Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-07
FOUNDED BY SC|P|0
The Old Roman City Italica,
Near Seville.
A VISIT TO THE RUINS
THE BIRTH AND DEATH PLACE OF
CoRTEZ, THE CoNQUERoR.
Prosperity Attained by the Moors-
The Splendor of the Alcazar-Tem-
porary Home of Royalty.
A VISIT TO THE RUINS
BY WILLIAM z. CURTIS.


Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star and
Chicago Record Herald
SEVILLE, Spain. November 81, 1903.
We rode this morning over dreadful
pavement laid several hundred years ago,
and by appearances never repaired, to the
old Roman city Italica. whose mute but
majestic ruins witnessed a succession of
exciting events since it was founded by
Scipio Africanus, nearly 600 years before
Christ We passed through the gypsy quar-
ter called Triana, where Murilo is said to
have spent much time sketching peasant
girls for his pictures, and stopped for
moment at the spot where tradition says
that Saint Rufina and Saint Justina were
making cooking pots when they were stoned
to death for refusing to kneel to a statue
of Venus Near by is church with the
curious name of Santa o., for which l
was not able to get an explanation.
The road is rough, but the journey is in
teresting for you have chance to the
peasants coming into town. to watch the
groups around the wayside inns. and the
children swarming in the cutters over
their simple sports. Children are alike the
world over. and you find them in the south
OF Spain playing the same games in the
same way as those of northern Iowa.
The Mule Carts.
The Andaluslan mule cart / a formidable
institution with two wheels, eight and ten
feet in diameter, and long body, without
SIDES upon which the load is fastened with
ropes. Two, three and sometimes four big
mules are hitched tandem, and (An6alusia
Is famous fol It's muies) with a diminutive
donkey leader that is called the papa of
the tenn That's another custom l could
not find an explanation for. The biggest
animal is put between the shafts and gets
all the ticks and abuse, but it's fate Is para
disc compared with the WheelerS in our
mule teams. Spaniards are supposed to
be a very cruel people, but they are in
variably kind to animals, and you seldom
see horse or mule beaten. The drivers
have whips that make a report like a re-
volver when they crack them, and IL you
are not looking you may mistake it for a
blow. but the lash seldom touches the hide
OF the horse.
Italica in It's Glory.
In several respects Italica was the most
magnificent of the Roman cities in Spain,
with villas. palaces, baths, aqueducts tenn
pies and amphitheaters and Scipio built
great hospital there for the wounded and
sick soldiers brought home from his cam
paign against the Carthaginians. The ruins
extend over large area, the most conspic-
uous pile being an amphitheater built on
the same plan as the Coliseum at Rome.
for the same purposes. and almost as large.
The arena, where many a gladiator and
Christian martyr faced wild beasts, Is oval
In shape. 291 by 2O4 feet; so you can mag
Inc how large the structure must have been.
Below 1t are underground passages similar
to those of the Coliseum. leading to dun
geons for prisoners and dens for animals,
and there were arrangements for flooding it
when nautical play was to be given. This
splendid ruin was almost perfectly pre-
served until 1922. when an idiot of gov
ernor of Seville had most Of the walls
pulled down to get ma terial for building
purposes. which he might have found equal.