The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1877-05-26

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explain things to you on the journey. |
travelled all day with Spanish gentle
man, and we constantly conversed, and
neither understood a word that the other
said.
Madrid has not the honor or appear
anee Of an old city, although the learned
annalists claim that this is the 4,O43d
year since the foundation of the city. 1t
is situated almost in the centre of Spain,
on the high central plateau, and elevated
above the level Of the sea about 500 feet.
1t is built on high land above the river
Marzanares, which is nearly dry in sum
mer Here all the clothes of Madrid are
washed, and one looking out from the
windows of the kings palace, sees, for
miles and miles along the banks Of the
river, nothing but white linen spread out
to dry.
Charles the V. found the dry air of this
place so agreeable to his equity frame that
he improved the city, gathered the court
here, and induced the mobiles to build their
palaces here. Philip H., reigning after
him, also made it his capital, because it
was near the Escorial, until at last it es-
tablished its prestige as u capital against
the rival claims of the more beautiful and
ancient cities of Seville, Cordova and
Valladolid. Its climate is not considered
good. II has great heat in summer, the
thermometer being sometimes as high as
ll0 and ll5; and in winter, from its high
altitude and vicinity to the Sierra of the
Guadarama on the northwest, and the
mountains of Toledo on the southwest, it
is exposed to cold blasts and sudden changes
in spring and summer. Diseases of the
lungs prevail here, and cough is very
common thing among the people in the
streets and in the market places The
people have no means of fire in their
houses to protect them against these sud.
den changes, which prove destructive to
consumptive constitutions. 1t is said that
there is often twenty degrees difference in
the temperature Of the sunny and the
shady side of the street. Madrid has a
population of 320, 900 inhabitants Of whom
about 10000 are French There are no
manufactures here. 1t is not the centre
of a rich agricultural district, and it has
no port One of the first questions which
a traveller asks is, how do all the people
get living? The answer given me was,
first all the government Offices are here,
and all the government salaries are paid
here; second; all the grandees of the king
dom reside here. Here are their palaces,
their families, attendants and servants, and
all their moneys, gathered from their es-
tates in all parts Of Spain, are expended
here. Aside from the grandees, there is
no wealth in Madrid. They are city of
offce-holders, shop-keepers, artisans and
market-men. Being so modern in its
origin, it has no cathedral and no really
old or fine churches. Madrid belongs to
the See Of Toledo. A cathedral never
has been and never will be built, except in
an age of devotion to the Church, when
the religious sentiment controls the minds
Of kings and people, and when the tenn
poral aud material power and wealth of
the Church, aud clergy are princely. The
age for this has passed never to return in
all countries. The religious sentiments of
men now result in hospitals, schools, col
leges and reformatories. Institutions of
practical charity have forever supplanted
cathedrals, which are the embodiment of
the devotional sentiment.
There are many large, wellappointed
churches in Madrid, but without architec-
tural excelence--none of the chaste beauty
and symmetry of the ancient gothic, but
all of the modern style, adorned with
tinselry and overloaded with ornament.
The little church called the Convent of
Atocha, is worthy of visit. In this
church is a noble tomb, erected to the
memory of Marshal Prim. A life-like
bust of the hero, in bronze, is raised on
beautiful saracophagus. The people of
Spain regard him as a martyr, as the man
destined to regenerate the country.
He placed Amadeus on the throne, but
was assassiuated on the very day that the
young king landed at Barcelona One of
the best of the modern pictures represents
the scene Of the young king viewing the
corpse of the dead hero as he lay in state
1t is commonly believed that the Duke of
Montpensier, husband of the sister of
Queen Isabella, is the author of this das-
tardly deed