The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-07-11
CITY
OF SPAIN
Madrid a Place Of Vile
Climate.
WHY SITE WAS CHOSEN
Nothing to Recommend it Except
the Caprice of a Gouty
Former King.

MADRID. Spain, June 3O-From Tole-
do to the capital is only two hours ride
by railway, through some of the dreariest
scenery to be found in Spain. The first
glimpse of the Royal CITY. upon It's ele-
waited plateau faced with noble edifices,
is most imposing as the train winds
slowly toward 1t along lesser hillsides
But IL renders disappointment greater
when the goal is reached. for palaces
which show off with startling effect from
afar are found on closer inspection to
be bare and meager indeed. But there
are redeeming features. The snow-cap-
ped Guadarrama range forms a back
ground of which any city mignt be proud;
the atmosphere, free from smoke ana
haze, Is peculiarly full of light; and the
great parks of Madrid-just now at their
best in summer leafage-afford refreshing
contrast to eyes wearied by the bare
rocks bf Toledo and the dull. brown
LANDSCAPE ;between.
Strange, ris II not? how differently OBJ
jects appear to people from various AN
! giles of visioH?% While ali foreigners
agree that Spain couIu have hardly chos-
4 en- less desirable ste for her capital,
4 the Spaniards themselves lavish upon IL
extravagant praises. a hundred favor
lite sayings are rife. such as: ''SOlo mad
| rid IS corte," ''Donde este Madi.- calle
Ell mundo;" 'Desded Madr-- eI Cielo"-
lsignifyiug: "NIsUrid is the only court"
| W here Madrid is, let al the world keep
silent. Madrid Is but step from Heav-
en-" SeviIiians glor.fy their sunny city
of the Giralda with a couplet to the ef-
feet that Who has not seen Seville has
not seen a MARVEL but citizens of the
capital cap the climax by declaring '"W no
has not seen Madrid has seen nothing at
all"
This is what I..e Germans call a Resi-
denzstadt-meaning a town which has be-
come a capital from being the residence
of a prince. Gouty and dyspeptc King
Charles ", imagining that he found re-
!. lief from his sufferings in this sharp,
brisk air. and consulting only his per-
sonal comfort, deserted the time-honor-
ed capitals of ValladoI.d. Seville. Toledo
and Grenada (about the year 1540) to es-
; tablish his permanent residence here
on a spot which Iberians, Romans, Goths
: and Moors had all rejected. When cap
, tured by Alonzo Nv. in 1888. 1t was mere
; ly a Moorish fortified outpost of Toleuo
named Majarit-an Arabic word meaning
. current of air." Being surrounded by
/ dense forests, 1t was made a royal hunt
D ing residence. and nearly six hundred
years later Argote wrote of it as "a
Y good cover for boar and bear" Hence
[ no doubt, came the tree, vert, with g
= bear climbing up IL, which figures sc
4 conspicuously in the arms of Madrid
: The forests have long, long since disap
q peared, and not a tree, nor shrub, mol
4 blade OF grass beauties the environs o.
e the Spanish capital. Though the climate
may possibly have agreed with gouty
{ King Charles, 1t has certainly been thu
: death of thousands of better people. Onl,
faa r1< H.
4 of the advantages of high position, bu
Its unprotected plain-swept by ic!
breezes from the Monies de Toledo oil
one side and the snow Gua6arrama OF
the other. Is subject to the most rapi,
and violent thermometrical changes, ia
= tai to weak and consumptive constitu
= tionS and particularly to young children
} Its death rate is the highest of any Eu
lropean capital, averaging 10 per 1000. TIL
lSpaniards, who throw most gruesome a
+ well as trivial happenings into doggerel
have a couplet to fit even this condition
I-"El aire de Madrid es. tan sutil, Qu
mate un hombre. no apaga a un can
Idif'-signifying that so subtle is the al
OF Madrid 1t kills a man but will no
blow out candle. Twenty degrees o
difference in temperature is often no
: ticed In the atmosphere of the sam
70 street; on one side the sun, blazing dow
:, with tropical fury, seems to blister tn
n walls-on the other side. in the shade,
: damp chilliness penetrates to the yer,
n marrow In your bones. Anon the sky i
suddenly overcast, -eluge of rain falls
and an Icy blast sweeps down from tn
n mountains like a messenger of death
1t The natives wrap themselves in thei
" fur-lined, brown cloaks. pull their som
breros down over their ears, and thu
munled to their noses, wait till TIL
i. clouds roll by" In another hour tn
% sun may be out again with burning in
tensity and not a breath of air stirring
- The extreme heat of midday Is alway
l. followed by cold nights. and, naturally
e pulmonary affections are common an
IL fatal.
p Indeed. Madrid seems to possess not
J. single advantage of situation, except tn
IN fancied one of occupying the exact geo
III graphical center of Spain: and this hap
le pens to be the least accessible portion o
re the country, and therefore valueless 70
,r commercial purposes. SO difficult
III communication with Madrid that the cos
OF conveying merchandise here from tn
er coast is heavier than the freight fror
ia the coast to London. Almost every i'm
ig portant city of Europe is s.tua0i on tn
3 banks OF some stream: but the Mama
d mares, upon which Madrid stands. is
at dry channel the year around. Anon
ID many jokes concerning this waterless riy
he er. which some say flows bottom-sid
Is up Is that Madrid Is the onIy Europea
capital which has neither ''see'' nor riy
1s er-referring also to the singular fac
Te that 1t Is not an archepiscopal see an
SO possesses no cathedral. 1t Is related tina
r. when the French troops entered the cit
T. they exclaimed. What, has the river, TOT
Is run away?" To them is due the ep
g. gram, which yet clings to Madrid cor
he cerning Men without courage, wome
without modesty, and a river withou