The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1883-10-16
MADRID AND LISBON.
The Opening Lecture of the stoddar d
Course.


Mr.. Stoddard was greeted wilh a very culti-
waited and appreciative audience last evening
at the inauguration of his lecture course in
City Hall, and received with strong proofs of
the popularity he has obtained in Portland.
We give partly as literary curiosity. re-
port which first appeared, we believe, in
Brooklyn journal:
Tie subject of the opening lecture was Ma
drid and Lisbon" Custom House Trials,
Over the Mountains, Curious People, Burgos,
the Cid; Dark Reception, Hunting for
Rooms the Cathedral Lacework in Stone, the
"Christ of Burgos,' the Gateway of the Sun,
peasants and priests sweet idleness, Cervantes
| the palace, a magnificent staircase, multi
| tude of clocks, the throne of Spain, Alfonso,
and his recent unpleasantness in Paris, the
Queens drawing room, the Prado, and even
| ing parties, ali were depicted with life-like
faithfulness of detail and vividness of presen-
tatlon, and the lecturer paused awhile in the
colonnades OF Madrid's picture gallery, which
be claims is the finest in Europe. Before WIS.,
iting it, he said he had seen Murillo's "Madon-
ma and Child at Paris, and thought he had
seen the great painters greatest and purest
conception, but here he beheld hundreds of his
paintings of equal and perhaps in some instan-
ces superior merit. Murillo, so the tradition
ran, painted his flesh tints in mingled milk and
blood; however that might be, the secrets of
his art died with him, for the glorious produc-
llons OF his genius onceNbsheld left a strangely
lasting impression of their beauty and truth to
nature on the mind of him who had gaZed.
Then came the Escorial, that colossal building
| IN which the sometimes pious and always big
oted Philip II. attempted to initiate the grid
| IRON on which st. Lawrence on the same spot
| hundreds Of years before was roasted to death
Dy the pagans to whom he brought the Gospel.
| An immense granite structure it is, surround
| Ing hollow square, crossed by long, high,
narrow galleries, representing the gridiron
bars recrossed by central bar, from which
| Juts out the high-domed royal apartments, and
| pointed on each corner by sharp-spired tower
| representing the gridiron spikes
| Away into the interior the lecturer led his
hearers, showing them grand passages,
| wondrously tessalated, and long vistas of
beautiful arches filed as he declared, with a
mere saan Aagssse ggSS gehAfc
beneath which the bones of Philip lay; surely
a lifting resting-pace for the champion of the
lnquisition, shut out forever from the free air
of heaven, the singing of birds and the tiniest
ray OF Gods sunshine. The portrait, too, of
Philip, with its fnely-chiseled features.
| naughty eyes and half-sneering, half-smiing
N onth was displayed, and thrill of hate ran
through the spectators as they gazed on the
| features OF the maA who laughed but once, and
that when lie heard of the Massacre OF St.
| Bartholomew's Day, and all were glad to turn
to the other side of the picture and see him, in
| imagination, listening to tidings of the de-
struction of that Armada which had cost him
| eighteen years of his life and hundreds of
| millions of ducats to construct
| Leaving behind the gloomy shades of PLilju
| and the Escorial La Grandja, the Summer
Palace of Spanish Royalty was next reached
| Here on plain, 1900 feet above the sea and
surrounded by mountains many thousand feet
higher massive marble pile lifts its head
from gardens decked with rare statuary and
grand fountains, fed by limpid mountain rills:
and here royalty, relaxed from cares of State,
hunts and drives and dances the days and
nights away, Royal apartments haunted by
historic memories of Bourbon and internecine
intrigues were barely peeped into ere
| the lecturer led his followers onward to view
Segovia and the ruined Alcazar, and pause be-
fore the aqueduct of Trojan, that stupendous
monument of Roman architecture which has
| supplied Segovla with pure water for / 100
| years, yet shows no signs of ruin. This was
| perhaps, the most impressive work observed
throughout. Two rows of arches one sur
mounting the other, rising $50 feet from the
ground in some places, built of great blocks of
stone, un4norticed together and merely held by
| their wondrous equipoise, extended for miles,
carrying the aqueduct from far-off hill to the
city, work to strike the stranger who saw it
| for the first time dumb with admiration. No
wonder the common people ascribe to it sR-
pernatusal origin. A woman, they say, hun
| dreds of years ago, tired of carrying water up
| the long hill tnat leads to the city, carelessly
called on the devil to help her. He appeared,
was pleasant, and said that he would supply
the city with water forever, If she would
give him her soul She consented, but
got frightened when she reflected and
told her trouble to the priest. The
holy father, anxious TO save his parishoner,
sought and obtained an interview with his
| satanic majesty, the result of which was an
agreement that if an aqueduct, fitted to stand
| forever, were not completed between sunset
| and sunrise, the wOman'S soul was to be /. ee
| from her promise. Tired with his exertions
1 81, <AlA, IL
| o'clock in the morning, the devil, who had
| lent his watch, asked the priest what the time
| was, and his reverence replied, zone o'clock I"
| "Oh," said the devil, "I've plenty of time to
| spare" and worked more slowly. One stone
| was unlaid when daylight surprised the spirit
of darkness and the womans soul was saved
The devil howled and said it was not square
deal, but there waS no -referee and the priest
laughed at him. Whether the good Fathers
own soul was ultimately forfeited for lying is
| not recorded.
The next view OF Lisbon, beautiful vision
OF picturesque hills clad in marble palaces and
belted by the broad Tagus with its shipping
| Glimpses OF wonderful architecture were
| caught here-stonework so exquisite that the
| figures on single yard of its surface were of
ten worth hours of study-one glorious win
| dow in particular with carved lattice work
framed in fruits and flowers, intertwined
around fantastic animals and heads of men,
| How disgusting after this was the sight of the
lazy modern Portuguese! Every beautiful
work, palace, cloister or tomb both in Spain
and Portugal spoke of great past, when a
| chivalrous, fiery, naughty race, bold in con-
| ception, great in achievement, dwelt in both
| countries, and of greater might-have-been
foiled by the misguided bigotry which ex-
| PEELED the Moors aud Jews, burned all other
| heretics, and gave the conquerers wilderness
where the conquered had left a garden. Sure
the spirits of Philips martyrs must look down
| in pity ON the ndolent, effeminate and ignor-
ant descendants of their prosecutors.