Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1896-10-17
PICTURESQUE RoNDA.
Spanish City on Cra- Where the Peo-
pie Are as Savage Their Home.

A Spanish City on a era. Where the Peo-
pie Are Savage as Their Home.
Then he went to Ronda, which is a
dream of picturesqueness. There is in
,ongruity in the thought that you car
make the journey thither as simply as
if you were going from New York to
Philadelphia. The town, as J. walked
through it, seemed commonplace at
irst-commonplac that IS, for south
ern town, where one accepts rlarvels IF
,olor and light as matters of course.
His impression was one Of awful glar
ing heat: of donkeys, and donl<eys, and
more donl<eys everywhere; of little low
houses SO white that one could hardly
look at them; of glimpses into long,
cool entries, where people were forever
standing waiting for an inner door tn
open. And then, suddenly, there be-
fore him was the bridge flung across
that wonderful chasm-the bridge that
Joins old to new Ronda; the bridge that
80 many artists, since the days of David
Roberts, have tried to draw or paint,
Iespairing even while they sought to
record the strange, almost exaggerated.
picturcsqueness of the wild mountain
gorge, with the little white town look
ing down so fearlessly from its dizzy
post.
There is something in the contrast
that seems to suggest-but with diff
ference-the gay villages that nestle SO
confidently at the base of Nesuvius. The
:trangest part of it is that until one
comes to the bridge one does not know
except from the guide book, that the
gorge is there at all. Who could sup
pose that the river, apparently at least,
would force its way through the very
MI hos arf nf he There
is a little Alameda, where one can stand,
leaning against the railing, and gaze
1own for I do not know how many
thousands of feet. 1t is here, of all
places. that one realizes the awful
height of the precipice; but it is from
below that one sees the marvel best and
most comprehensively- far below.
where one can follow the windings o.
The white road along the very edge of
the cliff, and under stately white gate
ways, and look to the bridges hanging
in the air. as it were, across the roaring
stream, as fantastic and unreal and en-
RANGING as any Arabian Nights picture.
1t is only as it should be to find the
people as fantastic as their high-built
town-so grisly and ghoulish, indeed.
that It is hard to talk about them;
savage in their manners that they
quickly away and back to civilization.
When anyone comes to draw the great
bridge from the appropriate point be-
oeath, the sport of the leading citizens
is to gather in crowds upon it,, and
throw stones upon the rocky hillsides.
starting an avalanche which makes the
artist who has been foolish enough to
90 there drop his work and run for his
life. Still, 1 suppose, one must pay
somehow for the privilege of visiting
the most sensational place in Spain. Its
wonderful position, it's magnificent
bridges, its beautiful little valley.
where the finest fruit in Spain is grown,
its encircling crown of sierra, make up
20 a certain extent for the discomfort
III staying in it's horrible boarding
house, among the savage brutes of it's
oopula tion--Elizabeth Robins Penneu.
in Century