Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-05-14
ANDORRAN CUSTOMS.
La w-Making in the Sleepy Little Republic
of the PYrenees.

of the P%vrcnees.
When the air is clear of revolution
Andorra is a happy valley indeed. There
are no written laws: every man is bound
by his honor-a truly Spanish arrange.
ment. Serious crimes are practically
unknown, and during the past hundred
years only one criminal has been push
ed over the precipice on the Catalonian
border-that being the Andorran form
Of capital punishment. Education is
gratuitous; lawyers are unknown, and
no mans land is mortgaged. This little
territory is the paradise of the law Of
primogeniture, for many properties
have belonged to the ancestors of their
present for eight hundred years.
Beyond Magma Charta and the records
of births, marriages and deaths, the
state archives are exceedingly meager;
for in a land where the
pledge of honor has been
observed with such scrupulous nicely
there is little necessity for wasting time
by putting things in the bond. The Gen
eral Council meets in the "city'' of Az
dora every Sunday and holiday. Tha
sessions are held in the 'Domus Con-
silii, sedus justitia," a very ancient
piece of architecture. adorned with the
sovereign arms of the republic. This
and the old church neal by are the only
two buildings of interest in the country.
A meeting of the council is a most pic
turesque sight. The members arrive
with the utmost punctuality, and are all
arrayed alike in gray knee-breeches, red
wooden w%aistcoats, light blue stockings,
shoes with silver buckles, black silk era
watts, and cockedhat Over all they wear
long black mantles lined with
crimson. The "captain mag
istrates" are arrayed, like
Ham ct. in black velvet; and, in virtue
of their position as judges and com
manders OF the forces, they alone Of all
subjects of the republic wear swords.
Nearly every decision is arrived at
unanimously. and the debates, if report
ed at 81 much per folio, would not keep
a shorthand writer in pencils and note
books. The Domus Consilii: is at once
legislative chamber, town hall, prison,
school and hotel, for it contains a large
dormitory, in which councillors from a
ulSlallCc Slccp WllcI slIcSS VI WctlllCI
prevents their immediate return home.
The average Andorran toilet is a much
less brilliant affair than that ofmembers
of the council. Spanish ideas Of clean
illness prevail, and it is not
usual-except among the half
dozen noble families-to sleep in
sheets. Indeed, a V on state oc-
c%asions, when he brings out his finery,
the citizen of the Andorran republic isl
somewhat sordid person. When there
is a great function, however, he consid-
ers it due to himself that he should make
a brave show, The Andorrans are said
to be very hospitable, but they are SUI
ticiently unsophisticated to be snspicious
of tourists, whose ways are dark and
mysterious to them. Andorra is pre-
sumably the only civilized State in the
world without a newspaper. 1t offers a
peculiarly promising field to enterpris-
ing journalists who can write Spanish,
for, although firearms are almost too
plentiful, there is not a marksman in
the republic who can hit Il COW standing
at a couple of hundred yards.-Cor. Chi
cags Times.