Putnam patriot. [volume] (Putnam, Conn.) 1872-1962, 1913-07-04
Letter iron Miss Ellen Z. 0sgood

Letter from Miss Ellen T. 0sgOod
My dear friends
we have spent month in Spain
and will fulfill my promise to send
you some notes taken along the way.
As you already know, we had re.
markably good ocean voyage. To
vary It, we stopped for two hours at
the Azores; the most noticeable features
were the happy, contented looking ma
lives, the beautiful gardens Astounding
| in tropical and semi-tropieal vegeta-
ton, and on terrace overlooking the
sea, an old church on which was a tab
let bearing this inscription "Plaza
Theodore Roosevelt
Two days later we reached the Ma
deria Islands. Funchal is most de-
lightful spot. wonder that Its at
| fractions have not been more widely
| proclaimed. We associate sleds and
toboggans especially with snow and
| ice but here where there is neither, OK
sleds are more in evidence than any
|
tomobiles are seen. AT the boat land
| ing, lines Of fanciful two or four seated
ox-sleds presented novel sight, with
their solid wooden runners painted
blue, green or yellow in brightest
shades, seats upholstered in gay dam.
ask or eietonne, canopies draped in
hanglngs TO match. The drivers run
along beside aud urge on the small
oxen to trotung pace, but only the
sound OF bells suggests sleigh ride
as we 90 humping, rattling over the
rough cobble stones To the mniculalor
| which aseends the mountain that al
fords magnificent background to the
! town After luuehing at the mountain
| Palace Hotel of the White Star line we
had toboggun slide down the steep,
roughiS.paved road. The toboggan
sleds are as unique as and somewhat
similar TO those | have Just described,
only they are smaller and without
eanopies, quite resemble large, rude,
| wide-seated rattan chair, 1t takes two
men TO control them; one To pull n
rope to accelerate the speed, if need be,
but as in our case, the one to hold il
back received the more frequent in
functions. Here and there as we were
hurried down we caught glimpses of
beautiful flowers and vines overhang-
ing high, solid walls that shut in the
houses, over which from balcony or
terrace looked out dark.haired women
and children. Little boys threw
flowers into our laps as they ran be-
side our sleds, holding out their hands
and, as we find so frequently here, say
ing "Money, money
On May 8, early in the morning, we
had our first view of the coast OF spain
and OF thas mighty natural fortress
| Gibraltar Rock. Ii is nearly two miles
long and rises maiestically from the
sen TO the height of 1860 feet on one
terest that invests this rock would ill
long letter; the part it has played In
history, its old Moorish castle and
walls, its numerous excavations where
In are placed cannon and all necessary
ammunitIons of war. / must add that
the Prudential Insurance Company
has not .placaTded 1t with any mann
| moth poster.
Tangier, Morocco, had seemed TO me
one of the most promising features of
our itinerary, but on the "Canopien
we heard rather discouraging reports
! about the dissgreeahly rough trip
across the Straits, and tougher eNpe-
Renee in landing by smaller boats. We
were told, on the other hand, that con-
dilions had improved as far as The
landing was concerned, in the past
year or Two. our feafs were ground