The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-18
P0RTUGAL'S CONBY ISLAND
THE ROYAL ILIMKLY SEEN LN DIS-
 H1 BILLIE.
Fnrcwel1 Jaunts Before Setting Out for spnin--Poiiticol and Educational Matters Portugal.

Ii @fters Iu bOEau1Ai.
 Especial Correspondence of the Journal
 and Courier)
 Before bidding adeu to poor old Por- tugal you should spend day at Cas-
 cares. the fashionable seaside resort,
 fifteen miles from Lisbon. The village
 whose name is pronounced as if
 spelled enge-lles just north of
 the Tagus' mouth, on the Atlantic, and
 may be reached by railway from Lis
 bon, or by boat down the river. It has
 tiny harbor of it's own, accessible
 only to coasters and other small craft
 and is supposed to be protected by a
 couple of antique forts, which an Amer
 ican man-of-war would send to King
 dom Come in half minute.
 According to Portuguese ideas, life is giddy whirl as Cascares, particularly
 during "the season" when the royal
 family deserts Ajuda to occupy it's pal
 ace here. Everybody arises before the sun, and in neglige of any sort, provid-
 ing that it be cool and easy, saunters down to the surf, to perform his ablu-
 tions and witness other peoples. If
 line were stretched from this point straight across the broad bosom of the Atlantic, the other end of it's three thousand and odd miles would touch our own Coney Island. There is
 queer similarity between the two re- sorts, making due allowance for the diff ferent races. The same motly but good- natured crowds come over from the nearby metropolis, composed chiefly of hoi polloi, but with sprinkling of up per crust" bent on having a good time,
 regardless of appearances. The bath ing arrangements at Cascares are even more unconventional than those that distinguish our popular resort. Here group of white cotton tents are hastily
 set up every morning at daybreak
 their f1imsy walls affording scant pro- lection against prying eyes, and so in securely guyed that every sportive breeze threatens to snatch them off to sea, exposing-heaven knows what among the dressing and undressing people. Last year a Frenchman tried hard to induce the government to per init him to erect a row of substantial cabins, to remain stationary during the season and be removed at it's close. But so hated is everything French in this Peninsula that, though he offered to pay we'll for the privilege, it was re- fused by the poverty stricken Powers that be-
 However, nobody seems to mind dis comforts at Cascares nor the imminent danger of an expose at critical mo- ments, Families in the transparent tents chatter gaily' with one another or with friends passing outside, while donning the blue flannel monstrosities that do duty as bathing-suits; then rush into the surf-men and women royalty and commoner clay, all splash ing and spluttering together. By seven o'clock the morning dip is over, the beach deserted, the tents struck and the people gone to breakfast. After wards everybody retres to his room, if he has one, and is believed to indulge in a long siesta, while tourists and non residents stray about on the sands and l in the corridors, seeking shady places and generally finding none. But the drowsy god is by no means wooing all l those in retirement! Could you get a peep behind many of those carefully closed shutters, you would see merry gaming parties, male and female, in light and airy neglige, with cigarettes and iced drinks much in evidence, and i little piles of pesos rapidly changing | hands. The true "Portugee" of either sex is a born gambler and dice is the { favorite method of gratifying his natu ral propensity. They go at it with the | feverish recklesSness of the Latin tenn | perament, and never know when to | stop; but happily the stakes are low, as | much from poverty of pocket as be- cause acking the boldly-venturesome [ spirit of the Anglo-Sa
 About 4:30 p. m. outdoor Cascares ' again becomes animated. There is level stretch of road on top of the cliffs extending north a mile or two, where both breeze and views are glorious But the morning Acadian simplicity has departed; everybody is out on dress parade, In his or her best clothes and company department. You observe that nearly all the ladies whose days have passed the leeting bloom of youth are built on the old-fashioned generous model that Banting would like to ban ish from the face of the earth. Like the typical Virginia table "befo' the wah," their only fault is too abundant plenty their round white shoulders uncovered and their shining tresses elegantly draped in the coquettish and always graceful lace mantila. Those on foot move with a superb dignity of car riage unfortunately very rare among American women. But you look in vain among the men for any such llbe- 1 rality or the part of mother nature! They are universally undersized and faced, thin, nervous and eager ' in appearance, with delicate, unmanly hands and feet whose smallness a Bos- ; ton or Chicago girl might envy if tales are true of the shoe-sizes that prevail in those localities. : Among the wel-dressed, courteous S but (to our taste) excessively ugly Z thong, Queen Amalie shines out like a { star She is not Portuguese, you know, but French. Though now past her ! year and the mother of several ( children, her tall and stately figure has I not taken on undue fat, and may the , saints to whom she prays preserve her 2 from such a calamity Sitting erect ( ,n the box-seat of her trap, with her ( title daughter beside her and couple ( ,f servants behind, she skillfully guides ler four-in-hand, acknowledging her I salutes with dignified sweet q