The Republican journal., 1901-09-12
socIAL LIFE ON THE ISLAND OF
MALTA.


la NILLETTA, MALTA, August s.
i-1 The brightness, ease and careless
issance of life on this ea-girt rock is
bouudless surprise to the stranger. OF
.ol,e society is headed by English
.4.als and their families, mostly we'll
t,r. and many of them wealthy; and
a9 indemnify themselves for temper
.r -xile by duplicating every home
.,,ary on the tiny island and reviving
file aiiarious customs of the Knights of
add Paris is hardly more brilliant than
-. ~trada Reale on pleasant evening,
.-. military bands playing, flags of all
..-uus huttering in the soft breeze,
.vre building Illuminated, and gaily
dressed ladies' sitting in their balconies
tIr ug with throngS of promenaders.
g.l- are filed with costly goods from
...Iau. Paris, Vienna, Berlin; hand
...t r4uipageS dash past, or stand
-o-.-g before the splendid facades of
-..l Urges of the knights; up-to-date
.-.s display their sign-boards on every
-a.o Aud crowds of travellers, arriving
r.r. lie east and from the west at this
halfway rendezvous. create constant
the hostilries and add to the life
... lotion so characteristic of Malta
R...eyer you look, the landscape is
lift with scarlet coats or mutt of
-.- UriiSh army. Ten thousand Eng
- soiers are stationed at Velletta,
- er garrisoned fortitications
... >.ittered all over this island and it's
dependencies. Being the head
7.t .t,s of the Mediterranean fleet, a
u... lack painted men-of-war are al
e1- anchored in the harbor, their
.s- -}0wded with British tars; while
e Inside is dotted with troops at
TILE houses of Malta appear to be as
u-ortable to live i'll as they are quaint
-yr-rior. All are low, but very large
the ground, with immense rooms,
Len torches, projecting galleries and
title green-painted orioles. The
5eIsal building material is Maltese
almost snow-white, soft as chalk
a quarried, but becoming hard as
.Hr when exposed to the air, and
.,.-l-ible of as fine polish. The
aWIs that perambulate these streets
..- rs remarkable for mixture of races
IS 4er costumes for variety and rich
s~, # coloring Dusky Italians and
skier Maltese, stately Arabs and
.r-.tulating Frenchmen and Span
r> the human tlotsam and jetsam of
every and, meet and mingle at Malta.
gb so long a British possession,
aa IS yet the language of the islands
-- is, among the upper classes, who
Ii tHemselveS Mal-tah-Sah, which the
sh after their invariable habit of
-ring names, have corrupted to
Al tceZe. The population, exclusive
military, is reckoned at 100, 900;
the peasantry. who compose the
ul it. speak a strange tongue, or
q mixture of tongues, derived
many sources. Arabic predomi-
u it. however, SO strongly that
..].tese can communicate with their
HF neighbOrS as easily as the Span
.-a th the Portuguese. Education
ably provided for in Malta by
patrouiZed college at Nelletta,
degrees are conferred in divini-
aud medicine; more than hun
private educational institutions,
awards of seventy public schools,
H0er the ''Board-school' system of
and. There is also a free library,
many thousands of volumes, muse
W observatory of music, and several
g lose useful associations known in
ATTN world as 'Iyceums," for
.. we have no equivalent i'll Ameri-
Anong many charitable enter
,r~ one of the most worthy is the
iNH- of the Incurables, founded a
apple of centuries ago by an Italian
4E who endowed it later with all her
sessions, including gallery of paint
ag, and the family plate. 1t used to
treserved exclusively for women, but
o recent years it's three hundred beds
AVE ueen open to hopeless invalids of
1 Doth 9eXes and all nationalities. There
NE other hospitals; civil and military;
rp.an and Founding Asylums; and a
Nlte de Piedad, Mountain of Pity
eoaSsal pawn-shop, conducted by the
1 .yemment, like that in the City of
5lrTeO. The busy postotfice occupies
Vie i.andsome house in which Napoleon
ed during his short residence in Nal
"a The finest and largest of the ole
A4ghts' palaces, ''Auberge de CASTLE, .
"T forms the joint mess of the Roya
Artillery and King Edward S Engineers
Bud the quarters of the former; and the
@ls they give in the great banquetinf
h a are ''swell' enough for the heigh
a london season. In gruesome con
East is the near by Ossuario Qiterall,
bone house, a kind of tomb or chapel
"0ose walls above, below, on ever,
'at are festoOned with human bones
.e crypt beneath is full of bones t,