Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1906-01-04
Written for the REGIsrER.l
GIBRALTAR.
By ROBERT C. LAFFERTY

sand feet above the placid waters OF
bay, can scarce be aught but awful.
But when one knows before, that 1t
is gorged with engines devised but
to destroy man and his handiwork,
it gathers with each hundred feet an
added wrinkle to its frowning brow.
But with it all, as one draws near,
that ever partly open cancer of NOR
bid curiosity, perhaps just now eI-
panded by the irksome voyage about
to end, leads one as to au execution,
making him eager to behold the mis-
directed efforts of thousands.
And he goes ashore amidst the
most heterogeneous assemblage OF
mans kind to be found in any such
! sized place on either hemisphere.
Here is the kaki.clothed Briton, rul.
ing, with his overwhelming weight of
slaughtering machines, the Island;
damned by every soldier whose un-
happy lot is to be marooned upon its
barren cliffs, where seldom he en-
joys the thrill of a friends hearty
handshake, or a conversation that
takes him back to well.trimmed
hedges, and genuine cordialitY where
the crinkled, greasy face of Maltese,
the Tarquin striding and Satanic
faced Arab, the banished and diseas-
ed Italian, unable to disguise his in
trinity, the loathsome offspring of the
lncient Greek, and the courteous, SUBJ
tie and ever-treacherousSpaniard, are
only memories fit to be forgotten.
Though wh,n one has mounted
through that labyrinth of mysterious
galleries, hewn in the living rock, to
emerge on its very crest, he may
easily dismiss those thoughts, broth
ers to the gloom now left below, and
stand speechleas as he views natures
scenic prodigality spread in every di-
rectlon 80 profusely that he must feel
it, though his puny brain can i'll con-
ceive the half. Nay the one-millionth
part of the power that put the ocean
there, touched only by the horizon
now kissing with golden lips its un-
dulating bosom, the bounds Of one
perhaps he knows, but of the others
infinite scope he does not wish to
think, but stands enraptured before a
masterpiece of the Creators work,
changing, each minute, into different
tints, and drawing his eyes southwark
with gentle. indefnable force, till,
ere he is conscious Of the magnets
change, he is trying to separate into
details the dense growth that harbors
on the Algerian hills fierce wild tribes
of men, checked by the Strait with
which science says Nature has allowed
the once inland sea 70 clasp the hand
of Mother Ocean.
Oh, if a body Of limpid, crystalline
water could love, how easy it were to
picture that ripplsless, swelling Med
iterranean calming as would a baby's
dream-lit face its troubled parent.
Then as one notes those skimming
match-like objects far below, carry
ing in palatial suites or foul holds
populace of indolent variety seekers,
or dark, curly.haired bread-earning
plsbeians, he is reminded of his earth
illness and with less interes. than be
should have taken In those distant
purple crags of Southern Spain, show
ing in their desert grandeur wealth
of rugged beauty, he follows his guild
ing human ant back to that motley
and many colored mob, utilizing ev-
cry known method to vsnd their va
rious wares, offering at fabulous
prices, then supplicating for pathet-
ically trivial ons-till he goes aboard
loaded with grapes that would broad
en- the smile of Bacchus, and luscious
figs amply preparing his palate for
many like treats in sunny Southern
Italy, the cradle and tomb OF ancient
Art.