The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1901-05-30
yrs IN THE BALEARIc ISLANDS
Things IN a Remarkable Archipela.
'~ a. The Customs of Acadia. Counting
80 in Platoons. Primitive Amusements.

,-... et our party can tell why we have
-.r a greater fancy to Iveza-one of
smallest and poorest of the Balearic
titan to any of the richer and
ae uopulous islands; but the fact
,aa,u, that we unanimously turned
-f7, dirty. poverty stricken little
III IN the Mediterranean as our
t..sn Headquarters while investigat-
.., -as rest of the archipelago. We
.,f r4at all of the few travellers who
anne 90 these forgotten islands seem
....,e,,-d of the same uneXplicable
.r.. Probably tits because ones eye
1e picturesque is so completely
..s.i Aere with varied and beautiful
..r,s aud because the comparatively
... ed island, making no attempt
-.-- modern progress. offers such
. ,rast to accustomed things:
lief delight in wandering over
.t. YOU know, lies III seeing what
exist at home. Iveza is only
twenty-five miles long, by thir-
de and is covered with steep
uus, enclosing tiny yalleys-the
--7 Gconceivably fertile, because of
nts rushing everywhere down
- SIDES. 1t contains but one town.
-.r-t and capital, which is also named
r-... Wt generally known hereabouts
dad, the city" Its medieval
quaint Notifications cling to
a. tilside overhanging a deep.
..1 IiouS bay. The ancient Romans.
a...- possessed it, called the place
ru-~ In course of centuries and
. ajber masters, it became Ibiza:
most European maps is today
Ht Iyica. Its population is prob
uut seven thousand: while that
..s hole lsland-which is really one
.-aouS, struggling village, being
--lei INTO many parishes, each with
-,.UIyh and cluster of houses-does
t,zoeed thirty thousand.
Its trange that Ivesa should be so
sited as to have passed almost
.D the memory of man, lying, as it
U-- My sixty miles from the coast of
81, and not much more from Algiers,
n.-tun the main highway of the sea
.rnra the Strait of Gibraltar and the
>t anal, directly in the track of
sands Of steamers that never call.
-- US its reputation for insalubrity
IA, nething to do with this extraor-
a-al avoidance. There is no denying
cat lyrza town is one of the dirtiest
FL -altU. and very hotbed of sickness.
H..r all the rest of the archipelago is
>anitarium for healthfulness, the
af~ ,urpassing even Holland for i'm
l4 te cleanliness, IveZa alone is
the whole year through by
ria scarletina, measles. typhoid,
4.l -loX. yellow fever-indeed every
l-a-t peculiar to childhood and to the
y..-. The cause is purely,-or should
impurely-local, directly trace
s.etu bounding filth and absence of
ul-cpal regulations. All Stops and
u.r are thrown into the streets, and
- atters reek with filth Of every
7 Mediterranean tides are very
st- nd as a natural consequence,
-- lutitul harbor-choked with de-
garbage, dead animals and all
tl Of abominatiOn-iS more odori-
.a.- Luan was the waterfront of Ha-
- b the palmiest days of Spanish
'Ms. The town has always been i'll
udItion and the mortality, espec-
Mong children, is enormous but
.- rople attribute it to dispense
-0 If Providence, to be endured with
@-uce until the Christening hand is
t and go on in the same old way
tminal neglect. Another practice
j. VEGA tends to still further dissent
H'- lisease. When death occurs, no
Wtle from what cause, it is customary
tna.-he friends of the family to assem-
BIZ IL the house of mourning to give
farewell kisses to the face of the dead :
aid den they wonder why new cases of
g4a pox, diphtheria, or what not,
aaFrI in other neighborhoods. The
lfFeTlial untidiness of Iveza women
is q. 70 more unaccountable because in
81 the other islands cleanliness and
eat.fulness go hand in hand. In Ma
p-fa and Minorca, only few miles
away the housewives Guido the Dutch
'ueIr perpetual scrubbing. In Palma
Visa funny sight in the early morning to
SEQ every housewife busy at the same
ass With a bucket of lime water
Id long handled brush, each goes
iW'a before the lark is stirring. Stand
ug the middle of the narrow streets,
they 20 all over the outside of their
lauses with the brush dipped in the So
Qi'oo Of lime, washing even the roofs
and ehimneys, and finally the side
8a's keeping up, meanwhile, such a
HlH. Of conversation that to sleep
H5Naere is impossible and one might
swell come forth and enjoy the fun.
Illus no villages in the world are more
t-i-4Jfully clean. Seen from afar, Their
Nntu white walls against a dark back