New-York tribune., 1874-01-01
TEN DAYS IN SPAIN.
BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION.

ATiNG PUBLIC OPINION.
For six weeks l had been walking about on the
top of tho Pyrenees with glass of lukewarm
water in one hand and umbrella in the other,
with long parentheses Of going to bed, and short
parentheSes of sitting down. and putting my feet in
a foot mufl. II is of many fictions that the Sum
heat of the Pyrenees is excessive and that rain
Is unknown. experienced no heat and underwent
much rain. 1t was an exceptional season. never
went anywhere that the season was not exceptional
and am convinced that in all climates exceptions do
not prove but are the rule Lukewarm water COM
bined with umbrella and foot-muffs does not in
ebnate. neither does If cheer In fact another week
of it wOnld have driven to the verge of
neighborly precipice, perpetually inviting me to
hollow embrace. The Hights of the PyTenees were
the depths of my despair and Monsieur lie Medecin
at last told me that had accomplished my cure and
might go. Blessed releasel
But what should do to restore my brain to its
normal conditoni had been at the top of things;
i would go to the bottom. Come to Barritz,"
urged French friends. Biarritz was as near bottom
as could go without drowning myself in the Allan
tic Ocean. As 1 had just kept my head above water
all Summer, thought had nearly been drowned
enough. would 90 to Biarritz and have 1t off my
mind. Whatever place you have never seen is pre-
cisely the place set down by those superior beings
who have been everywhere the earthly paradise.
You cannot contradict these superior beings though
certain that they untrstworthy as historians
They know their advantage, and sit upon you with
such an amount of ecstatic information that you
loaths Average Intelligence. and wish the common
variety of traveller as extinct retired American
President / had suffered from Barritz for several
years. 1t time for the patient worm to turn and
rend the travelled bore. And when have dlgested
Biarritz" said to myself Il will remember that
,ba r1o To ha ted frntn m 1rOOpinO
shoulders is the Nile" There is an aggressveness,
an undsguised contempt, pitying patronage about
the Superior Being who insists upon pereDnially
sitting in Nile mud and calling you from the an
tipodes to admire his poses, that makes you thirst
for human blood. The greatest trial of Society is
not being able to resent these underhanded attacks
upon ones seIf-esteem. II ought to be a criminal
offcnse for any traveller to give his experience.
What is prig" asks Mrs. Vincy, in Middle
march, a prg," replies her son Fred, Us one
who makes you a present of his opinions am
not prig. never make present of my opinions.
i am always paid for them.
| started for Biarrtz. and did what must happen
10 every traveller at least in his mad career
arrived unkpOwingly at my destination, and was
carried beyond it, Nobody told anybody where we
were. This is pleasant peculiarity Of many CONT
mental railroads that unless you are perpetually
on the alert and pOknG questions at the guard you
arc kept on the rack. party of Spaniards entered
my compartment at a station which seemed to me
very near BarIitz, and interested me in their
conversation about the war that my eternal vlgl-
lance-the price of safety in traveing-was sus-
pended. lyon are going to Spain 7" asked the
agreeable Spanard beside me- who spoke excellent
English "No to Bia-ritz." but you have gone
too far. We have Just left Biarritz" | was fright
ened, and am not ashamed of the confes-
ainn Nirht had set in of wind
:.ad rain spread wild gloom over country
of which had no knowledge. and there was no
turn train until very late. Gould leave the car at
the next stopping place and take a carriagef The
Spaniard thought 1t very likely and out went at
- forloru station standing alone in an uninhablted
plain. Making my way through peasants of both
sexes deserted an open carriage at the back door
Would the driver take me to Biarritz! Well, he
did MT know. He could MT for hour, and he
would MT for less than twenty francs. " How many
miles'" Mine" agreed to pay the amount asked
and off went he and everybody else, including the
station officials Left in solitude, / imagined how
easy il would be to rob me, quietly knock me Oh the
head and throw me into the Atlantic
And suppose the driver does not return y |
thought. But he came. and when lie drove me of.
with rain beating in my face, with wind bowling in
my ears with reStiye horses and no lantern, saw
such an admirable opportunity for brigands and
all the other horrors told in stOry-books that L
hardly enjoyed the novelty Of the dramatic sltua-
ton At times the wind almost blew the light car
riage over. Then caught Glimpses of the ocean,
saw a revolving light flash red and white and sud
denly we came upon ox-eams creeping along fright
eninc our horses so that they reared and plunged
and tried to run away. The driver swOre whisper
ingy in choice Basque and L wondered whether
the friends who had promised to write neat obltu-
aries would have an early opportunity of keeping
their word But no. my time had not come. l ar
rived alive at the hotel and when looked into the
drivers face which darkness had vailed, bebeId
nothing worse than good nature and shrewd honesty.
If you had screamed we might have had our neeks
broken" was the only remark Monsieur lie Cocher
made on receiving payment aud taking bis de-
parture.
The Superior Being who dospises America and
only consepts TO retain his nationality because he is
indebted 10 IT for fortune and the opportunity of
associating with nobility, had told me how Barritz
was the beau ideal of watering place; how rain
never fell there; and how comparing 1t with any
spot in the United States was akin to comparing
Hyperion and Satyr. THE blood of Douglas can
protect itself" and do not feel called upon to an
nihiate every American who displays his manhood
by deriding the beautiful and generous land OF his
birth: but when can prove him to be wanting in
verscity am 80 depraved as to rejoice This moral
oblQuity arises from artistic sense of symmetry.
There should be harmony in nature, human or other
WISE
II rained at Biarritz it rains in our own
South Great big drops bombarded street and
roof, as though the clouds were waging
a war of determination, aud had ordered out their
entire light infantry Not content, it hailed and
this was on the 18th of September. How moist and
uncomfortable it can be in the Pyrenees, High and