The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-04-12 00:00:00

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INDUSTRIOUS SEVILLE.

The Special Correepoodent of the Standard sonde over
the following Wien:sting letter :

Among the delighis of Seville one of the chiefest
must not fail to be enumerated—no shrieking news.
boys shove latest editions into the face ef the lounger. I
This is not • reading people; for a woman to know
how to read was accounted immoral so late as the be•
ginning of this century. There are some papers at
Seville, nevertheless; among others El Oriente, de-
voted to Carlism, and La Legitimidad, devoted to the
interests of the ex Queen Isabella's son and heir; but
they have little to say. In the lack of suicides, etabs
in the dark, and pronormiumientos, they are driven to
fill up their space with extracts from the almanac, and
lists of letters thrown into the post-office without
prepayment. Some countryman must have caught
the local disease, for in the list given to-day in La
Legitimatad it is notified that two envelopes have been
indolently committed to the box without stamps, one
addressed to Mies Mary, Hyde Park, and the other to
Monsieur (an evident misprint for Mister) Francis
oMahony, Shankerhill. Should Miss Mary, Hyde
Park, or the Irish-Frenchman see this they are re-
quested to "take • note of " it and treat their corms.
}andante accordingly on their return. It may be a
surprise to some that Carliem has its adherents here,
but the surprise will disappear when they learn that
there are twenty-five parish churches and 2,000 priests
in Seville. Wherever the Church is powerful there
Carlism exists, and as the Church is especially power-
ful amongst the weaker sex, the Spanish women
are almost universally Cachets. Many a ferocious in-
transigente, who spouts fire and brimstone, and death
to kings and priests in the clubs, hise to sing very
small when he comes home, for Madame doats on
Don Carlos, and works slippers for the father con-
fessor. In Seville I should say the istransigente
element is feeble; it is strongest, perhaps, in the
municipality (which, by the way, ham iwned an edict
seourining the cemetery of San Fernando), because
this party of action is always on the watch and pushes
itself into office ; but the immense majority of the
business folk are monarchical, only the' wish to hays
the Prince of the Asturias, not Pon Carlos, for their
monarch, and all the gentlefolk, without excep-
tion, are anti-Republican. I had proof of this the
other night at the theatre, where "La Morseling," a
comedy intended to glorify the advent of the Re-
public, was played. The speeches in favour
of Federalism very often fell flat, and occa-
sionally were hissed, while the satirical hits at "social
liquidation" and the like were uncommonly relished.
I made the acquaintance of a wealthy burgess there,
• dealer in curiosities, who asked me round to inspect
some of the charming peasant dresses of Murcia, now
fast falling into disuse, and most grievous of pities it
in. He was a Royalist, an Alphonsiet, but his wife
was a Carliat. It was Friday wino I visited him, and
he old sinner was eating pork chops. "You a
Roman Catholic!" I said. "Ah, senor," he apolo-
gised, "pity me; I am very frail, but my wife w so
good a Christian—l reverence that woman—she has
gone to mass without breaking her fast, and when she
returns she will only eat one small cup of chocolate."
And industrious Seville' Surely it is time to try
and justify the heading of this letter by a sentence or
two conceneiag the exceptional industries that are
pursued in this indolent city. The porcelain manufac-
ture, brought to such perfection by the Moors, has
been revived by an Englishman, Mr. Charles Pickman,
who bought one of the convents sequestered in 1836,
and has transformed it into a factory, where he turns
out some capital imitations of the ancient glazed
tiles. Seldom has a hive of industry been reared
in nobler building or on more lovely site, nestling
in gardens, enamelled with flowers, wealthy in
fruit trees, and on the banks of a river. Some
may consider it profanity that potters' wheels
spin and buzz in an edifice once consecrated to
religion; but labour is prayer and sanctifies of itself.
A number of healthy, handsome girls, are busily en-
gaged colouring and burnishing the ceramic ware
which ia fashioned in the old convent, and their joyous
songs over their work cannot be very displeasing to the
spirit of the pious brethren who preceeded them in the
locality, if there be any ground for the poetic belief
that the shades of the dead are permitted to haunt the
spots they tenanted in the flesh. These Andalusian
lessee have to thank the Englishman for giving them
the opportunity of earning their bread and olives
honeedy and have the happy look of independ-
ence. Their full-blooded complexions would shame
our pale Manchester factory hands. They can
hardly realise how lucky they are to ply such a
neat trade in an atmosphere of freshness and
fragrance under a sky of clearest blue. No
visitor from Greet Britain ehould omit chartering a
vehicle for a ride to the Cartuja convent pottery.
Another plasm to visit is the great tobacco factory,
close by the cathedral, where no less than five thousand
women are employed. I went over it yesterday—per-
mission to enter has only to be sought to be obtained.
Except for those five thousand workwomen, who are •
sight to see in themselves, the visit will not come up
to the expectations of those who are prepared to gaze
on the mysterious and marvellous. The process of
cigar-making is as uninteresting as that of diamond-
polishing, and yet one goes to witness both with far
more anxious antisipation than to inspect what is far
more remarkable—the making of a pin. The building
in which the manufactory is carried on is a world
in itself—an imposing oblong block, with • railed
enclosure in front. Being Government property, it
is guarded by soldier's, and the stasnger is apt to
take it at firet sight for an enormous barrack. The
name of the king in whose reign it was erected
(one of the Ferdinands) is still outside. The
Republic has not ordered it to be erased, as a
French Republic would have done before this. At
Madrid, I noticed the same delicacy, or forgetful-
ness, if you prefer it ; the monogram and crown of
Isabella were untouched on the lamp posts in the
most revolutionary quarters. The interior of the
building consists of long whitewashed balls,
divided into colonnades by rows of pillars, horn
which spring vaulted ceilings. The women are
seated at low tables, about two feet from the
grounds In pardeg of half-dozens. They were
thin of eTerY KM from the tawny buoy at sixteen