The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1900-05-31
RAMBLES AROUND TOLEDO
A City That Dates From Prehis-
toriC Times.
HISTORY MINGLED WITH MYTH
The Gate of the Sun and the Bridge OF
Alcantara-A Place Which Retains
Much of Ancient Romanticism.

Whoever comes to this ancient
capital of the Visigoths should
bring along a lively imagination;
and then how fascinating is the
quaint and solemn city, possessed
by ghosts of Romans, Goths, Jews,
Moors and Christians! 1t is i'm
possible to put upon paper the
emotions which a visitor from our
infant republic experiences when
he sees for the first time one of
these oldest strongholds of Europe,
with their embattled walls and for
tifcations, suggesting the turbu-
lent times of the middle ages.
Among them all, none stirs the
soul like imperial Toledo, perched
upon its lofty rock, around which
the yellow Tagus winds its arms
in loving e1mbrace-the stern, mys-
terious river which has never yet
been degraded to service of man.
If Yankees owned the Tagus, its
deep, swift tide would long ago
have become the slave ofcommerce
bearing ships to the distant sea,
with quays and warehouses lining
the banks that are now as void of
life as the water of boats. But
perish the thought in wild, roman
tic Spain! Since the dawn of his
tory the mighty river has reflected
only castles and dungeons and the
march of conquering armies, flow
ing solitary and unseen through a
desolate country, keeping we'll the
secrets of the centuries.
Toledoans will tell you gravely,
believing what they say-that the
sun first started on his course from
a point vertical to their city, and
that Adam, the first king of Spain,
made Toledo his capital. Other
legends ascribe its foundation to
Hercules; and others give detailed
and circumstantial accounts Of
how Tubal began its building, ex-
actly one hundred and forty-three
years after the Deluge. Jewish
residents assert, with equal sinceri-
ty, that when their ancestors fed
from Palestine, in the day of Neb-
uchadnezzar, they found refuge
in this place, then called Tarshish,
city at that time decaying with
age, whose few inhabitants they
speedily dispossessed, and gave it
the Hebrew name. Toledoth,
meaning Getty of Many Genera.
tons"
This much is certain: When
Marcus Fluvius Novllir took Tole-
do, 1913 years before Christ, it was
so powerful a city that it cost the
Roman legions many lives. On
the decline of the Roman power, it
became the capital of the Gothic
kingdom. Leovigildo, under whom
their monarchy was consolidated,
moved his court from Seville
to Toledo and made the latter
the capital of Spain. Here the
half mythical King Wanda reign
ed, the benefactor of the city, as
recorded in an inscription over the
great gate: "Erexit faut ore Dec
roXine lytus umbem, Wanda. !"
He was half poisoned, you remem-
Der, in the year 687, by his jealous
rival, and when supposed to be
dead, was robed for burial, accord
ing to custom, in a monks dress.
Once put on the cowl can never
be taken off; and so when the good
Wanda recovered, lie was done
with earthly affairs as much as if
really dead.
Here, too, lived Roderick, the
last of the Goths, whose unbridled
passions-according to local story
caused the fall of the dynasty.
Walking along the Tagus one day,
he saw the Jewish maiden ,Tlorin-
da, bathing in a secluded pool and
became so enamored of her beauty
that he had her straightway seized