Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-03-08
HOW SPANIARDS DINE
The Every Day Food of Mountaineers,
Grandees and Espadas.
SOME QUEER KITCHEN UTENSILS
Desolate Scenes and Melancholy Faces Un-
der Sunny Skies.
THE LITTLE LUXURIES OF THE POOR
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE pIsPATcH.l

CORRESPONDENCE OF THE DIsPATCH.l
BARCELONA, SPAIN, February 27.-It
may not be true the world over that the
physical aspect of country refectively
stamps facial peculiarities upon those who
all their lives are subject to such uncon-
scious influence; but, during my few weeks
wandering in Spain, have been repeatedly
impressed with similarity between a uni
versal look OF sadness in the faces of men,
women and children and an almost uni
versal sadness and desolation on the face of
nature. This is, of course, an observation in
general sense. Spaniards of cities, and all
| Spaniards in social and business activity,
| possess unusual light and luminousness of
| face. So, too, here and there in fruitful
valleys and mountain glens are the most
colorful bits of scenery one can anywhere
find to enjoy. But never yet came upon
any country whose general aspect prompted
| so lugubrious emotions, or the faces of
whose people, unless stimulated into ex-
pressiveness by unusual prompting, wore so
woebegone and doleful a seeming.
have now, and in something of a zig
gag way, giving opportunity for extended
scenic observation, traversed the Spanish
peninsula from the Atlantic to the Mediter-
ranean, and in all that distance have not
set eyes upon square mile of territory
| where forest, stream, vale, and habitation
of man or beast, blended in the perfection
of harmony and repose, such as can be
| found in ten thousand spots IN New England,
ten times ten thousand in old England, and
ten times that number throughout the whole
of our own loved land. Rivers are torrents
tearing through grimy and unshapely crags,
| or streams of chocolate-colored putridity
| pushing through verdureless valleys to the
sea. Valleys, save in rare instances are
| lonesome reaches of leaden land, with no
marks of the husbandman's home-love care
and thrift that tempt, despite sterillty, the
sheltering thicket, copse or orchard.
Mountains are either fearful and forbidding
| peaks, shattered by volcanic action, or
against steel blue sky. Desolate moors.
objectless steppes, immeasurable morass and
| waste, complete the desolation upon which
the travellers eve vainly searches for restful
beauty and winsome loveliness in nature.
They are not in Spain.
THE sAD-FACED sPANIARDs.
|
cepting only the chestnut groves of Galicia,
seem to have been pounded back into the
earth by tempests of wind or pinched and
shriveled by simeon and sun; while the
much-sung olive groves of Spain, aside
from their trifing foliage of grayish blue
and green, seem hacked, gnarled and
twisted into shapeless detormities. Indeed,
| this characteristic of gnarledness shows not
only in the trees and shrubs, but also in the
very herbs OF Spain. I cannot understand
how the most sunny-hearted traveller can see
in such desolation, insufficiency and de.
| formity, aught but dreariness and sadness:
and, whether or not all this has had through
the centuries the effect produced by assimi-
lation of kind in taking brightness and
| sunniness from the countenances of the peo-
| pie of Spain, l do know that the average
Spanish face, in repose, has look both
| OF vacuity and dolorousness in it that sug-
| gests at first glance all manner of heart
tragedies.
have found peasant women sitting at
| their choZa doors, mountaineers resting be-
side winding goat paths, sentinelas pausing
in their beats, officers seated in their sad
| dies, business men for a moment alone
| frlars halting as if in meditation, and the
| fairest of Spain's fair women unconscious of
observation at their balconies, each enjoy
| ing good fortune according to their place in
world, and each with face so full of that
| which ordinarily bespeaks all but extreme
| anguish that one could not but feel sense
! of the keenest pity for the pathos there be-
held. Yet make any one of these conscious of
your presence; arouse them with music or
song; touch them with the magic of self-in-
terest, or social friction, or love, and the
whole body is at once in action, the entire
mental power is instantly marshaling its
nd uhota 10 hot
Gus and mysterious thing shining through
human eyes and giving play to every iinea-
ment of the human face, kindles and flames
into matchless radiance and light.
DIGNIFIED PEOPLE.
have never seen the subject discussed,
and only yesterday 1 asked an intelligent
Barcelonese about this sadness in Spain's
face and the faces in Spain. He was
Catalonian, Spaniard and an advocate;
three Kingdoms of egotism in one empire of
assurance. He shrugged his shoulders and
gravely answered; "Spain is older than
Palestine Her fair color is faded a trife.
Her people are grave and mournful in re-
pose because of the weight of their dignities.
Spaniards are the first and greatest of men,"
The answer will hardly satisfy everybody;
but the subject may be one of interest to
those who come after me in Spain.
There is one important advantage, in the
line OF information, which my tramping in
foreign countries gives me over the observa-
tions OF the precise and formal traveller. He
proceeds. with due stateliness from the lead
ing hotef of one city to the leading hotel of
another, where, barring triflng forms, he is
served with the same viands, prepared in the
same manner, even if he should make cir
cult of the globe. In my humber associations
perforce discover what the people of any
country eat, how they eat it, and, pretty
generally, how it is prepared. The people
of Spain are never gourmands. Save in GER
tain quarters in the great cities, the tables
even of the aristocracy are not to be COM
| pared in richness and variety of food with
those Of Americans in moderate circum-
stances. Practically, there are but two
meals each day, the desayuno or breakfast,
at II, and the comida or dinner, at or
| o'clock. In the houses of the well-to-do,
were you companion or guest, the breakfast
room and breakfast would seldom be found
more extravagant than this: The room has
marble and stone tagging, whitewashed
walls, and perhaps a tiny fountain playing
near the folds of the swaying cortina before
a vast, and often irou-barred, window. The
chairs will be of rosewood, mahogany or
ebony, straight, tall and comfortable; the
table is huge and broad; its linen is I'M
maculate and fine; while its plate is gro
tesquely figured and massive.
AN INFORMAL DINNER.
Flowers are often piled loosely on some
odd piece of plate, and not stif1y perched
before you. There will be few decanters
of wine; as many piles Of excellent crisp
bread; and, winter or summer, several plates
of fruit. Soup is served first. Meat and
vegetables follow; and then fruit and wine
al