Evening star., 1903-11-16
WAYS OF THE PEOPLE
Madrid Differs From Many
Other Spanish Cities.
Is AWAKE ALL NIGHT
THE THEATERS STAY OPEN UNTIL
EARLY MORNING.
Peculiar Plan Upon Which Places Of
Amusement Are Conducted-The
Opera Season--Bun Fighting.
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.


Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star and
Chicago RecordHerald.
MADRID, November O. 1908.
The Madrilenos are the greatest folks
you ever saw for sitting up nights. Busi-
ness Is usually suspended for two or three
hours in the middle of the day for a siesta.
which Is the practice throughout all the
Latin countries. In the old-fashioned cities
and towns all the shops are closed at noon;
the tram cars stop running, and the streets
are entirely deserted between - and
o'clock, and you would as soon think of
calling upon a man at O'Clock In the
morning as between those hours.
Madrid, however, is an up-to-date city.
1t has all the modern Improvements, the
latest fashions from Paris, and all of the
fads, and the people in a great measure
have departed from the customs of their
Castillian ancestors. You can usually
catch a street car and find cab at noon
day, and the big shops keep open. but the
streets are more lively and noisy between
u and o'clock in the night than they are
during those hours in the day.
Are Great Night Hawks.
All night long; almost until daybreak,
we who live in the downtown hotels can
hear the rattle of wheels over the stone
pavements, the shuttle of feet upon the
sidewalks, the chatter and laughter of
people passing, the cries Of the peddlers
and the newsboyS and the men, women and
children who sell lottery tickets. The hand
organs were playing upon the street at 3
o'clock this morning; an old blind man who
blows flute at the corner below the hotel
keeps 1t up until O'Clock, and two orches-
traS of blind men who stray about from
place to place and perform melancholy mu-
n {l6n Of ha oil a md
before the entrances of the shops do not
give up their game until almost daylight.
The beggars stay till the last, and they are
as numerous here as In Constantinople.
Nearly 100000 Beggars.
According to the census statistics of 1895
there are 91,227 professional beggars in
Spain, of whom 81 ,94S are women. In some
Of the cities beggars are licensed to carry
on their trade. Seeking aims is recognized
as legitimate business, and the munich
pality demands percentage upon the col
lections. 1 believe that Seville Is the only
city In the kingdom which forbidS begging
upon the streets. In some Of the other
towns beggars are allowed to come out
and run full blast one day in the week,
perhaps Friday or Sunday, when the streets
swarm with them as they go from house to
house, sometimes on horseback, and l have
heard people declare that they went in car
riages also In Madrid there Is no restric-
ton, and no license, and the streets are
lined with them. Some pitiable cases Of
deformity and distress, but others are ap-
parently fakes, and the natives will tell you
that imposters resort to very ingenious
methods to deceive the public and excite
sympathy.
A little girl, with beautiful eyes, but
death-like pallor. hollow cheeks and every
evidence of consumption sits in the door
way opposite our windows in the hotel, and
Is seems as If she never slept. She is sell
dom absent We can see her crouching
there early in the morning, with her
shrunken hand, with fingers like the claws
of an animal, stretched out to everyone
who passes. Her shrill voice awakens us at
all hours of the night. Beside her is an old
woman who sells lottery tickets. Her voice
is stronger, but not so shrill as the child's.
They seem to have understanding alter
ting with each other in their cries, and
think perhaps they may be mother and
daughter. They are not unusual You can
see such pitable creatures in any city of
Spain or Italy, and the strange part of 1t Is
that they appear to be at their posts all the
time. When they sleep or eat is mystery
They were there yesterday morning at
o'clock when l awoke, and went over to
close the blinds. and three or four hours
later saw them again.
Popularity Of Madrid.
But it is a popularity of this city that
people seem never to go to bed You can
not look out up the great square called
uSA
bodies and the loafers of Madrid at any
hour Of the night without seeing 500 or 600
people standing idly around, smoking Gig
arettes. talking politics and gossiping with
each other, evidently without the slightest
Intention of going to bed; while the ped
dlers, as a matter of course remain also
and are moving around among them
Human streams continue to pour into the
square from the side streets until daylight
and disappear IN other directions. Coming
home from the theater at 1 or In the
morning the sidewalks are overcrowded
You can meet women carrying children in
their arms, or leading them by the hand
as If they were returning home from some
pleasure trip or from paying a visit The
cafes are open all night, and the theaters
have plays beginning as late as Il 80 in the
morning.
Performance in Installments.
The theaters of Madrid are conducted
upon a peculiar plan, which is called the
"tanda." "genero CHICO" or small play
never more than two acts, and usually a
comedy or broad farce based upon the
everyday life of the people. Is given for
an admission fee of l pesata-25 cents in
our money. The performance is divided
rode at his side. Hear words of fate!