Diário de Lisboa
- Overseas
- Society for the Protection of Animals
- A water standpost in the Biaggi courtyard
A maritime editorial calls for emigrant protection and regular overseas services. Local columns criticize animal cruelty and a water standpost left unusable for lack of pipes.
Image-checked selected first-page passages; partial reading, not the whole page or complete articles.
Translation
Overseas
This newspaper has advocated the need for a merchant marine as an indispensable condition for Portugal to achieve the unity of its being and a true understanding of its role as an Atlantic people.
[…]
As for the emigrant, we must urgently make real the protection we owe him, accompanying him at departure, on the voyage, at disembarkation, in finding work, and with assistance and education on foreign soil.
The way foreign ships transport him, without comfort, hygiene or decency, turns the stomach and unleashes terrible curses.
Why should our merchant marine not develop, driving these exploiters of human flesh and misery from our ports?
[…]
It is absolutely essential that we have regular services to our colonies, Europe, Brazil and the United States. Otherwise we condemn ourselves to the torment of captives who know of the world but can see it only through the bars of their prison.
Society for the Protection of Animals
Yesterday’s A Informação carries news that the Society for the Protection of Animals is to be revitalized. May the promise not remain mere words—that is our fervent wish.
The brutality in the streets, the savagery toward animals, must disappear from Lisbon.
What civilized city would tolerate such frequent abuse of the whip on the wounded backs of draught horses?
How can the existence of so many hungry stray dogs be explained?
Where were the ten thousand cats bred that swarm through the capital’s gloomy, bohemian districts?
A water standpost in the Biaggi courtyard
In April this year, a public water standpost was brought to the Biaggi courtyard in Amoreiras to supply its residents.
They were delighted, for they saw the blessed hour approaching when they would have water close to their doors, without having to fetch it from far away or pay dearly for it.
Their hopes soon withered, however… The standpost has been resting for several months in a corner of Beco do Barbosa, since nobody has attended to the piping.
We appeal to those responsible to put an end to this neglect and help the unfortunate residents of the Biaggi courtyard, who lament the abandonment to which they have been consigned.
Context
A merchant fleet as protection for emigrants
The shipping argument connects national independence at sea with the treatment of people leaving Portugal. Protection is defined broadly, extending from the voyage to work, assistance and education after arrival. The proposed fleet is thus more than a commercial asset: the editorial imagines it as a means of keeping responsibility for emigrants within a national network, while also maintaining routes to colonial possessions.
Working animals and the everyday city
The animal-protection appeal moves through three familiar street scenes: draught horses being whipped, hungry dogs wandering, and cats multiplying in crowded urban districts. Horses belong to the city’s working transport, while strays expose another problem of care and control. By asking what a civilized city would tolerate, the column makes treatment of animals a measure of Lisbon’s public life and demands practical action from a revived association.
Water access required more than a standpost
Lisbon’s public fountains were distribution points in a wider water-supply system. The Biaggi residents’ complaint shows why installing an object was not the same as delivering that service: without connecting pipes, water still had to be carried from elsewhere or bought at a high price. The failed connection left the burdens of distance and cost with households, despite a visible promise of improvement at their doors.
Original
Ultramar
Este jornal tem advogado a necessidade de termos uma marinha mercante, como condição indispensavel para que Portugal adquira a unidade do seu ser e tenha a justa percepção do seu papel de povo atlantico.
[…]
Em relação ao emigrante, urge efectivar a protecção que lhe devemos, acompanhando-o na sua saída, na viagem, no desembarque, na colocação, na assistencia e na instrução em solo estranho.
O modo como os barcos estrangeiros o transportam, sem conforto nem higiene nem pudor, é de revolver as entranhas e desemperrar a lingua em terriveis pragas.
Porque não ha de a nossa marinha mercante desenvolver-se, correndo dos nossos portos esses exploradores da carne e da miseria humana?
[…]
E' absolutamente necessario que tenhamos carreiras para as nossas colonias, Europa, Brasil e Estados Unidos, aliás condenamo-nos ao suplicio dos captivos que sabem do mundo, mas não o podem avistar, senão atravez das grades da sua prisão.
Sociedade Protectora dos Animais
Em A Informação de ontem vem a noticia de que a Sociedade Protectora dos Animais vai remoçar-se. Que a promessa não fique só em palavras — eis o que muito desejamos.
A brutalidade das ruas, o selvagismo contra os bichos têm que desaparecer de Lisboa.
Em que cidade civilisada se consentiria um tão frequente abuso do chicote, no dorso chagoso dos cavalos de tracção?
Como se explica a existencia de tanto cão faminto e vadio?
Onde se criaram os dez mil gatos que enxameiam nos bairros lobregos e bohemios da capital?
Um marco fontenario no pateo do Biaggi
Em abril deste ano, foi transportado para o pateo do Biaggi, ás Amoreiras, um marco fontenario, destinado a abastecer os seus moradores.
Estes ficaram contentissimos, porque viam aproximar-se a hora bemdita de terem agua ao pé da porta, sem necessidade de a irem buscar longe ou de a pagarem caro.
As suas esperanças, porém, breve murcharam... O marco fontenario repousa ha uns poucos de meses a um canto do Beco do Barbosa, pois do encanamento ninguem cuidou.
Dirigimo-nos a quem de direito, a fim de que ponha termo a tal incuria, valendo aos tristes moradores do pateo do Biaggi, que lamentam o abandono a que foram votados.