The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1903-05-17

Lisbon you see it standing upon hill
| in the distance, Moorish, picturesque
and inviting. When you reach the sta
ton. however, you find the town itself
Of Estremoz is two miles away. and,
like the journey of life. the road leads
uphill all the way. ct is wretchedly
bad road too. There is only one hotel
in the town and very poor one. Some
of the bedrooms open off the dining
room. They are mere dark dens with
out windows.
The streets Of EstremoZ are sociable
and barnyard-like. On Friday droves
of pigs and goats are ''shooed" through
the streets to the market place and
confined until Saturday morning, mar
ket day. Not all the pigs and goats
are kept over, however. Some of them
are sold at once on Friday. and the sale
is clinched Immediately by the slaugh-
ter on the spot in the open street of the
hapless kid or squealing hog. This pub
lie killing is enough to make a sensitive
soul forswear flesh eating, but the ma
tives mind it not at all, neither the
health authorities, if there are any.
And yet this same dirty. miserable
town would delight the soul Of the art
list. AS in most Latin race towns, dirt
and high art flourish together. There
are probably more marble and marble
carving in EstremoZ than in any other
small city. In the old houses are mar
bic halls and carved marble staircases
that would give beauty TO the palaces
of kings. From marble public foun-
tains the water gushes. Marble seats
along the roads give rest to tramp and
beggar. If Estremoz had paved streets,
the paving would be marble, too, but it
has few of these. Like all old Latin
towns, Estremoz has its public square,
around which important buildings are
grouped.
One cannot find out why it is. but
rather oddly almost the cleanest and
best of the common people of Portugal
are the peasant population around Els
tremoz. 1t has been said of them that
they are very honest and hard work
ing and very clean" Their rude stone
inside and out, and there seems to be
something of the neatness and thrift of
the old time Holland Dutch about mid
die south Portugal land folk
Different it is in northern Portugal.
There the houses are dirty and the
people are dirty. Perhaps this sadly
unpleasant condition of things may be
accounted for by the fact that the wo-
men apparently do all the hard outdoor
work. The coarse, constant drudgery
seems to crush out of them the woman
y instinct of cleanliness and tidiness
even if they had any time to tidy up
heir houses. These poor northern wo- |
men are real beasts Of burden, carrying |
heir loa1s upon their heads instead of |
irawing them, as horses and oxen do
: With good roads and decent hotels |
Portugal would soon become a favor |
tie touring region. It's climate is agree |
able; it's fruits are delicious. Upon the |
slopes of Alemtejo great olive orchards |
lbound. The wines of Portugal were |
'amous before America was discover
I'd. 1t is so little known to the tourist |
hat it can furnish all the novelty |
which the wealthy tourist seems to be |
brewer seeking.
AS it is, however, the traveller in the |
primitive little kingdom must put I'D |
With discomforts and the absence of |
that civilized globe trot-
ers demand. Lisbon, Oporto and other
eading cities swarm with those beg
Jars and human deformities which are
! revolving feature of all Latin race
Countries except France. Occasional
y you see in your cable news the an
louncement that smallpox is ravaging
)porto. Well, in Oporto itself no IN
COMMON sight is patients in the early
tages of smallpox walking freely
bout the streets and riding in street
ars. And. like the Latin races again,
he Portuguese are awfully cruel to
lumb brutes. You will see here the
'rntes that can speak forcing draft
ken up the steep streets with sharp
ron spike stuck into the end of q club.
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