The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-05-26

mlscfeant had him tortured until h
/ surrendered all his worldly goods, an(
| then put him to death. Ferdinand an(
| Isabella, not content with eXpelling the
| Moors, next turned against the Jews
| and issued an edict that no one of thai
| ancient people who was unbaptzeC
should be permitted to live in Spain; 6
decree as foolish as it was cruel, as il
offered premium to hypocracy, since
INSCRIPTIONS ones would not hesitate at
baptism or any other test, while the true
and honest Israelites, who chung to the
faith of their fathers, We're driven out
without mercy. BY this expulsion
Spain lost upwards of one hundred and
seventy thousand of her best population,
who carried with them a large part of
the industry and wealth of the kingdom.
This Punishment bore with especial Sc
verify upon Toledo, for the Jews We're
its richest inhabitants, and many histo-
rians date the decline of the city from
this suicidal decree. At the beginning
of the seventeenth century it had a pop
ulation of two hundred and fifty thou
sand. 1t was the Sheffield and the Blr-
mingham of the middle ages and a ITO
ledo Blade" was famous throughout the
world as one of Damascus. Now the
city's entire population does not exceed
fifteen thousand discouraged souls. It's
streets are silent and deserted, it's
houses crumblng to decay. Its manu-
features are almost extinct; even the
celebrated Fabrica d Armas offers but
a shadow of its former Importance and
prosperity; and the tendency is ever
| downward, deeper and deeper into the
slough Of poverty.
1T is difficult to describe a place
which cannot be compared to any other.
The general view Of Toledo has no
beauty, but is solemn and melancholy
beyond degree-huge and historical, a
| thing of the past, girdled in from the
| living world by the solitude of it's DESC
| late hills without trace of any vege-
tation whatever. Fancy. if you can, an
enormous rock, or rather a group of
them, rising abruptly eighteen hundred
feet above the barren plain and COM
pletely covered with irregular lines of
towers, battlemented walls, grim old
castles and sombre monasteries, with
stupendous palace-the great Alcazar-
dominating all; the whole encircled by
the rapid Tagus, boiling through rent
of the granite mountains, leaving just
one approach to the city by the land
side, and that so strongly defended by
ancient Moorish fortificat lions as to ap-
pear utterly unassailable. All around it !
rise black, precipitous rocks, backed by |
rugged hills, scorched by the tropic sun I
into every, shade of orange and brown, |
but with never a hint of living green.
Guarding the entrance to the town
stands the ruined castle of Ceramics
on a projecting spur of the mountain.
At its foot is the bridge of Alcantara, |
the celebrated Bridge of the Bridge"
closed at both ends by gate-towers and
striding with high arches across the Ia
gus as it PUSHES through a deep chasm !
in the rock. 1t is truly city ''set upon |
HILL and with good reason because |
its "munition of rocks made natural
fortress. The Romans built in the
plain, because their legions We're strong
enough to defend an unfortfied city;
but the Goths came from the north,
where feudal chiefs, who were little bet
ter than robbers, were wont to immune
themselves behind thick walls from
which to sally out and attack cities; (
and so they built castles in Spain as {
the Rhine. But though the present city {
Is of Gothic origin, the older bridge p {
Roman--at least its site was chosen by
-hem for since their day 1t has been re-
Quilt many times. 1t occupies the ploce
of the Roman structure, resting on the
same cliffs it's noble arches, after the {
original Roman pattern, spanning the
same deep gorge and rushing river |,
From the farther bank commences the
lscent by steep and winding terraced :
Dad overlooking the parapet and
vide landscape Of plains, mountains U
md river. The atmosphere is so clear
hat every fissure in the distant hills a
an be counted and each building on
he line of the horizon stands out =
gainst the turquoise sky as if seen :,
fMough microscope. A clumsy vehi- u
lie, half wagon, half omnibus drawn by u
TX mules, harnessed three abreast, con- "
eys passengers from the railway sta !"
lon, across the bridge and up the mill
airy road to the town. The mules are "
aparisoned in true Castillan fashion, -
18th glittering brass and tinkling bells II
nd gaudy tassels; but are urged with -
rue blows, oaths and frantic cries by "
leir Gypsy driver up the winding way a
speed which threatens to snap their -
ender legs like pipe stems The So v
histicated traveller will have none of it. -,
ut climbs the heights on foot, taking n,
me to recover his wind" at intervals n
1der the very pleasurable pretext of Vt,
lmiring the landscape. Where the ter o,
ICED road makes a zigzag to the high w
It level stands the magnificent Moor or