The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1901-01-31
IJI. l0
stipation.

bottles without relief. Kept taking it. I took
| in all ten bottles and got entirely cured"
| DIR. Pierce's Pleasant Pellets cure con-
stipation.
est of them; but to get the greatest
pleasure out of the journey you should
enter Eleche by diligencia. The tradi-
tlonal discomforts of the old Spanish
stage-coaches have been greatly exag-
grerated. Their speed is certainly
greater in proportion than that of the
railways, without the trial to ones pa
thence of perpetual pottering at way
side stations. The Aragonese coach
man, sitting aloft outside, in his quaint
ly decorated velveteen suit and big SOM
brero, is character worth cu1tivating:
and to attain the coveted seat beside
him is luck indeed. The air blows fresh
and pure over the vast plains, bringing
| hints of the near by sea on its wings,
while the fervid sun reminds you that
| Othello's country is close at hand. The
| horses go with no driving at all, but
| obey the voice of the coachman, and an
occasional gentle admonition in the pelt
| of a stone tossed with unerring aim
from little heap provided on the box.
Perhaps the driver is unusually polite
| because of his company, or perhaps he
is in the habit of addressing his animals
| soft-vowelled Spanish-"Go along to
| God with you, lazy creatures! To the
right To the right A little more to
the left to avoid that puddle Ave
Marie PuriSsima, go along with you."
Presently a serrated line of palms ap-
pear on the horizon, and soon the
| strange forest has encompassed you.
Away up in the air from forty
to sixty feet, rise the beautiful fans,
with their enormous pendant punches
of dates, the golden fruit hanging from
stems so gorgeously yellow that de-
scription of their color in words cannot
give any idea of their effect when light
ed up by the sun and backed by the
i deep blue sky. Their variety of form
is also beautiful. The older trees grow
perfectly straight, like Corinthian
columns with splendid capitals; others
bend in picturesque attitudes; some are
buttressed up with little stone walls,
and besides them younger palms rise
in full youthful vigor, thousands upon
thousands of them, for miles around.
The male" trees only have leaves, and
the females" bear fruit-for there is
distinct sex in date palms. The fruit is
somewhat smaller and less highly flavor
ed than the African date, but most peo-
pie prefer them to ranker varieties At
any rate they yield the Elecheans at
least eighty or ninety thousand dollars
every year-a third of it in leaves for
palm Sunday-used all over Spain-and
in stalks to be blessed by the priest and
stuck up in balconies to ward off light
ming, being considered quite as effective
as the best rods ever made. You see
great many of the male palms all swad-
died in bandages, in order to blanch the
leaves before cutting them for the
approaching palm Sunday festivals.
Now, in January, the dates are being
gathered by the clever little "horte-
lanos," who climb the branches trunks
like cats, or lizards a rope being pas
sed around the tree and their waists,
upon which they rest their whole weight
in horizontal position, lowering their
baskets when filled and raising them
again by crude sort of pulley. De-
fective palm trees are sent to the cigar
cite manufactures of Alicante, to serve
as wrappers By the roadside, before
every cottage door are quantities Of
dates in baskets, to which nobody pays
the smallest attention. The passer-by
can eat as many as he likes, and stuff
his pockets also but is expected to
leave a half-penny on so in payment.
To the credit of the Spanish character
be it said that the payment is generally
| left, and nobody disturbs the half-pen-
MES though they accumulate on the
door-sill. The Spaniard may be a cut
throat and highway robber in a bold,
brave way, but he is never sneak
thief.
Eleche, though the Roman Illica, is
completely Moorish in character. There
is no modern hotel, to disagree with
''the eternal fitness" but a decent,
| thOuph humhle nOSada where enter
tainment for man and beast is decided
ly in favor of the latter 1t is an old
saying, 'See Eleche and stay forever"
The longer you remain the more disin-
clined you are to leave it's enchanting
walks sometimes through the magni-
ficent groves of date palms, where all is
richness and splendor of color; some
] times in the deep brown ravine of the
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