The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1920-04-23

3 eternal sunshine, American in
III vestors are going. with great
schemes for the development of
the latent resources waiting only for
the capital and energy necessary for
their unfolding. In the RociO, the
principal business street of Lisbon,
buildings have been secured to re-
model or newly build large store
houses. At Mount Estoril, the Palm
Beach of Portugal, the important
hotels and concessions have been Sc
cured by Americans, with the purpose
Of making it rival to San Sebastian
on the Spanish coast, says a writer in
the Christian Science Monitor.
An electric railway will connect it
with Lisbon and Cintra, whose cIlief
attraction is the Pena castle. Cintra,
once the home of the Moorish kings.
and later occupied by the kings of
Portugal.
A large casino is being erected on
the beach, and several large hotels of
American design and furnishings will
be built along the shores of this
charming site. And of Vigo, Spain,
the American investor will concern
himself-there he has taken up the
extensive harbOr improvements and
inland communications, thus to reaeZe
the vast undeveloped mineral posi-
bilities of the Galician hinterIand and
Leon. Railways will be extended to
Madrid, making a more rapid route
for tourists between Paris and South
America.
Everything but Energy.
Portugal is a country rich in all
things save in popular energy. Ger
many and France, until the late war,
exploited its sardine industries, one
Of Its most valuable items of COM
merce. The cork forests are album
dant, and the olive and grape are very
prolific in their yield. Tropical and
subtroplcal fruits of many varieties
abound, and can be bought for trSfiing
amounts.
The Portuguese peasants have been
called the most kindly and dependable
of all Europe. Each province is dis
tfnguished by a different and most
picturesque costume. The excellence
of ifs climate; the varied aspects and
diversity of its vegetation; the multi
plicity at its hot and cold springs:
the progressive improvement in its
hotel accommodations, offered at a
lower price than that of any others in
Europe, make Portugal one of the
most favored of lands for the ex-
ploitation of the tourist.
AT the present time the Mother of
Navigators, as Portugal has been
named, is less known by geographers
and Psychologists than any other
country on the continent. No lands
have been better glorif1ed by nature:
and buried Roman and Celtic-Iberian
cities, treasure houses of antiquity,
are rich mines for conquest with pick
and shovel
Portugal is an agricultural country,
but the Sardine industry makes up
large part of her commerce. Millions
of boxes of this product of Portu-
guese Gamers bear the imprint of
French packers, some even with
France as the country of origin. The
abundant olive lends itself to the
packer of the better-grade sardine,
yielding, as 1t does, a superior oil.
The cork tree, which produces a
new bark once In ten years, gives an
important article for export. Each
stripping furnishes about SO worth of 4
bark per tree. The other woods most
abundant are the acacia, poplar, elm.
ash, eucalyptus, pine and oak. About
one acre in five of the total area of
Portugal is wooded. The more re-
mote agricultural and timber districts
are handicapped by the lack of even
reasonably good transportation faciI-
tiles, either railroad or wagon.
conglomeration of Races.
Ethnologically Portugal is a con-
glomerate. The people of the north
ern province of Entire Douro and
Mimic and Tras-os-Montes are of |
Galician stock: in the lower provinces
the Portuguese have intermarrled |
with the Arab, Dutch, French and
English, and, In one province, rite
Tristan.
The Jews, after their forced COR
version by King Emanuel, intermar-
ried with all races. On the southern
coast from Cape st. Vincent to the
Spanish frontier the influence of Afri-
can ancestry is very apparent-lue
to the importation Of slaves for serv-
ice In the olive groves and vineyards
of Alemteio and Algarves.
Portugal has distinct national
in art, music and litera-
tnre-each having unique vigor, I'll