Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1901-10-24
IRONTON. NO. THURSDAY. OCTOBER "a. 1901.
In Old Madrid.
MADRID. Sept. l, 1901.


My Dear Friefds.-It is hard to keep
things definitely in mind here in Spain,
where there are such hosts of new i'm
pressions coming in every hour; and
what is very trying, we can get no
photographs that satisfy us. The at
tention we attract is rather startling
sometimes. / was SO amused at we'll
dressed couple this morning. The
young man was taking notes as we
drew near, and his face was getting
more and more amused, but just as we
were about to pass, and his best view
point reached, he had to sneeze.
Several women with orphan children
followed us about last night, wailing
in a plaintive way. They even fol-
lowed US into the drug store. A very
friendly Spaniard asked If he could be
of use to us, and interpreted "soda
mint" to the fat old clerk. The Prado
museum is fascinating. There is one
pictures. Then he has others in other
rooms. His coloring is very fine, and
there is such variety in his work.
His portrait painting is superb, but it
is no finer than some of the mytho-
logical and peasant scenes. That is
the best you get from the gallery, it
seems to me-a new star to add to the
list of great painters. Then you get a
broader view of Murillo. Some of the
lovliest things are here; Gamma teach
ing Mary" or the Training of the
Virgin" two beautiful pictures of the
Immaculate Conception, and those
children, St. John and Jesus. He has
three distinct kinds or periods of paint
ings that are represented here. To-
day was free day, and there we're
lots of ..natives" in the gallery of
every class, except the incest, 1 should
judge. Madrid, except for a few
shops aud galleries, is decidedly un-
interesting; such contrast to Seville,
which is attractive in every side street.
The Alcazar is marvel of color work.
1t makes something of the impression
of Sainte Chapelle in Paris with the
stained glass, axcept that the color
effect is obtained through tile work in
the lower walls, and through painting
on stucco work that looks like carved
marble on the arches and upper walls
and sometimes the ceiling. Tapestry
used to be hung on the walls between
the border and the tile work, but now
it is simply whitewash. Very often
the tiles had the coat-of-arms of some
king or city. The arches in the Alca-
zar are the cusped Moorish ones, and
often we got long views through
several sets of rooms out to bit of
green in the garden. In Seville every
woman we saw had some flower in her
hair; usually a tube rose or white
daisy; some times pink roses or red
geraniums; twice we saw great mari
Colds. Seville was interesting. The
donkeys covered with baskets of fruit.
the markets where awnings were
stretched very high from one side OF
the street to the other, and the milk
shops in which the live cows were
kept behind the counter and MIXED
ON demand.
1t has been rather warm, and several
have lost the keen edge that has been
on their appetites all summer. This
is great distress to the walters here
in Madrid, who can not understend a
word of English and insist upon help
ing you to everything. | shall try to
write once more at Granada, but may
not be able to. CLARA MAY.