Evening star., 1940-07-28
Portugal Gay and Prosperous
Despite Conflict in Europe
Refugees and Visitors Crowd Nation;
Food Ample; War News Played Down

only in Lisbon, but all over the
country. There is an air, not of
riches, but of modest and yet very
contented prosperity.
One expression of this modest
prosperity is that the people seem
to have enough to eat. There is am
pie food, which is as good in quality
as it is abundant in quantity. The
bread is white and deliciously baked.
The fish. delivered every morning
in Lisbon from the boats to the door
by flSherWomen carrying their large,
fiat baskets on their heads, is su-
perior in freshness and in variety to
what can be obtained in any other
capital in Europe. The meat, espe-
cially the beef, is excellent in ten
derness and flavor Butter is not
first necessity in a country which
chiefly uses olive oil, but it can be
obtained easily. There is fruit in
plenty.
People C0ntented.
And yet Portugal is not really
rich, and the life of the great ma
Jority of the Portuguese people is
extremely modest. But they are
industrious, their tastes are simple,
their temperament is happy and
contented and their climate is de-
lightful. They might perhaps be
richer if they were heavily indus
trialized, but the fact that they are
not has enabled them to maintain
the agricultural and maritime char
acter which has not changed for
centuries, and to keep alive many
traditions and much regional indi-
vlduality which are admirably illus
trated in the exhibition.
There is hardly a thing in the
architecture or the decoration which
does not show artistic originality and
simple taste. Prominence is given
to local craftsmanship. local costume,
local background. There are charm
ing reproductions of old village
streets and houses and Of the fishing
boats which still follow their ancient
and picturesque form and color.
Sea consciousness is expressed again
and again in the same spirit as the
'Manuelan" architecture of the 18th
century.
And yet what most of all impresses
the visitor who arrives from the
horrors of the European cauldron
is not so much Lisbon and the ex-
hibition itself, but the freshness and
simplicity and gayety of the local
festivities in the smaller towns. On
a recent Sunday I attended one of
these festivities in Tomar, which 1
knew already because its circular
18th century Church of the Templars
in the center of an enormous 18th
century monastery is one of the
purest gems of architecture in the
world. The streets were decorated
not only with flags. but with en-
broidered silk shawls and brocaded
bedspreads hung out of every
window
Take Joy in Fireworks.
The official party was greeted by a
salvo OF rockets-the Portuguese,
who are a childlike people, take a
JOY in daylight fireworks. The fes-
tival consisted of a professional Of
fering of meat and wine and bread
to the poor. Oxen, with horns gilt
and festooned with flowers, repre-
sented the meat. They would be
killed tomorrow. The wine, in large
barrels, was on wagons to which
the oxen were harnessed.
The characteristic and beautiful
part of the whole thing was, how
ever, the offering of bread. Two by
two walked 300 young women,
dressed in white, each accompanied
by young man in his best clothes
and each carrying, balanced upon
her head, sort of tower, at least 3
feet high, constructed of sticks driv-
en- through loaves of bread and
adorned with colored flowers, some
times real but in most cases of
paper. At the top of this tower was
a symbolic dove, also in most cases
of paper but real in one or two.
This procession passed through all
the streets of the sunlit town, to the
immense Joy and pride of the whole
population, who cheered and set off
more fireworks.
Nobody seemed to think of other
explosions not so many hundreds
of miles away.