The Republican journal., 1900-02-15

1t is blessed thing for poor old Spain
that fish are cheap and plentiful, other
necessaries being SO heavily taxed, and
the original price on all edibles doubled
by duties levied at the city gates. For
example, fresh meat, which is nearly all
brought over from Tangiers, bad at its
best, and usually spoiled in iceless tran
sit, retails from so to so cents pound,
The common people never taste it at all.
Chickens are from Is cents to 81. so each.
But in Cadiz one may always live we'll and
cheaply on fish. Everywhere along the
streets and ramparts are little open booths
in which you can get delicious fish meal
for few cents. The fish are cooked in
kettles of olive Oil, over charcoal braisers
When served there is no flavor of the oil
about them, or even greasy appearance,
but even and delicately Drowned as the
best chef at Delmonco's could do. The
oil is first cleared of any flavor by cooking
in it few bits of dog fish, which has the
same effect, known to Yankee house
wives, of potatoes cooked in burned lard,
the potatoes absorbing all taste and smell.
The proverb, Good sends meat and the
devil cooks" is of Iberian origin. The
Spanish word for cooking food-yuesdr-
sounds strikingly like disguise; and truely,
Disgusting anything edible. Cadiz has a
peculiar flavor all its own, in food as in
everything else. Its hotels are the poorest
imaginable, their attempted French cui-
sine modified by the savage taste of the
Visigoth. There are many cdsas de hus-
pedes, answering to our boarding houses
ronize rather than the hotels. All open
directly upon the busy streets, in full view
of passers-by on the narrow sidewalks,
which are always lined with beggars, to
whose outstretched, imploring hands the
soap of 'Od CASTLE" is manifestly a
stranger. Only two meals day are serv-
ed, breakfast and dinner; but as each occu-
pies at least two hours, and three or four
on occasions of ceremony-every dish of
the interminable courses being served by
itself-there is no time for any more. On
entering public dining room, though you
have never seen soul there before and
probably never will again, you salute the
room full by a comprehensive salaam and
an all embracing ''buenos dias," or 'bue-
nos tardes,' according to the hour; and
on leaving the room you bow again to the
remaining company and wish them ''Buen
provecho les haga V. V.'-''may your
meal profit you.'' Omission of this cour-
tesy is considered gross vulgarity. But,
somehow, Spanish politeness is a thin
veneer which gives out in spots. The men
always wear their hats at hotel tables,
women eat with their knives and openly
pick their teeth, and both draw water
noisily into their mouth and eject it ON
the floor when the meal is over
A delicious dish that is frequently serv-
ed in Cadiz-at least we thought it de-
licious until we learned what it was, is
called cangrejos. 1t is the fore claws of
crabs, that part of the animal only being
used. The coast marshes beyond Puntales
breed innumerable small crabs. Men,
women and children make business of
hunting them, tearing off the fore-l legs of
the living animal, and then turning it
loose, MANNED and suffering, to grow new
legs and be again and again dismembered
To be sure they are only crabs; but had
they voices, think what cries of agony
would rise to heaven from the Cadiz
marshes.
1t is no wonder that Spain has been
overrun with smugglers since time out of
mind. Heavy taxes ON the most necessary
food articles make living expenses SO very
high that the smugglers ought to be re-
garded as public benefactors rather than
law breakers. Neither city nor state de-
rives any great benefit from the imports,
for most of the money goes into the
pockets of petty officials; hence the snug
glers' trade appears to be the safest in the
country Everybody in Spain plumbers
everybody beneath him, beginning with
king and clergy, and so ON down to the
servants, who also have their servants,
who in turn take it out on their donkeys.
The distance from Cadiz to Seville is
about So miles by railway, and consider
ably more by the Granddaughter. I'm
sophisticated travellers may choose the
river route for the romance of the thing,
but they will never do it second time.
The only romance about the historic
river is its name-the Arab Wad- al keber.
C'great river'') pronounced in Spain
wah- del-ke-veer. The gray and turbid
stream is navigable as far as Cordova,
and barges of 100 tons may ascend to
Seville. The river scenery is of the tamest
-treeless plains, with hedges of 'prick-
ly-pear'' cactus; farther on, fields of
wheat and corn, and by and by the Vine
yards of Here's.
Going by rail, you come upon a novel
sight, just beyond the isthmus marshes.
Far as the eye can see, the whole land
scape is studded with small, snow
i