The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1900-01-18
pictures of Life in Southern Portugal.
, "trip to Setubal. Fourth City in the King.
lam. The Lords of Palmilla. The Ancient
.Vrnia." said to have been Built, a. ID.


~.ttBAL. PORTUGAL, Dec. Is, 1899.
fD4ugh this celebrated commercial port
.l southern Portugal is only about twenty
.Ues below Lisbon, it is nearly a day S
.I.,ney from point to point. First, fnll
.l by ferry steamer across the broad
,,llrv of the Tagus, from Lisbon on it's
ithr,u shore to Barreiro on the south
.ra No stretch of Imagination can con-
p.of this water passage as a pleasant
.ao. notwithstanding its novel scenes
t.s >loVly receding city of palaces ram
lr- over hills in the rear, strange Afri-
... mdscape ahead, and dark mountains
D. ... background on every side. The
-..t, ittle boat, infested with f1eas, flies
-hrr vermn, rolls and rocks like a
....u-t in the English channel, OF a sail
a>>e rounding Cape Horn. In it
ATS and peasants, mules, horses
..,.l. All sea -sick together, are crowd
-rst juXtaposition. An icy wind
SllitN size Ol lnt uHck tIllll01
she marrow, while on the other
popular side a bllstering sun
ul eountenance to shine The
discomfort is capped by a seem
0ileSS wait in front of Barleiro,
IL and tossing as in a storm at
black and foul beach water,
.ti, The paddles churn up exhala
residential than those that dis
.t H6bana harbor before Ameri-
lation
is the terminus of the railway
eastward to EvQra, thence south
those two cities SO famous i'll
lI Moorish days: and a branch,
gger chan its name-.'p Portuguese
way of Lisbon Barreiro- Setu-
meets the last named port. The
OF rather creeps, through a flat
tsS desert-a regular Sahara of
.TH -Ands and as your Portuguese
>engers insist on opening all the
0r> the little square cars, uncom-
.uf enough at best, become filled
81 and smoke-not to mention
sou- odors of fish and garlic from
le -Abor's luncheons, and the inces-
-r' hgI pitched staccato of the idionto
l aliicts your weary nerves like the
1- ii SANS
o4 might travel over half the world
-aout finding so utterly forbidding a
tretch oi eountry-such dreary sand
tunes, inreispersed with patches of rusty
sud here and There a muddy
leck Tbe soii is stained bright red in
pots with wild sorel, that looks like
flashes Of human blood all is treeiess
a,eless and birdless. except for an &c
sauM ouzzar6 circling above some car
--, oI perched contemplativeiy oil a
5 pile; and the view is bounded by
IFS red ana yellow hills. their bare
'opped with scraggy stone pine.
Dante wished TO represent the future
.i tbt impeniicnt farmer, he could
Lave found more typical inferno
wind and water, soil sun and elm
..mbue against the unfortunate tiller
r earth. Though the fervid sun
IS and kills, winds blow damp and
Malaria burdens the air, and the
--4ra faces of the inhabitants show that
1r- Ague- smtten. Even the blessed
the desert, falling alike on the
uj tue unjust, are Of little benefit
-1klng at once through the loose
and leaving no moisture behind
strange, to say, agriculture ii ghts for
""'told even here, and with consider
success. This desolate region pro-
IS the best wine of southern POrtuga al
famous Lavarado So called from the
scent village of that name, which in
was named in honor of the late Count
Layarado, long the Portuguese Minister
The Court of st. James But what a
appointment, to eyes not used to wine
wing, are these vineyards, stretching
miles, half cooked in the sum There
not the slightest suggestion of ''the
-l LEAKAGE of the graceful gadding vine'
5 uich poets have taught US to look for on
Ie treliises OF France and Italy;-but a
jante's wood of the Seventh Circle,
herein the souls of suicides were trans
oimed into gaunt knotted trees, fed on
y harpies and conscious of physical
am. Here vineyard is rough field
uelosed only by low sand mounds, if en-
osed at all, with stunted "prickly- pear
actus stuck along the top in lieu of fenc
az. Within the weed grown, sandy ex-
anse, at intervals of two cards, dark,
visited stumps raise their heads, like
lack snakes with half their bodies in the
n, contorted in their struggles to free
hemselves from the earth. You can hard
y believe that these bear the luscious mus
atel grapes, the best in the world, from
hich the far-famed white wine is made
I, this season of the year the vines have
zen pruned back. Next spring they will
nut forth few scattering leaves, and each
naky stump will send out four or five
ard long shoots. Wind draughts. pass
az east and west along the great Tagus
stuary, particularly torment this unshel-
cred plain. Hardly tree can stand