Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-03-11

whatever, and these little passageways
run IN every conceivable direction.
The people living in this, the native
section, are Arabians and Moors and
they are about the most degraded set
of people in the world. The Moorish
men and women dress almost alike in
a kind of bloomer and robe of white
material.
is Not Impressed.
The Moorish women keep their faces
covered below the eyes and | do not
blame them, for they are tatooed all
over and are the ugiicst set | ever
cast eyes on. The French women in
the French section of the city are
good types of the southern beauty.
| went to a theatre Friday evening
and witnessed a French play. OF
course it did not have much meaning
to me for cannot understand the
LINGO" but it was. nevertheless, a
source of much amusement. In these
countries an eating and drinking hall
will always be found conducted in con
nection with the theatre. The chief
commodity for sale at all restaurants
and places of refreshment is wine. At
ter the play, which lasted until 1880,
the masked ball commenced. This
ends about 3 o'clock a. m.
Jan. 30, 1902.
Well, father, our mud-hook is down
in Gibralter harbor and we are about
1000 miles nearer home than we were
n month ago. / will go ashore in a
few days and will not mail this letter
until that time.
Saturday, Feb. 1, 1902.
Yesterday | went ashore and had
quite a time. | arrived on shore at
about l O'Clock and, after making the
acquaintance of a few of His Majesty's
soldiers, started out to see the place.
We first visited the town, which is a
pretty nice place for a soldiers town.
The city is very billy and there are a
number of beautiful and well-kept
parks scattered through it. But the
most interesting places are the Rock
and the forts. The Rock is 1860 feet
high and on the top is a signal station
from which a ship eighty-four miles at
sea is visible through a glass. On top
OF the Rock are great guns weighing
no tons, which throw a shot some
thing like twenty-five miles. The Rock
itself is all followed out and is COM
pletely ~honeycomed with tunnels. In
there tunnels are all kinds of big guns
which are turned in all directions. Wis
1tors are allowed in only a few of these
places for they are afraid thai foreign
powers will learn the location OF their
principal batteries which, in case of
war, would be of considerable advan-
tage.
The Spanish Town,
After we had gone over the Rock,
that is, all of it we were able to visit
IN the short time at our disposal, we
had supper and then started for the
Spanish town. This place is down on
the flats about half a mile from Glib
ralter and the two towns are separat-
ed by gates which are closed at 6 D..
m. and not opened again until 6 a. M.
Anyone caught on the Spanish side
after E O'Clock is doomed to remain in
Spain over night. This was our mis-
fortune, but my English cousins who
are a set of as jolly and well-met fell
lows as you ever saw, made the best
of the circumstances and the time
passed quickly enough. You see each
n of these Englishmen has for his
friends about a dozen or more pretty
Spanish senoriettas.
The Rainbow arrived this morning
from New York on her wav to Manila
and we are taking on supplies from
her today. Our present orders are to
leave here next week for Funchal, Ma
deria islands, but the Rainbow may
have other orders for us. will close
now and add a few lines when | mail
this. Your son,
Ralph.
Sunday, Feb. 2, 1902.
AS suspected we received new or
ders from the Rainbow. We will re-
turn to the island of Sicily and trans
fer men to the cruisers Chicago, Al
bany II Nashville. l may be trans
fered myself, and if | am will visit the
Philippines and the far west before re-
turning to America. | will write
again in about ten days. Ralph.