The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1901-10-03

ieu, oare-IOOLed monks, and sailors
~ Their Sunday best, enjoying a days
noerty from men-of-war in the harbor,
lurchlng along with the approved gait
OF sad sea dogs" the names of strange
snlps worked on their caps. and elabor-
ATE monograms in India-ink on their
sunburnt hands. There are titled Eng
hsnmen, too, in conventional clothes
ana with features apparently modelled
on a oyster, SO wrapped in their own
Importance and oblivious of all sur
roundings that one thinks of the Scrip
tural query, "who did sin, this man or
MS parents that he was born blind?"
AS to the other sex, they are scarcely
less numerous, though few female ORR
entails are seen in the streets. British
working women in piebald frocks and
neat kerchiefs, and smart maids in caps
and berufied aprons abound; and hard
after them in numbers come the Span
lsh senoras and senoritas, dressed in
the morning as for an opera, toddling
painfully on their little high-heeled
shoes. They are all of the high breast
ed, pouter pigeon contour, with swelling
hips and bepowdered faces, glorious
eyes and the becoming lace mantilla
draped upon high combs over their
abundant black hair Spanish servant
girls, on the contrary, are VIGOROUSLY
slip-shod, uncorseted and untidy, but
each has alwaysa flower in her frowsy
hair and is as prone to tiirt with Tommy
Atkins as the spark is to fly upwards
In worldwide contrast to these are the
low-voiced, gentle-mannered English
maldeDs, with the willowy figures that
De Marurier used to draw, sparkling
blue eyes and suggestions of sweet
lavender and rue about them. They
wear tat-soled, ''common-senSe" shoes
of stout calf-skin, short-skirted gowns
OF bluish-gray wool and little sailor
hats, under which a fluff of rolled back
hair projects all around the face like
the caves of house. The swinging
stride OF these healthy girls and the
fresh glow in their faces tell of simple
living and no end of outdoor exercise.
Each is Invariably accompanied by a
terrier or two, as well as one or more
scarlet-coated sons of Mars; and if you
listen bit to her conversation, you
learn that it smacks of horses, polo,
cricket and tennis. English women of
middle age are to be envied for their
fine figures, rosy cheeks and clear COM
plexions; but most Of those found at
| military post are as full of horsey
slang as Westerner of the "Goddle
mitey" stripe. English buses rattle
through the crowd, packed with passen-
gers, inside and out. There are plenty
of hackney coaches, drawn by small,
sturdy horses, we'll adapted to the steep
roads; and better yet are the light
phaeton cabs, with curtains and covers
of brown Holland. Two-wheeled carts
are numerous, always driven by red
capped Spanish peasants; and trim little
donkeys hurry by, laden with panniers
that bulge so wide in the narrow lanes
as to force pedestrians into the door
ways. Whenever a Spaniard rides a
donkey, he sits so far back on the
launches of the poor little beast that
you momentarily expect to see it tip up
in the air, like a teeter board with an
occupant at only one end. Every shade
and type of young King Alfonso's sub
jects are here, from the blue-eyed
Basque to the swarthy gipsey, from the
naughty Don to dirty stevedores. There
is no more charming person than the
true Castllian gentleman; nor more
Objectionable one than the Castilian
''masher.' The latter, [ am sorry to
say, is by far the most numerous.
With love-locks plastered on either side
of his empty pate, silken sash and
tooth-pick toed shoes, oggling every
female passer-by with the stare of
dying fish, he is blight on the fairest
landscape and ought to be exterminat-
ed with Paris green.
FANNIE B. WARD.