The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-08-21
PROVINCIAL SPAIN.
improvements Amid Decrepitude and
FiIth-Pigs in Possession.

From 1.-THE Spanish People" by Charles
Edwardes, in Macmillan's Magazine.
Journeying, not long since, as third-class
passenger from Corunna toward Madrid, |
had for fellow-travelers six Spanish soldiers
invaded from Cuba. very remarkable
Austrian peasant in black jacket and knee
breeches the gloom of which was extraor-
dinarily balanced by blue satin waistcoat,
with large gilt buttons. and young girl,
friend of the Asturian. For hours was pre-
occupied by the peasant-he had such a
strong. quaint face. and so rare a nose. He
and the girl Ca modest creature, with the
beautiful pensive eyes one distrusts
fight took it by turns to sleep.
Her little head would nestle for an
hour on his capacious shoulder, and
her mouse-like noises (no one could call 1t
snoring) soothed the rest of U.S. But anon
he would shake her off and lay his coarse
cheek by hers. as if to make it plain to the
world with what a gross proboscis his par
ents had sent him forth into a world that is
not, as a rule, courteous toward eccentricity.
So it went on throughout the night. The
soldiers chartered of their wounds. their
aches and pains and of ''accursed Cuba"
They were not discreetly clothed, the blue
cotton jackets of Havana by no means
keeping them fifty warm in the cold morn
ing hours of the exalted province of Leon.
But--and this was the trait of them. after
in their favor-each of the six carried
clean OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES, and. indeed,
seemed as refined in his ways as noble
man.
Some of SPANS villages. to say nothing
of the towns are matchleSS in their COM
bination of CERTAIN modern improvements pie If
the decrepit and the filthy. The electric light
has established itself in many place where
a large proportion of the houses would be
condemned as unsafe by the inspector of an
English borough. and in which to pass from
the door of your inn (such an innD to the
rough middle of the street. you are COM
PEELED either to wade through a black stink
ing sewer, or to jump it. Likely as not, too,
you may see half dozen sallow little boys
~-sw ire
the banks of the sewer, with their bare toes
dabbling in its oo1e
If You want to see very rousing spec
tacle, you should. journey to the country
town of Puebla de Sanabria, among the
mountains of the Vierzo. The town is far
from a railway. but it is the capital of
district and occupies an impressive situa-
ton on a rock in the midst of the narrow
valley. When Senior Sagasta gives a BAN
S Soet 6s SENDS thl to town the for rO1
Otherwise it has now no national celebrity;
it's glorious old castle at the summit OF
the rock is barred up and left to decay az
leisure. But it is the pigs that give PueDia
de Sanabria its individuality. The towns
main street terraces upward. thorough
fare of supreme unevenneSs and from the
valley to the castle door you meet placid
recumbent pigs almost at every yard. They
lie about like the cats in the Lisbon streets.
and no one interferes- They sit on their
hams at the thesholds of the houses and,
when the whim seizes them. stroll into the
dwellings,. with curious little spasmodic
twistings of the .ail They even climb the
stairs. like the two-Iegged inmates. and
again when urged by the whim. take the
air on the agreeable old balconies above.
Thence from amid hanging creepers and
household crockery. their long. sIate-blue
shouts peer down upon the passer-by with
a critical air that is curiously offensive.
This mind you. not in poor little hamlet
like those OF Connemara. but in the chief
street of district capital of Spain. with
an assuming town hail close to she swine.
And vet no ore cares. The air here, which
ought to be as sweet and fresh as that
Of Skiddaw's top reeks with ordure In
other Spanish hafnlets one has to say BY
your leave 10 the bronzed porkefr and