The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1903-05-07
VIEW OF FUNCHAL, MADEIRA.

less existence in the midst CT sunshine.
laziness and perfect peace. The eli
mate is as even as an Ole fashioned
Quaker lady's temper. 1t is never any
colder than So degrees, never any
warmer than so. The mean tempera-
ttIre is about, 6S degrees. and it is very
little colder by night than by day.
Formerly Madeira was a place to
stay away from because of the great
number of consumptives, mostly from
England, who sought its mild shores to
prolong their suffering existence, but
now many of these go elsewhere. The
healthy person who does not like to ex-
ert himself can be quite as happy here
as the invalid. In Madeira nobody but
the lower classes, negroes and peasants,
exerts himself. A beautiful road winds
around the island, now dipping to the
waters edge. now crossing like a
thread the face of great mountain cliffs
tain heights from which glorious views
may be obtained. but nobody that
ever heard of takes walks. Laziness is
respectable. I wohder whether the de-
termined American athletic girl would
drop her strenuousness after awhile il
she were to come here
Ii YOU want to go anywhere there
are the carros. Picture to yourself a
wicker chair and that chair fastened
upon runners, sledlike. That is a car
TO. Oxen are Eitched to the chair and
draw you humping along. If you would
vary the mode of travel you may take
one of the laziness promoting ham
moeks and be swung over the reads.
A little way out of Funchal Mount
Church rises. A favorite morning or
afternoon trip is to be dragged up its
sides in an inclined railway car some
what like those common in Cincinnati
and in other American cities set in the
midst of hills. Up Mount Church you
are drawn past smiling vineyards.
through waving green banana planta-
tons and delightful fruit orchards
When you return down the mountain,
if you wish you can ,do so in what
is called a running caro-" and come
down in three minutes.
When the great continent of Atlantis
was sunk in the ocean and lost, ii few
mountain peaks seem to have been left
above water. Either that was the case
or else volcanic or earthquake action
lifted little of the land out of water
afterward. and this land now consti-
tutes the group of islands off the north
west coast of Africa. Madeira is a
mass of basalt rock split into seams
and chasnls, with fertile, smiling val
leys between the rock cliffs. Some
times a mountain side is terraced to
keep the soil from sliding into the sea
when it rains. So ...
Tropical and semitropical vegetation
thrives here in glorious abundance.
Miles and miles of fuchsia, geranium
and heliotrope hedge fringe the roads.
At different elevations all the grains
and vegetables and nearly all the
fruits of the temperate zones thrive
luxuriantly. Indian corn gives great
yields. Bananas, grapes, oranges, figs
and pineapples of noble quality crafty
the palate.
The natives are mixture of negro,
Portuguese and old Moorish blood and
no Improvements on any. Some of
them speak three languages, SO called
vile Portuguese. worse French and
a superlatiFely bad English.
In Funchal, the capital and seaport
the sun shines nearly every day in the
year. The tourists season lasts from
October to June. Living is not imrnod
erately high because no American mil
lionaires have as yet established col
ony here. If a select few cultured per
sons with an assured small income who
love not the money worshiping world
and its ways. but rather desire to gel
away from It. wish to form colony
Of heir own and live i happy, simple
Wholesome life near to nature, here il
The spot Tor hem.
81 i scHIFF