Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1905-04-07
SUNNY LAND OF SPAIN
Artist Writes of Delightful Tour in the Home
of Mystery and Romance = Kindly Feeling
Everywhere for Americans.
Especial Correspondence.)

Spain is still land of mystery and
of romance, and to just what extent
one may venture within her charmed
precincts for sketching purposes is
vital question. among woman artists,
accustomed. as they are, to dare what
ever their brothers may for novel sub
jects and experience.
Spain holds no grudge against the
American. On the contrary, every
hamlet has its returned soldier boy,
whose tale of kind treatment at the
hands of American soldiers has
warmed the Spanish heart.
Their chivalry toward women still
partakes of the Don Quixote order.
You mustn't treat me SO politely;
I'm yankee, you know" said girl
10 Spanish officer at Granada. z
"Oh, no, mademoiselle, ladies can't
be yankees" rejoined the courteous
officer.
But the Spaniards are utterly I'M
used to seeing a woman alone upon
the streets, and they will follow and
duuOy dHyOHC uudltcuuCu. nv IHdttCi
how long she may have resided in the
country, no woman ever goes counter
to this custom, except in cosmopoli-
tan Madrid, which is quite as much
French as Spanish. Even marketing
has to be left to some old woman,
who cheats you to her hearts content.
But simple solution of the prob
lem for the artist Is to secure letters
of introduction to some Spanish fam
lily in the towns where one wishes to
work. Provided with guide in the
shape of even little Spanish girl one
may go safely about the streets in
southern Spain.
In Patios of Old Seville.
l have delightful memoirs of my
first sketching expeditions, following
my conductress. grave little 10-year-
old Nathalia. about the crooked
streets of quaint Seville. She was
greatly puzzled because | could not
understand her carefully framed
Spanish sentences, spoken with great
slowness and precision for my ben
eft, and she could not restrain peals
of laughter over my attempted re-
plies But her intuitions were quick,
and we comprehended one another
very well. Under her guidance |
found out many of the delectable pa
tics about which the houses are built
and which are the most picturesque
in all Spain.
In the humber ones you find per-
feet tangle of vines and flowers, with
the checkered sunlight falling on old
carved fountains and broken stair
ways. Here, with the outer door
locked, you may paint as securely as
in a castle, while models are ready at
your hand.
Any little maid will snatch up a
yellow silk shawl and fan, stick
flower in her hair and throw herself
instantly into the most fetching of
poses. Models are not everywhere so
readily found.
In Granada, where one is fired with
enthusiasm by the beautiful Moorish
types seen on every side, all efforts to
induce them to pose are rejected with
disdain.
Posing is for gypsies," scornfully
cry these descendants of the builders
of the Alhambra. They will scrub
floors and do any kind of housework
for pittance, but pose as an artists
model, never
The Granada gypsy is an interest
ing type, but ones path is beset with
difficulty in trying to make use of
him as a model. To go down to the
cactus covered hillside, honey combed
with the caves where these gypsies