The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-09-15 00:00:00

THE BLIND GIRL OF MANZANARES,

(From a Madrid Letter

Morning Paper.)

The moment the Andalusian diligence stops to change
horses at the Manzanares, a stead town about eighty
miles from Madrid, a young woman, twenty-two years of
age, blind, though not from her birth, of a vulgar counte-
nance, and meanly clad, addresses herself to the passen-
gers, and seeks to excite their charity by means of a vol-
ley of extemporary verses. She usually asks the travel-
lers for a rhyme, and they try to select the most difficult
metres, and most absurd verses. She gets out of the di-
lemma as well as she can, sometimes with forced con-
structions and nonsensical stanzas, which such difficul-
ties necessitate, but she never stops short nor hesitates ;
scarcely has the line issued from the lips of the voyager,
than the copresponding rhyme is supplied by the mouth
of the poor poetess.
The facility of extemporaneous composition is certainly
no proof of a great extent of intelligence, nor do the verses
of the blind girl merit the name of poetry, yet some of
them are not wanting in grace and simplicity. But the
singular facility with which this woman manages the
idiom, the extraordinary rapidity with which she forms
the framework of her compositions, and seizes on the
rhymes and metre corresponding with the given verse,
are gifts, the absence of which is too often evident in the
works of many of our poets in their forced or lax and fee-
ble stanzas. But this humble improvisatrice possesses
another accomplishment far superior to that of verse
making, in her perfect knowledge of Latin, its rules, its
delicacies, its difficulties, and its principal authors.
When a child, she sat at the door of the Latin class of the
town, then presided over by a donzine of that race, now
almost extinct, composed of men whom unremitting
study and great experience in teaching had rendered fa-
miliar with the whole range of the literature of the Latin
language. The blind girl listened attentively to the les-
sons, and engraved them on her stupendous memory.
The schoolmaster was not long in perceiving her taste
and capabilities, and the worthy man resolved to culti-
vate and bring_ to perfection this intellectual prodigy.
She manifested an insatiable curiosity and a daily increas-
ing proficiency. The Latin tongue became the sole ob-
ject of her thoughts and the one great occupation of her
life. Her favourite amusement was to turn into Latin
whatever she thought and heard. The boys of the class,
at her request, looked out the words she wanted in the
dictionary, and the schoolmaster was ever ready to ex-
plain and elucidate such difficulties as occurred to her,
and thus, by a repetition of these exercises, and the con-
centration of vigorous intellectual powers, not disturbed
in their labour by the sense most easily attracted by ex-
ternal impressions, the Latin language ended by becoming
the habitual medium of the blind girl's reasoning—the
readiest vehicle for the expression of her thoughts. Thus,
as she herself says, she thinks in Latin, " et quod tenta-
bat dicere (to adopt her own expression) Latinum erat."
On two occasions the writer has been witness to the
uncommon proficiency of this young person in this her
favourite study. A traveller having asked her if she
knew where Cadiz was, she replied, " Credo super His-
palem ;" and upon the questioner expressing a doubt of
the correctness of the preposition super, as applied in the
sense beyond, she answered without hesitation, " Recta
dixi, nam Virgilius noster, super Agrarnantas." On an-
other occasion, speaking of a diligence, she explained
with the greatest ease the synonyms, quadriga, vehicu-
lum, and curriculum.
Once the human mind is opened to ideas beyond the
common routine of life, it seldom happens that it is con-
fined within a narrow circle, and that a noble ambition is
not awakened to enlarge the sphere of acquired know-
ledge. I have heard the blind girl exclaim with the ac-
cent of real passion, " 0 libri! libri! quis dabit mihi
libros ?" Her poverty and the well-known dearth of the
means of instruction in the interior of Spain deprive her
of all those resources which might contribute to her no-
ble aspirations. However, not long ago' accident threw
in her way a few historical works, and she has devoted
herself with enthusiasm to this new branch of study. A
boy of the town reads aloud to her, and thus she learns.
She is in the habit of sharing with those who do her this
important service the alms she collects from travellers.

FORGIVENESS.—When misunderstanding and con-
strained intercourse arise between friends, or between
members of a family, they seldom pass without a crisis,
and an explanation; but these are dangerous moments of
revolution, and for once that they wrench out the wound-
ing thorn, it happens thrice that they press it in the
deeper. Ah, why do we find it so difficult freely to for-
give, freely to forget? We nourish our wrong ; we medi-
tate upon it, we desire to have some right, some recom-
pense, and thus warm the serpent's egg in our bosoms.
Blessed are the peace makers ! Blessed are the good, who
forget, who forgive, even without thinking. " I forgive !"
—Mary Howitt.

CATS.—There are four distinct races of cats; namely,
the tabby, which includes the black cats, and which is
nearest allied to the wild kinds; the tortoise-shell cat
which came originally from Spain, and the males of which
are buff, with stripes of a darker hue; the white and light
coloured cats, which have reddish eyes and a greyish tint
in their fur, and are descended from the Chartreuse breed ,
and the Angora cats, which are quite distinct from all
others, and are known by their long fur. The tailless cats
of Cornwall and the Isle of Man belong to the Chartreuse
breed, and they are the ugliest of their kind, as the Angora
cats are the handsomest. Cats are seldom ill, except from
cold, wh;e'i generally gets well without any particular care
being taken of it ; but when they have any serious disease
it generally proves fatal.—Mrs. London.
THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.—No stranger who visits
London considers that he has seen all the " lions" if he
has not caught a glimpse of the duke. In illustration of
this remark, I may mention one circumstance. A lady
of my acquaintance, on the morning of her intended
departure from London, after a short visit, was walking
with a friend in Hyde Park, near Apsley House, one
morning as early as six o'clock. As they walked along,
she said, " Well, I have seen everything I wanted to
see in London excepting the Duke of -Wellington, and I
would rather have seen him than all the rest." She
uttered this remark in a loud, sprightly voice, little
dreaming that any but her friend heard it. Immediately,
however, a gentleman passed her, raised his hat, and smi-
lingly said, " Madam, I am happy to present him to you ;"
and, again bowing, passed on, followed at a little dis-
tance, by his groom. There was no mistaking the person-
age who spoke. It was the duke himself ; and I need
hardly say, that the lady was, in spite of her confusion,
not a little gratified by the incident.—Sketches of Poets,
Painters, and Politicians. _ _

THE WHITE FISHERY OF SHETLAND.—Distinguished
from the herring-fishing is the white fishery. including
ling, tusk, and cod. This is the trade which has chiefly
engaged the attention of the Shetlanders. Yet even this
they long divided with the Dutch. But towards the be-
ginning of the last century, and when various acts of par-
liament were framed, prohibiting the importing of foreign
salt except in British vessels, and encouraging by bounties
the exportation of fish cured at home, foreigners gradu-
ally left the white fishery of Shetland to its own resources.
When the periodical visits of the traders from Holland,
Hamburg, Lubeck, Bremen, &c., bad ceased, occasional
companies of Scotch and English merchants next appeared;
but the principal successors to the Dutch were the Shet-
land proprietors themselves. One chief motive for their
engaging in the curing and exporting of ling was, to pro-
cure for their tenants the only means they possessed for
paying their rents. But this gave rise to a new embarrass-
ment ; the tenants were wholly unable from their poverty
to purchase boats or lines, and unless the landlords would
advance a sum sufficient for the purpose, the attempt to
prosecute the fishing must have proved abortive. Hence
the singular tenure of holding land which has so long pre-
vailed in Shetland, namely, the proprietor allowing his
yearly tenants to be in debt to him for the value of the
boats and fishing-tackle, but requiring from them the obli-
gation to let him have their wet fish at a stipulated low
rate. The custom of fishing tenure, however, is not uni-
versal. Many proprietors have abolished it, and lease
their lands at an advanced price, allowing their tenants to
salt their own fish, and, when ready for the market, dispose
of them on their own account. In the parishes of North
Yell, Fetlar, Tingwall, Sandsting, &c., most of the te-
nants keep up boats and lines for themslves ; giving their
landlords or tacksmen their fish at the current price, about
6s. 6d. per cwt. of wet ling, and 4s. 6d. for the tusk and
cod. About Scalloway most of the men have shares in
the vessels, and some of them are sole owners. to Unst,
the most northernly of our islands, the landowners in ge-
neral furnish nets, rthich they either lend out to the fish-
ram), or advance to them at prime cost, to be paid for
proceeds of the boat within a time limited by

from ti

sending the herrings to market, paying the men so much
per cran.—Fraser's Magazine.
DESCRIPTION OF MEXlCO.—Mexico is regarded as the
" stateliest city" in the New World. Its plan was laid,

and the principal portio❑ of its public buildings are said
to have been designed by Cortes. They bear all the im-
press of a superb mind. The habitual meanness of de-
mocratical building has no place there; the majority of
the fabrics were evidently constructed by a man to whom
the royal architecture of the European nations was familiar
and the finest houses in the city are still inhabited by the
descendants of the conqueror. The principal square is
the pride of the Mexicans, and the admiration of travel-
lers. It has an area of twelve acres ; unluckily, this fine
space, which in England would be covered with verdant
turf, shrubs, and flowers, is covered with pavement. But
the buildings are on a noble scale. The Cathedral fills
one whole side of the square, the Palace another, and the
sites of both are memorable and historical ; the Cathedral
standing on the ground where once stood the great idol

temple,-and the-Palace on the ground of the palace of
Montezuma! The latter building is 500 feet long, and
contains the public offices, besides the apartments of the
President. The Cathedral is of striking Gothic architec-
ture, and after all the pressures and plunderings of the
later period, still retains immense wealth. The high altar
is covered with plates of silver, interspersed with orna-
ments of massive gold. This altar is enclosed with a
balustrade one hundred feet long not less precious than
the high altar itself. It is composed of an amalgam of
gold, silver, and copper, richly flourished and figured. It
is said that an offer has been made to purchase it at its
weight in silver,. giving half a million of dollars besides.
Of this balustrade there are not less than 300 feet. Sta-
tues, vases, and 1

auge candlesticks of the precious metals,
meet the eye every where; and yet it is said that the still
more precious portion of the treasure is hidden from the
popular eye. The streets are wide, and cross each other
at right angles, dividing the whole city into squares. But
the Romish habit of giving the most sacred names to com-
mon things, is acted on in Mexico with most offensive
familiarity. The names of the streets are instances of this
profanation, which has existed wherever On have been
the masters. Thus, the Mexican will tell you that he
lives in "Jesus," or in the " Holy Ghost." In the Spanish
navy the most sacred names were similarly profaned; and
the Santissima Trinidada (the Most Holy Trinity) was a
flag-ship in the fleet destroyed at Trafalgar. What blas-
phemies and brutalities must not have been mingled with
this sacred name in the mouths of 'crew!