The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1900-03-22

forja. 1t is not unlike the donkey
pannier-a long, stout strip of wooden
cloth, with bag ct either end. The
alforja is ornamented with close tufts
of blue, scarlet and yellow wool. 1t
is worn over the left shoulder and the
bags invariably contain, one wine
skin, the other pot of garlic, or a
green pudding.
Ny destination was the casa de Pi-
latas, House of PLATE" which
stands near the Carmona gate amid
labyrinth Of the narrowest and
dirriest streets of Seville. 1t is sup
posed to be an exact counterpart of
Pilates house, in jerusalem; but as
it was planned by Arab architects, in
the year 1900, and finished by Spanish
workmen nearly half century later,
the similarity is doubtful. Its his
tory is this, in the year 1899 Senor Don
Pedra Enriquez Tin our language his
name would be plain Mr.. Peter
Henry, made a pilgrimage to the
Holy Land, and on his return con-
ceived the brilliant idea of reproduc-
ing in Seville the house of the Roman
praetor. He died not long after
wards, and his son, Don Fadrique
Enriquez de Ribera, first Marquis of
Tarifa, (who has not been in Jeru-
salem), carried on the good work. A
generation or two later it was finish
ed by Alan de Ribera the first Duke
of Alcala and q viceroy of Naples-all
related by blood or marriage, and
ancestors of the present proprietor,
the Duke of Medma-Celi. The latter
is old and feeble, but delights to per-
sonally conduct foreigners over the
structure and explain its manifold
beauties. The largest court is sur
rounded by statues of pagan gods
and busts of Roman heroes-Scipio,
Africanus, Marius, Titus, Hadrian,
Cicero and score of others. The
heavy, stolid visage of Charles v, to
whom, as a descendant of the Gaze
sars, Spanish pride has assigned a
niche, looks i'll at ease in such distin-
guised company. While the Duke of
Alcala was viceroy of Italy, his friend,
Pope Plus ", presented him with
many rare and curious treasures of
antiquity; and these subsequently all
found their wayto the Casa de Pila-
tas, which had become the family
fad. The thing which the Duke
most priced was an urn containing
the ashes of Emperor Traian, who
was native of the Roman village
Italica, four miles from Seville. The
Duke intended to re-inter the re-
mains of the Emperor in his birth
place, amid all the pomp that the
wealth and influence of a vice king
could command, and to make of it q
fuction so splendid as to render his
own name immortal. But while he
was absent preparing for the great
event, an over-zealous servant was
seized with spasm of neatness, as
servants sometimes are, and be-
thought himself that the dusty old
urn needed cleaning. So he emptied
the precious contents into the gutter,
scrubbed out the stone receptacle
and turned it up in the sun to air, like
a milk pan! The rage of the Duke
may be imagined; but it couldn't cor
rect matters, and the funeral ceremo-
nies were indefinitely postponed.
Near the main entrance to Casa de
Pilatas are some ancient Roman mar
bles, including an angular cross of
Marino Affricano and two colounetts
of rosso brecciato, we'll worth looking
at. Crossing the picturesque first
court, you come to the beautiful
Moorish patio, adorned with white
marble columns and most lovely
arches and windows. In the hall to
the right are some exquisite tiles and
a fine coffered ceiling, and beyond it,
seen through a window, are two an
cient columns of breccia pavonzza,
ten feet high. Opening out of this
court is the famous chapel in which
stands one short column of porta
Santa marble-probably the only
specimen in Spain. 1t is a model, in
size and shape, OF the column in black
and white Egytian marble preserved
in chapel of San Prassede, Rome,
as the traditional pillar at which
Christ was scourged. Nothing has
been omitted from this chapel which
pertains to that far-away tragedy.
Besides the pillar of the scourging
and the cruel whips there is the basin
in which the hands were washed, the
table upon which the thirty pieces of
silver were counted, the dice with
which garments were raffled, the
thorns from which the crown was
woven, the spikes for His hands and
feet and even the hammer that drove
them. At the top of the stairs the