Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1901-03-21
GIBRALTAR AND
The Strength of dEibralter
and the BEAUTY OF the Bay
of Naples,
Letter Fro m FRANZ k H
Harris.

NOME, lta!y hioi loVl.-
AS one saiis into the( Harbor al
G.bralter I'd ey are Just a little dis.
appointed at the sight. They
generally commit thle folly OF
dreaming Of it, as IL it were a
mountain some 10 inr 30 miles
high, but i u is NOT, AMID as it was
pointed on to me fro i'm distance
l thought hat they must surely
be mist.k in and that could net be
Gibralteribut as we }drew nearer
l began TO SEQ thAt there was
moro thei fe than hfd thought.
The fiji st thing that one notices
is the lit1 lie (seemi4gly 500, small
stone houses. FTom the Bay
they lod PIX like ltole pieces OF
sto.e, bil ut at first You see nothing
but the/ fortress Or the extreme
end of lit. FArthef back one sees
the tow Ia of Gibralter, and across
to the( other side is Philippi.
Spain. and across to the other
side il the coast Of Morocco.
The ship does not go into dock,
but THE passengers if they wish
can D b ashore on little tenders
that run out td, the steamer and
back ITO the city Gibralter. AS
soon as the ship enters the Har-
Dor proper one bees a mass of row
bo,tt filled with "Spaniards" and
"orah ges". They come out and
as I'D BON as the boat comes to a
stokf they throw up rope and
clidb bio over the sides of the boat.
Thby are not allowed ON board
but they always make it just the
san me. The boatswain made the
tirIF t one that got into the ship
in mp back into the water, but it
REALLY didn't seem to "faze" the
|fal llow for as soon as the boatswain
Went over to the other side of the
|b| oat he was right back again, so
| i ! is the same old story, they come
IN the ship any time and l was
fold they always have the same
fight. They have oranges, apples,
|cigars, cigarettes and fruits of all
kinds. Tie oranges they sell for
rs cents a dozen, cigars cent
apiece and the cigarettes for 20
! cents a hundred. 1t is surprising
in how short time it takes them
to sell out. 1t is quite a sight to
watch the sale and one that Til
not soon forget.
We left Gibralter at $50 in the
afternoon for Naples. 1t was
when we had got around into the
Mediterranean side of Gibralter
that l realized what a terrible
fortress it was. That side is the
one we see in the advertisements
in some of our leading magazines,
and it is certainly something aw-
ful. On the very high point of
the fort is cannon that must be
at least 30 or 40 feet long because
from below it looks very large. 1
was told by the sailors that the
Crock was one mass of cannons;
that no one had any idea of how
many thousand cannons there
we're stuck around 10 the rocks, and
that they have enough ammunition
and provision stored away there
to last them for 3 or 4 years.
The farther we left Gibralter the
bigger it looked to me, and the
force of the name, "The Key of
the Mediterranean" struck me
with its full meaning. 1t would
be-no I'll not say an impossi-
bility, because for America moth
ing is impossible-yet, 1 tell you,
it would be pretty hard for any
country to get it's ships into the
Mediterranean without Epgland's
permission.
The sun was just setting as we
sailed away and more beautiful
sunset have never seen. The
sky was one long streak of gold
and the mountain along the coast
OF Spain looked as blue as the
water did; indeed one could just
see the outline of the African
coast, and as the sun went down
behind grand old Glbralter it
made sight that one couldn't
forget even if they tried. From
there to Naples was two days sail,
aud | have certainly had better
sailing than we had those two
days. Twas just little rough,