New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-07-25
PROVINCIAL SPAIN.
IMPROVEMENTS AMID DEcREPITUDE AND FILTH
A TOWN WHERE PIGS HOLD IN
DISPUTED POSSESSION.
From THE Spanish People" by Charles Edwardes.
in Macmillan's Magazine

From THE Spanish People" by Charles Edwardes.
In Macmillan's Magazine
Journeyng MOI long since as adTd bad pf fer
fellow travellers six Spanish, soldieis hVallaeu u
in black jacket and knee breeches. the gloom OF
which was extraordinarily balanced by blue
SATIN g4 fep w'o Of he Asuan For hours
was preoccuped by the peasan-he had such
the girl Ia modest creature. with the beautiful.
pensive eyes distruss so aoom.naby after
little head would nestle for an hour on his capa-
cious shoulder and her mouseEke noises mo one
amen he would shake her off and lay his coarse
cheek By hers as II TO ii, aP no R had sn
him forth into world that is not. AS RUE, conI-
Out OUT the night The soldiers chartered OF their
wounds their aches and pains and Of of aseuT pi
cotton Jackets of Havana by no means Keeping
them t warm in the cold morning hGsrS ws oi the the
trait in them. after their politeness. taat most
prepossessed me in their favorLeach o, me sly
carried a clean pockethandkerchef. and, indeed
seemed refined In mis- ways as q nobleman
Some OF SPANS villages, 70 say nothing OF the
towns are matches in their combination OF GER
tain modern improvements and magnihce ntIy au-
ascogs Sd of ne sHf ihf many
place where large proportion OF me houses ~oun
Enrlish borough. and in witch to pass from the
door OF your inn tsuch an inno 10 me rough MD
through a black sinking sewer. or to jump II
Likely not. too you may see half dozen saiow
on the banks OF the sewer. with their bare toes
dabbling in its ooze. , ~
IL you want to very rousng spectacle you
should journey to the country town or Puebla de
The town is far from railway. but IT is the
capital Of district, and occupies an Impressive
situation a rock in the midst OF the narrow val
lev When Senior Sagasta gives banquet, he
sends TO the nelghborhood OF this town for trout
otherwise. II has now no national celebrity; It's
glorious old castle at the summit OF the rock Is
barred up and left 10 decay AT leisure. But II IS
tho pigs that give Pucbla de Sanahria It's indivd-
ualitv The towns main street terraces upward 4
thoroughfare of supreme unevenness, ana from the
bent pigs almost at every yard They lie about
like the eats IN the Lisbon streets ana no one IN
terferes They sit their hams at the thresholds
Of the houses and. when the whlm seizcs them.
mode twistings OF the tail; They even climb the
stairs ike the two-legged inmates. and again
when urged by the within. 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 n critical air that Is curously offensive.
This mind you not In poor little hamlet IKE
those Of Connemara. but In the chief street or a
district capital OF SPAIN with an assuming Town
Hail close 10 the swine. And yet no one cares.
The air here which ought 10 be as sweet and fresh
as that Of Skiddaw's top. reeks with ordnre IN
other Spanish hamlets one has 10 say by your
leave 10 the bronzed porkers and tinkllng goats
which block the thoroughfart but IN fueDla de
the way It is you who intrude their grunts.
ranging, from complaint TO challenge. tell you that
quite Enthusiastically II you attempt TO STIR them
either with your boot or your walking stick.
Its portal four life-szed granite figures two being
mailed crusaders and two lnterpretable at vent.
ure as ecclesiastics. Without wishing 10 be rude
TO Spain In the presepA, one may s1rm that ~A~A