The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-05-22 00:00:00

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'cam. kutp •- • 1490 a
66
rieratatt-
'dent slicm i• &dOftlitv atitiaatt•adwba
lad in 1812, whioh, owing to the jealliA4lll
salon of the.tmant, , who app
all pittieti6 MIA' loyal demonstrations the ttlurat
of those latent &ties of Liberalism which he i4s.icient
on utterly crushing, never rose from the ground
till 1840, when it was "completed by the M. H.
(M,uy Heroica) City of Madrid," in the palmy days
of Isabella's constitutional reign: The monument
cdnaists of an obelisk, standing on a, sarcophagus-
shaped pedestal, supporting allegorical statues, with
inticriptions illustrative of the tragic event Of 1808,
and the names of Daoiz and'Velarde on a medallion
encompassed by a wreath of oak-leaves, the whole
surrounded by an iron railing enclosing the blood-
stained field, which is planted with cypresses and
laid out in shrubs and flowerbeds. More recently,
after the fall of Queen Isabella, another monument
hais been erected facing the gateway—all that remains
of the old Monteleon Barracks—a monument repre-
senting Daoiz and Velarde in marble in the act of
loading and firing their cannon, and bearing, besides
an inscription recording those officers' valour, a few
lines of an ode by the greatest of modern Spanish
poets, Espronceda' execrating the memory of the base
and selfish dynasty which requited the devotion and
bravery of so many heroes and martyrs by an endless
conspiracy against the people's hard-won liberties.
This inscription, placed there by the Revolution, has
not as yet been interfered with by the Restoration.
The festivity by which the recurrence of the 2nd of
May is celebrated is styled a Fiesta Citicoreligiosa.
Three altars are raised at the foot of the monument
on the Field of Loyalty, at which from sunrise to noon
masses are said for the eternal repose of the victims.
At nine o'clock a.m. the Corporation of the City and
such of the people as may be invited meet at the
Town-hall in the main street, or Calle Mayor, and
form in a procession preceded by a picket of mounted
Civil Guards or Gendarmes, and consisting first of all
of the paupers from the Asylum of San Bernardino,
those of the Casa-Hospicio, and the charity children
of tha College of San Ildefonso, then the invalids of
the Army and the veterans of the Militia next the
relatives and descendants of the Dos de Mayo, after
these the Alcaldes or Mayors of the various districts
of the city, the King and his Staff and household, the
Army and Navy officers, the high functionaries of the
State, and deputations from the Provinces, finally the
magistrates of the city, preceded by mace-bearers in the
costume of the Knave of Clubs, with the Captain-General
and the Director of the Artillery on either side of the
Alcalde Mayor. The procession, issuing into the Calle
Mayor, follows its line of march to the church of San
the patron saint of Madrid, in Calle de Toledo,
where it finds High Mass and Cardinal Moreno ready
to receive it; it hears mass, listens to an oration de
livered by the priest, Don Jose Carrascosa after
which by a long detour through many streets, the
cortege reaches the Puerta del Sol, and descends by the
Calle Alcala to the Prado, where it is joined by the
parochial clergy, reaching at last, between two and
three in the afternoon, the Field of Glory. Here an
anthem is sung, three salvoes of musketry are fired,
and the solemnity ends with a deft/6 of the troops—
foot, horse, and cannoned, squadron of mounted Militia
closing the rear. This, with a frequent peal of bells
from all the church steeples, and the firing of cannon
at half-hour's intervals, both on the eve of the 2nd and
throughout the day is the beginning and end of the
popular treat. The people, however, are not very
particular as to what amusements are devised for
them, so they have the leisure and liberty of their
holyday.
The 2nd of May falls this year on a Sunday, so that
the fiesta is not, as in other years, "so much gained
on their enemy," their daily work. But it is, at all
events, a day set apart for enjoyment, and stout is
their determination to make the most of it. From
early sunrise—say, between five and six—l had with
me strings of well-dressed and better behaved traders
and artisans of the lower classes, invading the
groves and glades of the Buen Retiro, that glorious
park which is now a mass of young leaves and
blossoms, and which in ordinary mornings I have
nearly all to myself, or which I am left to share
with the nightingale, the cuckoo, and quail. By
this time the aocesses to the Field of Loyalty were
beset with gay yet earnest and reverential crowds,
the women on their knees, the men hat in hand, at-
tending their early mass. As the day advanced, and
long before noon, the double rows of Chairs lining
the whole line of march in the Prado were eagerly
invaded by all who did not mind the half-real hire,
and infinite was the chattering and bantering by
which the good-humoured multitude whiled away the
hours of weary waiting. Patience and the unflinching
endurance of the blazing sun had their reward in the
long lines of paupers, of gentlemen in black, of officers
in uniforms filing before them in slow progression, and
in the array of soldiers marching past, not without
spirit, but rather in indifferent order. Poor as, to say
the truth, the show was, it was at all events a sight
and a gathering. The people, if delighted with nothing
else, were pleased with themselves; and, as all was
over at three, the Bull-ring opened at four, and after
the bull-fight the cafes and restaurants had their tables
ready, and after dinner there were fifteen theatres
open, little fault could be found with the pleasures
which were either offered gratis or which the people
could obtain to the full extent of their purses' length.
i-low many out of that thronging multitude bestowed
a thought on Daoiz and Velarde, or on the sanauinary
executions, the victims of which were before them,
represented by their relatives and descendants, it
would be difficult to say. The newspapers, appearing
to-day with a black edge, and the handbills hawked
about the streets in profusion, leave no one in igno-
rance of the deeds of which this is the commemora-
tion. But the twice-told tale is apt to pall on a frivo-
lous population, and the high-flown bombastic style in
which the exploits of Spaniards of sixty-seven years
since are described in these prints contrasts only too
sadly with the feelings of Spaniards of the present
generation, who see so many thousands of the youths
of the country, and so vast an amount of the country's
wealth wasted in Navarre and in Cuba, in a struggle
in which the whole power of Spain makes so little
head-way against a mere handful of Carlist or filibuster.
Happily for the Madrid people, there are not many
among them enemies who feel inclined to dwell on un-
pleasant subjects, and the great wonder, the striking
phenomenon of the day was after all the sight of so many
people who, in the midst of their country's misery, and
under the threat of its imminent bankruptcy, still have
the heart and find the money for all imaginable plea-
sures and luxuries, and the thought of the Government
which, pressed as it is by incessant applications for
reinforcements by the commanders in the north, east,
and centre, still keeps here unemployed 5,000, or 6,000
men, to be made a show of in a city pageantry, in a
place where so many civil guards, city police, Serenos,
and other guardians of the day and night ought to
make the preservation of public order altogether inde-
pendent of the military.
The 2nd of May was also celebrated as the anniver-
sary of the affair at Callao in Peru, an achievement of
unrivalled naval bravery in the opinion of all good
Spaniards, though envious critics in foreign countries
may be incredulous.

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