service of the North Ger
man Lloyd is manifestly not for the
scribe, who, according to Job, wan
dereth abroad for bread" Passage
on the Kaiser Wilhelm or Fuerst
,sBismarl from New York to Algiers
or sGepoa is Sf5lh SSsnd yfsssiSare yss.s left 70
get into Spain = Fbeso ~ You C5sll.
The Hamburg American line is dear
est of all-$350 per capita in the
chamber de luxe" to 500 for the
fourth berth in the poorest cabin from
New York to Madeira or Gibralter. By
the Insular Navigation Company you
go direct from New York to Lisbon
for $75, war revenue tax added. Of
the rival merits or demerits of the
various lines we will not speak. For
reasons of my own | choose the COM
paratively unknown Linha da Va
pores Portuguezes. Its rate of pas
sage is 800 from New York to the
Portuguese coast. Several consider
ations Influenced the choice. First,
the little travel just now to Oporto,
on the heels of the bubOnic plague,
leaves plenty of state rooms for the
few passengers without the necessity
of doubling up" Having decided
to visit also Spain's twin sister with
out which a Spanish tour would be
but half complete) it is wiser to beard
the dreaded bacillus at once in its
den. Besides, the earlier in autumn
one travels through the northern
portion of the Iberian peninsula the
better in point of weather-Madrid,
its exact centre, lying in the same
latitude.as Boston, you know, with
equally cold winters.
Before starting on this journey,
wherever it may lead, you cannot
possibly invest dollar to greater
future advantage than square of
parchment from the United States
State Department, bearing more or
less correct description of your age,
complexion, weight and inches. 1t
not only shows to all the world that
you are a'proud citizen of the Land
of the Free, and therefore to be re-
spected, but You will need it for
identification in many foreign banks
and postoffices; and if the worst be-
tide your friends may require it in
claiming your corpus. Notwithstand-
ing the royal decree of '62 releasing
foreigners entering Spain from show
ing their passport, the stranger is
generally expected to have one; and
in remote provinces of the Peninsula
is likely to be even locked up if he
cannot produce one. OF course the
American Consul would soon get you
out of of limbo, and raise rumpus
before which the Dons would tremble
in their shoes; but it is much less
troublesome and expensive to attend
to the matter in due form at home.
In both Spain and Portugal the
strangers passport takes the place of
the natives cedula, or authoritive
paper of Identification without which
one is regarded as tramp or vaga-
bond.
Crossing the ocean on a Portuguese
steamer one is certain to get his