The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1905-09-28

CordOva has a gOOd-siZed theater, in
which Italian opera is frequently given.
There are two large market places,
neither of especial interest as they con-
tain little OF native manufacture except
some rough pottery, coarse blankets.
gaily-colored saddle bags of woven wool
and yellowish handmade lace-the lat
ter representing great deal of patient
labor but too coarse to find favor among
foreigners. The market women sit on
the ground, surrounded by their fruit
and vegetables, while covered carts
serve as stalls for the butchers and
poulterers. We observed that in the
streets only the most aristOcratic ladies
wear hats or .bonnets, all the rest wear
ing the black cashmere manta, as in
Peru and Chill; and it seems that, as a
general rule, hats and French heels,
mantas and bare feet go together-ex-
cept in church, where modern headgear
is considered sin and never admitted.
There is a peculiar charm about drOwsy
old Cordova, its historic associations
and undisturbed repose, its brilliant
sunshine and balmy airs, which grow
upon one from day to day. The super
stitious assert that the long-dead Friars
invested their "Happy Valley with a
sort of enchantment which makes it
more and more difficult for the stranger
to tear himself away the longer he re-
mains. In truth thereof we were point
ed to several grizzled foreigners who
came for few days enjoyment of the
Sierra breezes, and have remained here
thirty, forty and fifty years-but still
talk of going home some day.
The country around Cordova is very
beautiful. White dwellings, embower-
ed in trees, dot the plain, to which an
excellent system of irrigation has given
perpetual vegetation of luxuriant
greenness. Timber and limestone of
the finest quality abound and the
banks of the Primero are enlivened by
several industrial establishments.
Among them is great mill owned by
New Highlander, which turns out ex-
cellent flour from wheat grown in the
State. Another is tannery, the
property of a gentleman from Virginia,
Among a clump of English walnut trees
near Cordova, planted by the early
Fathers, is one which the natives be-
lieve to be the very biggest tree in the
world-so big that 300 men could
saddle their horses at time beneath
its branches.
The journey from Cordova to the
base of the Andes is an experience
which no traveller cares to repeat. Not
only is it long and tedious, the trains
slow and hours behindtime, but one
feels aggrieved at being compelled to
swallow his appointed ''peck of dirt
SO many times over. The dust is some
thing awful-and l use that often mis-
applied adjective, the favorite of gush-
ing schoolgirls, with due consideration
of its proper meaning. jogging along
day after day, over treeless, arid plains
upon which the sun beats unhindered,
the alkali-impregnated dust rises in
clouds, so dense that suffocation seems
imminent, rendering the heat more
terrific because the windows cannot be
opened. Occasionally fellow-passen-
ger becomes desperate from his long
discomfort, ventures to the outside
platform with the forlorn hope of get
ting breath of fresh air; but he soon
staggers back again, blinded by dirt,
and SO blackened that his own wife
cannot recognize him except by his
voice. Progressing to the westward,
you observe that the troops of wild
horses and cattle grow less frequent,
while deer, guanacos and ostriches are
correspondence more numerous. But
Tie IdllkS Ol LIE ldlltI dIe DelIlB Idplu-
ly depleted, as the buffalo and antelope
disappeared from our own Western
plains after the advent of the locomo-
tive. The ostrich appears to be the
hardest to kill and most persistent in
disputing his right to the territory.
When the railway line was being laid
the engineers had no end of trouble
with those Ungainly birds, whose pro-
nounced characteristics you know are
curiosity and a digestion that nothing
can impair. All is grist that comes to
their mill, from tent-pins to fruit seal
ed up in tin cans 1t is related as an
actual tact, that il a workman laid
down a bolt or a screw. though only
for moment, it was gone when he
turned to look for it-a case of
mysterious disappearance" at first,
until it was discovered that the
ostriches gobbled all such articles in
the twinkling of an eye. When [
laughed incredulously at this tale an
engineer assured me on his sacred word
of honor that the birds even picked the
bolts out of the iron bridges if by any
chance they were left unriveted.
FANNIE B. WARD