Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 March 1902 — FROM THE MEDITERRANEAN. [ARTICLE]

FROM THE MEDITERRANEAN.

Mr Jay VV. Williams has two brothers residing in Ohio who are taking in Cook’s Celtic Cruise to Upper Egypt and the Holy Land. A letter received from one of them last Monday we are permitted to copy in full: , Giberaltar, Feb. 18, ’92. Dear Brother:—We arrived here this morning at 6 a m., landing in steam tugs, and we first visited the world-renowned fort, known for its strength and for the hard-fought battles where hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost. We were shown through several miles of tunnels that were cut through solid rock about 12x15 ft. with an opening in face of rock every sixty or eighty feet, where large cannons are placed to command the bay, so that it would be impossible to scale the walls on account of the steepness. Giberaltar, from the bay, looks just as the pictures we see except that the word “Prudential” is not printed across the rocks. The rock we see in so many pictures faces the bay and Spanish territory and not the Strait, as I had always supposed, and is situated quite a ways from the narrow part of the Strait. They would not take us through all the tunnels and I suppose from what we saw that they did not take us through the best fortified part. What guns we saw were of a very old pattern and would not do very much execution. The town, which lies below the fort, contains about 20,000 inhabitants, mostly Spanish—some English, Moores, Turks aud other nationalities. None that we saw, except the soldiers, could understand a word of English, but all seemed to know the value of the different money. English is the kind mostly used. Did not go over to the Spanish lines as it was raining quite hard all the time we were there. There is a.narrow strip of land between the fort and Spain’s territory and a strip about five hundred feet wide called neu-

tral ground, and Spanish soldiers are on one side and English on the other. Houses in “Gib” are all stone with tile roofs, and streets are narrow. Called on the American Consul and registered our names. He is from Connecticut. We were well pleased with our visit. We are to leave at 3p. m. Algires, April 22. We left ‘‘Gib” on time and arrived here at 6 p. m., of the 20th, and immediately went ashore for the evening—that is, some of us did, as the sea was quite rough and, as we were to spend the next day there, most of the pilgrims staid on the boat. The sea was quite rough and as it was raining hard we did not stay later than 10 o’clock, and came back to our boat expecting to go ashore the next morning to speud the day. Those that got an early start for shore got off all right, but as “Cap” and I were late at breakfast we could not get off, as the sea continued rougher and higher all the balance of the day. Those that did go ashore could not get back to the boat, so that we had to lay over a day. Guess it was a good thing we did not leave the boat, judging from the experience those had who did, Algiers is a city of about 150,000 inabitants and well built and the most beautiful city, looking from the boat, that I have ever seen. It is built upon the sloping side of the mountain, facing the sea and the houses are built tier upon tier, streets running parallel to the warer or bay All houses facing the water are five and six stories high, built of stone aud tile roofs, so that they make a grand sight. The city is lit by gas and electricity and well lighted, so at night we have a fine view from our boat. The night we were over we saw lots of Arabs, Turks, Moores, etc. Every other place in the city is a drinking place and all seem to be well patronized. Although it has been quite cold here for the past two days, vegetation is quite forward Grass green and trees are all full leaved, and to ns northern pepple it looked very fine, indeed. They hffve electric cars here as fine as we have at home. The money used here is French. In buying anything we gave them enough money to pay for it and they make the change. We take whatever they give ns and call it square, as we are unable to count their money and no use to “kick” for they could not understand a word we say. We leave here this, Saturday eve., and expect to arrive at Malta on Monday morning at 7* a. m. (the 24) One of our American punt o its, the “Chicago,” is at anchor at Algiers so that we have good protection. This being Washington’s birthday, the gunboat fired the national salute. She was nicely decorated to-day. The band we have on board has been playing American airs all day, and we have been celebrating also. Will try and write you from Malta where this letter will be mailed. Love to all,

Your brother,

J. J. WILLIAMS.