The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-12-31
UNBEATEN PATHS In SPAIN
SARAGOSS-A, WHICH BYRON'S MAID
DEFENDED.
Once the Rival of Toledo and Seville
Its Cathedrals and Other Objects of
Inferest


Dec. 12.-Though our Spanish tour has
far exceeded its allotted limits, we
could not feel it quite complete without
visit to the city which Byron's Maid
of Saragossa" defended, though it ne
cesstated hundred mile detour from
the straight line down the Mediterrane-
an coast The railway inland from
Barcelona passes through rugged and
thinly settled region skirting the Ply
renees, from whose defiles troops of
we'll organized brigands, armed cap-a-
pie, occasionally issue to Ego through"
train and hold up it's passengers in
true American fashion. But in this
land of exaggerated courtesy, even the
operation of highway robbery is not
made so disagreeable as in our own
wild west If only the mail and bag
gage are to be plundered, a gentlemanly
desperate goes from car to car, assur-
Ing timid people that they need not I'M
necessarily alarm themselves; and he
accepts their gratitude with becoming
modesty. When it is deemed advisable
to also appropriate the valuables of
the passengers, notice is given as soon
as the train stops to prevent undue
nervousness on the part of the victims,
and the request to deliver is couched
in such respectful language that to re-
fuse would seem discourteous indeed
Sad to say-from the highwaymen 8
point of view-the time onored profess
sion of robbery is no longer so pleasant
and lucrative an employment as 1t used
to be before so many railways traversed
the peninsula in all directions. In the
good old days of saddle-trans jour-
neys through this part of Spain were
not reckoned by the usual measurement,
but as SO many leagues of brigands'
Looking from the car windows, you
see at every crossroads a picturesque
well, surrounded by pack-mules and
their gossiping drivers. Near each well
stands a tall stone cross, often hand
'somely carved, erected by the govern
ment in memory of Los Muertos Sthe
dead, who departed suddenly to the
Land Of Shadows, without time to seek
hbsolution. Besides those melancholy
landmarks-with arms perpetually out
stretched, imploring the prayers of
passers-by for the unshriven souls that
went to bed with their boots on as we
say out west-your cheerfulness is not
increased by the sight of innumerable
smaller wooden crucifxes, crowding the
gray hill-tops and scattered all along
the barren fields, each cross indicating
the spot where a duel was fought or a
murder committed. The Aragonese,
like their neighbors, the Galatians have
always been noted for indulgence in
private reuds and an unbridled spirit of
revenge. They are very poor and very
brave superstitious to degree, and so
stubborn that it has passed into pro-
verb, "a pea SAINT of Aragon would rath-
er drive nails with his head than with a
hammer"
At last the dun-coIored hills are left
behind and you enter the valley of the
Ebro; and presently a multitude of fat
domes and spender spires springs into
view--the city of Saragosso surround
ed by blooming gardens, like an oasis in
Sahara In pre-Roman times it was
called Saduba but the Emperor Angus
tus bestowed upon it, with his compli-
ments, the imperial title, Caesarea-Au-
gusta, of which high sounding epithet
Saragossa is the natural corruption.
Line SDlTll OL LIE MOOl anu lilC llCbidC-
val Spaniard pervades the place.
Though the chief city Of Aragon, it is
to-day an ill-smelling, dilapidated place
of perhaps sixty thousand inhabitants
Most of the streets are here winding al
1eys, with balconies clinging all over the
house fronts like barnacles on the keel
of a ship. The arcades and markets
are picturesque with turbaned heads
(gay handkerchief twisted around, and
coarse brown wooden cloaks, remind one
of the Arabs of the desert; while |
about the plazas, or stand
ing idly absorbed in contemplation are
bare-legged men and women, with ma
ked chests and arms, despite the chilly |
weather, and tawny skins that are
manifestly unused to water. But the
pride of kings is in the demeanor of the |
poorest! Their ancestors came rom |
the turbulent Barbary tribes, who were
ruder in manner than their kinsmen of |
Toledo and Seville, but by no means de- |
ficient in those intellectual qualities |
that distinguished the Moors. With
such diligence and success did those |
early citizens apply themselves to agri-
culture that the Ebro became known to
the world as 1.-The River of Fruits"
from the orchards through which it
ran. AT one period of its history Sara
gossa rivalled Toledo and Seville, and
maintained thriving trade with
France, Italy, Egypt and the rich pro-
vinces of Audalusia. It's older archi-
lecture plainly shows it's African origin
in detail, but grander in eff
feet, than the fairy edifices of Grenada
and Seville, which were modified by
persian and Byzantine art. Under the
Moors, Saragossa S schools and colleges
and hospitals We're literally endowed;
poets and philosophers were honored
guests of her Sultans; and her chemists
and astronomers, like the Khalifs of
Egypt, enthusiastically devoted consec-
ltive days and nights, without food or
sleep, to the solution Of fascinating
problems.
Long afterwards, as capital of Ara
gon-a kingdom gained foot by foot
through incessant wars with the intidel
her citizens grew more and more
Jealous of any Infringement on their
lncient liberties. From earliest times
he forms of a constitution have been
Observed in Aragon, the royal authority .
icing so restricted as to make the SOW
,reign's power merely nominal. The
crown was elective, and when the no.
3les swore allegiance their oaths, in I