The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-25

l certained, the women and girls rang | themselves along the windward side O
 the elra and toss the grain into the air | until the chaff is blown away. l Another Portuguese institution tha | may have been borrowed from Moses l time is the mora or water wheel. You | see 1t everywhere along the country | roadsideS, with blind-folded oxer
 marching round and round, raising the
 water, which is sent through stone | troughs to fill the fountains and feed the irrlgating ditches
 Late in the afternoon we crossed the | Rubicon of the Guadiana and left old | Portugal behind. So it happened that | in the glory of Spanish sunset caught the first glimpse of the longed- for land of my chateau en Espagne, cherished since childhood-the only bit
 of real estate I ever owned! In cloud- pictures against the sunset sky it's shin-
 ing towers arose complete
 with battlements high in the hush of the air,
 And the turrets thereon
 appropriately draped in crimson and
 gold, the royal colors of Spain, In the
 moving panorama of fleecy clouds ane
 could distinctly trace the gallant figure
 of Don Quixote de la Mancha, followed
 by his faithful squire, riding their don
 keys full tilt against misty windmills;
 the mighty Caliph Abdurrehman rear
 ing Moslem temples for the mail-clad
 Cid to destroy; and all the other de-
 lights and wonders that belong to eve-
 rybody's imaginary possessions in
 Spain.
 There tas just time, before twilight
 dropped it's curtain on the scene, to get
 a field-glass view of Palos, the ancient
 port of southwestern Spain, whence Co.,
 lumbus sailed four hundred years ago,
 on his first voyage to America. The
 plain little stone church of St. George
 looking as fresh in the distance as if
 only yesterday the contractor had hand
 ed over his finished work-still guards the entrance to the town, as when the
 great admiral read from its pulpit the
 royal edict, that the citizens of Palos
 should furnish his crews for the uncer
 tain voyage in search of another world. Fancy the terror and distress in the It.
 tie town at such an unexpected levy on it's scanty population There, too, is
 the convent chapel of Santa Clara, where Columbus and his sailors fulfilled their vows, after the return from that momentous first voyage. You remem- Der that a dreadful storm arose, during which they promised the Blessed Virgin that if saved by her interpostion, they would spend the whole of their first night ashore in prayer and praise be- fore her nearest altar. History says that Columbus at least performed his VOW to the letter, kneeling all night long on the cold stones before her i'm age in Santa Clara. Two or three miles beyond, clear and distinct on it's breezy stands the old, old convent of La Rabda, whose counterfeit figured at our Worlds Fair in Chicago few years ago. To-day passing vessels rarely touch at Palos, because the aged town offers few inducements to modern trade or travel; but you may easily reach it from Cadiz either on donkey back after the fashion of the country, or in carriage. Aside from its histor- c associations, it contains absolutely nothing of interest; only one long straggling street and a few scattered houses climbing up the hillside. I doubt f half a dozen of it's five or six hun fred inhabitants ever heard of Colum- ! ous or what he discovered; and the vis- tor to Palos brings away with him, be- sides an extra burden of dust and fleas, 1 l sad impression of prevailing ignor- | ance, poverty and sloth.
 Speaking of antiquity, the discovery | If America only four little centuries ,go is but as a minute past compared [ with the traditions of Cadiz! Pounded | ,y Hercules eleven centuries before Christ was born. it is not only one of i he oldest cities in Europe, but fully lalf as old as this weary world itself, lccording to the Hebrew tradition! What its early name may have been lnder the Phoenicians and Carthageni- ms is not now known. The Romans, vho captured it three and half centu- ies before the foundation of Rome was aid called it "Gaddis' and made it for time the most wealthy and impor- ant city of the world. Afterwards the foths and Moors had their turn at it, ach few hundred years; and it has een Spanish only since 1262. Nor has belonged to Spain ever since, for brake, the English buccaneer took orcible possession in 15S7, followed by 4ord Essex and horde of Britons, who visited it's time -honored name into like "Kales." The French cid it few years in the early part of he present century and heaven knows yho it's next master may be, when pain gets a little more out of pocket nd credit.
 ith these historic points in mind, ones rst view of Cadiz, the Silver City" Is n immense surprise. You are prepared or a sad, gray, tumble-d down old place, ut not for the bright and beautiful re- lity Seen from a ships deck in the arly morning,-its towers and battle rents, churches and tall stone houses like spotless marble in. the init looks as if builded yesterday. [ere pen and ink are powerless to de- ,ribe it. De Amicis came near the 'uth when he said: "One could not do atter than to write the word white
 th a white pencil on blue paper and ake note on the margin, impressions : Cadiz It is study in blue and hite-its regular rows of snowy build gs aloft on a bold promontory, be- ; veen sea and sky the color of indigo T tuated at the extremity of a long and | arrow isthmus, connected with the ain land only by a strip of rocky T nth. in some places not two hundred