The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-01-29
JOTTINGS
IN SPAIN
Tarn MeGreW Tells of
His Travels
There.

his journeyings in Spain:
Granada, Spain, Nov. 25 1903.
l think I last wrote you from Geron;
D about ten days ago. Since then, afte
very interesting but tedious trip, W,
y have been coming south and are nov
in Granada, directly under the famou:
Alhambra, on the slopes of the hill
| We first went to the Washington If
wing hotel here and afterwards came
over here to this private boarding
house run by a Welsh woman, Miss
Laird. Here we have the sun pour
ing in all day, an exquisite little ter
} raced garden, full of roses, heliotrope
geraniums, wisteria, bamboo, trained
orange and lemon trees and no end of
other flowers and shrubs such as we
have at home and in California.
This morning I am writing on the
| terrace under a grape arbor Below
me lies the town. the churches spread
out, the bells all ringing (the church
| bells ring all night and day in SPAIN,
occasionally the cry of a peddler selling
fruit. or bread, which he carries about
picturesquely on the back of cum
ming little donkey decorated with tas-
sells and bells
/ Al I wrote you Corona is beautiful.
The Old Gothic cathedral is a wonder;
the tremendous height and width of
| the vaulting make it one of the Won
| ders of architecture. My little knowl-
| edge of Spanish, interspersed with
| Latin, French, and a lot of gestures
| have made me guide for the crowd,
/ and at Corona 1 caught clever little
| choir boy who took us over the cathe-
drai from bottom to top, under the
| &c
| on the roofs, So that the construction
| was made clear to US.
In Barcelona also the. cathedral
| Gothic was superb, the carving on
| the choir loft wonderful and the
cloisters the best of all Outside of
that there is little to see excepting
few other buildings in Barcelona. The
Catalonians of the north are too pro-
gressiye and have replaced old build
ings by hideous new things-particu
larly in Barcelona.
There, by the way, they hate the
Castilians the Government, like Amer
leans do, and as one said, if the Ameri-
can fleet had appeared off Barcelona,
they would have been welcomed with |
open arms. The Government certain
~ is rotten, authorizing, protecting
even being a party to the rotten 1otter- |
les that keep the poor poor and fill the |
pockets of a few rascals. Between !
lotteries, the army, and the church, |
which has a tremendous influence,
there is little show for these poor peo- |
pie. Their superstition is wonderful. |
In all churches you will see men, wom- |
en- and children with their heads on the
ground praying before images They |
will spend their last cent for a wax
head (cure for headache), wax
breast arm, leg,-to hang on an altar
before which they pray to be cured of |
their ailments. And physically they /
are so rotten! At least one-third of
the lower classes are diseased. never |
saw so many blind, crippled people, |
and as for beggars it is terrible, par
ticularly here in the south. Children |
are trained to beg and are most per-
sistent, the gypsies worst of all.
Still, all is very picturesque and in
teresting. However, I wish the L. 5.
would take the country, rich in unde-
minerals, etc., and revolution
Ize things a bit The railroads are
awful, travelling only about % miles I
an hour, that is the fastest ones Eek I
press). Then, too, stopping at the
of the officers at the sta
tons. Then when they have finished Y
their chatter with the station agents, ,
their cigarettes, they ring small |
ldinner) bell and off starts the train. I
They are always at least an hour .off {
time.
Saragossa was very interesting the =
I'D Gothic cathedral with it's superb I
llabaster carving. The whole coro, or t
ahoir, a mass of carving, delicate as
ace, to height Of twenty feet. Then !,
gold and |
silver, hand embroidered brocades with r
iced pearls, etc. The other church.
onverted from an old Moorish mosque,
and very elaborate with its i
Renaissance, Picturesque interior-the Il
rison and palace where III Trovatore'' o
he opera is laid.
There was but one train from Sara (
ossa to Madrid. at 800 that night; no +
leeper, and, of course, the coolest day
re had had. We passed an awful !.
light, the four of us boys in one COM
artment with a fat sniffy old Span d
sh woman and her son, who had his =
air shaved over the temples straight
o the ear. We reached Madrid at
bout nine the next morning, leaving
here that night for Cordova. There
fas a sleeper on that train, however.
We rushed through Madrid as we will
ee that more carefully on our return.
IS We had the afternoon there, how
yer. visited the art gallery which,
} my mind. is superior to the Louvre
r S. Kensington. This gallery in
Iadrid is full of no end of wonderful
Iurillos, Velasquez, Van Dyks, Ru-
ems, whole schools of wonderful Dutch
nd italian painters. Near the gallery -
as a shop where many of the best
aintings We're reproduced on postal
ards. Cordova was our next stop
here the wonderful old mosque con-
arted in the fifteenth century into a
atholic cathedral, the tower and
smous court of oranges, then the
inns of the Alcazar, the old Roman
-idga etc