Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 119, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 May 1916 — About Portugal [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

About Portugal

PORTUGAL, the most recent nation to be drawn into the maelstrom of the European war, was once a part of the ancient Roman province of Lusitania, says a bulletin issued by the National Geographic society. With a population scarcely exceeding the combined population of New York city, Jersey City, and Newark, and an area in Europe less than the state or Indiana, Portugal has not played a major role in the politics of continental Europe in many years, not, in fact, since Wellesley, afterward the Duke of Wellington, landed his English forces and, with the aid of native troops, defeated Soult and Massena, Napoleon’s marshals, in the two peninsular campaigns. But the colonial empire of Portugal is out of all proportion to the importance of the home country. In fact there were, at the beginning of the war, only three other countries in Europe—Great Britain, France, and Germany—whose flags floated over more territory "beyond the boundaries of the home country. The combined area of the New England and North Atlantic states would equal less than —one-fourth of the territory under the dominion of the tiny republic occupying the western edge of the Iberian peninsula, whose navigators in the fifteenth and sixteenth century were the wonders of the world. Yet all this vast territory is held by 8,000 colonial troops, supplemented by native armies.

Peasants Are Poets. A curious anomaly is to be found among the peasants of Portugal, who are classified as among the most illiterate of Western Europe, yet among the most intelligent. Many of the farmers—three-fifths of the population is devoted to agricultural pursuits—have a remarkable gift for versification, and many of the poems of the country are handed down from generation to generation without being recorded. The peasants also are noted for their sobriety, and yet the annual production of wine exceeds 25 gallons for each inhabitant. So great, in fact, is the product of the vineyards that in the cities the various qualities of water are discussed with keener interest than the grades of wine. While Portugal’s maritime glory is a thing of the past, a large number of Portuguese still follow the sea for a livelihood, and the fishing industry is important. The Portuguese' sardines, however, are preserved in Italian olive oil, although one-fifteenth of the cultivated area of the nation is given over to olive groves, for the production of oils of a cheap grade. The Portuguese peasant woman is an important bread winner, but she receives for her day’s labor of 16 hours in the field only a shilling or less, while the men get two shillings. One of the profitable and ektfemely popular “industries” of the rural population is a placid laying in wait for tourists who attempt to motor through the country on the less-frequented and often impassable public roads. With an ox-team the peasant waits at a favorable spot until a motorist, traveling on an automobile on which an import tax of $l2O has been collected by the Portuguese government, sticks in the mud. To haul out such an unfortunate is often more ' profitable than several days’ work in the wheat, maize, or rice fields. . " * Lisbon’s Beautiful Harbor. The harbor of Lisbon, where the seizure of the German merchant ships precipitated Portugal into the war, is one of thfe most beautiful in all Europe, ranking scarcely second to Naples and Constantinople. The city is about the size of Pittsburgh, and has been the political center of the nation since it was wrested from the Moors in the middle es the twelfth century by Alfonso Henriques, the founder qf the kingdom. It was the English who aided Affonso in his war against

the Moors, and the following century the two countries effected an alliance which has existed unbroken during the succeeding 700 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 pleasureloving people. They are fond of sports of many sorts, including the bull-fight, but the toreador is not the idol in this country that he is in Spain, nor are the contests as fierce. Horses are seldom if ever sacrificed in the Portuguese trocaderos. Lisbon is an even greater “night city” than was Paris, the streets appearing at their busiest usually at 3 a. m. The principal thoroughfares are admirably kept nowadays but as late as 1835 a “clean-up” campaigner was in r*. ~ r oeful minority when he began to urge the authorities to put a 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,” while he thought K advisable to put an end to the custom of allowing dead animals to lie for indefinite periods in the strqets. There are about 100 journals published in Portugal, the majority of these being of a political nature, and many of them are owned by the leaders of the various political parties. It has been said that “if Lisbon turns Turk tomorrow all Portugal will wear the turban,” so when the monarchy was overthrown in 1910, after 100 persons had been kille'd and 600 wounded in the capital, King Manuel taking refuge in England, it was a matter of course that the rest of the nation would quietly acquiesce in the 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 six years, and presidents for four years. The head of the government receives $20,000 a year. Money, however, is reckoned chiefly in reis, and, therefore, even a day laborer’s wages is sweet to the ear, for it takes 20 reis to make a penny. Portugal’s transcendant contribution to world history was the colonization of Brazil, the largest nation in South America and the third largest in the Western hemisphere. While Brazil was discovered by Columbus’ companion, Pinzon, and formal possession taken by him in the name of Spain, Cabral landed in 1600, a year later, and proclaimed it Portuguese territory. Portugal settled -the country and ruled it until 1822 when, under the leadership of the Portuguese prince, Dom Pedro, independence from the mother county was declared.

Lisbon’s Beautiful Harbor.