New Britain herald., 1916-04-22

waits at a favorable spot until a mo"
 torist, travelling i'll an automobile on
 which an import tax of $12O has been
 collected by the Portuguese govern
 ment sticks in the mud. To haul out
 such an unfortunate is often moro
 profitable than several days work in
 the wheat, maize or rice fields.
 The ha-bor of Lisbon, where the
 seizure Of the German merchant ships !,
 p-ecipitated Portugal into the war, ia
 one of tho most beautiful in all Flu
 rope, ranking scarcely second to Ma
 ples and Corstantinople. The city is
 about tho size of Pittsburgh. and has
 been the political center of the nation
 since 1t was wrested from the Moors
 in the middle of the 18th century by
 Alfonso Henriques, the founder of the kingdom. It was the English who
 aided Alfonso in his war against the
 Moors, and the following century the
 two countries effected an alliance
 which has existed unbroken during
 the succeeding seven hundred years,
 save for such sporadic Interruptions
 as when Napoleon forced the little
 kingdom to declare war against the island empire.
 The Portuguese, especially those
 of Lisbon, are a pleasure-loving peo-
 pie. They are fond of sports of many sorts, including the bull-fight but the
 toreador is not the idol in this coun- try that he is in Spain, nor are the
 contests as fierce. Horses are sell
 dom if ever sacrificed in the Portu- gueSe trocaderos.
 Lisbon is an even greater night
 city than Paris, the streets appearing at their busiest usually at a. m. The principal thoroughfares are ad- mirab bly, kept nowadays but as late as 1885 a clean up campaigner was in woeful minority when he began to- urge the authorities to put stop to such practices as breaking horses in the streets, and singeing pigs in the
 main avenues of trade. He also pro- tested against keeping pigs alive in the streets Or tied to the doors,' an end of the custom of allowing dead
 animals to lie for indefinite periods in the streets.
 There are about 100 journals pub , lished in Portugal, the majority of these being a political nature, and l many of them are owned by the lead CTS of the various political parties. Ut has been said that if Lisbon turns Turk tomorrow all Portugal will wear the turban.' so when the mon- archy was overthrown in 1910, after 90 persons had been killed and 500 wounded in the capital, King Manuel taking refuge in England, 1t was a
 matter of course that the rest of the nation would quietly acquiesce in tho new order of things. Portugal today has much the same outward form of government as our own. Each parliament is supposed to last three years, senators are elected for years, and presidents for four years. The head of the government receives O.O00 a year. Money, however. Is reckoned chiefly in reis, and there fore even a day Iaborer's wage is ! sweet to the car, for it takes 20 reis | to make a penny"
 "Portugars transcendant contribu- l ton to world history was the colont- zation of Brazil, the largest nation ] in South America and the third larg- | est in the Western hemisphere. While l Brazil was discovered by Columbus 1 companion Pinzon and formal posses i sion taken by him in the name of 1 Spain, Cabral landed in 1500, a year 1 later, and proclaimed it Portuguese l territory. Portugal settled the country 1 and ruled 1t until 1892 when, under i the leadership of the Portuguese 1 prince, Dom Pedro. independence ] from the mother country was de- | clared.'
 IA np1- f,1 de FN- LC