The Challis messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1912-current, 1924-12-24

sque at Cordova.
which nibble even as they cross plowet
land. The good-natured herdsmen
with their rough coats and skin trou
sers, have not much changed since Dor
Quixote's day.
Madrid and Toledo.
Madrid Is a well-built, modern city
with busy offices and bustling trolley
cars. 1t depends upon the govern
ment, tourists, and society for it's sub
sistence. Its picture gallery, in the
Prado, Is the peer Of any in the world
and must be visited by Students OF
Titan, whose paintings here pre-
served rival those Of Velas4wez.
A greater attraction to the populace
is the huge bull ring, seating nearly
$1,000. On Sunday afternoons gay
throng gathers there; the bull-fghters
march out in their brilliant costumes,
and the ceremony of Staying the bull
begins. 1t is almost ritual, and ev-
cry detail must be punctiliously OBJ
served.
Not far from Madrid lies Toledo,
the ancient Visigothic capital. The
Tagus flows about it in a deep gorge
on almost every side. High above the
old mills looms the Alcazar, the one
time castle, now a military school.
Toledo is a fascinating city, with mar
row, winding streets, and shops where
one can still buy Toledo blades, tenn
pered in the Tagus, and inlaid with
gold.
At Cordova one enters southern
Spain, with its highways bordered
with aloes and prickly pear (both
American importations, like tobacco,
maize, and potatoes), and its groves Of
olive trees. A thousand years ago
Cordova was the intellectual and ar
tistic center of western Europe; its
university drew students from every
where, and its products, especially
leather (cordwain, |. e., Cordovan),
were famous. Today its narrow and
sunny streets, with their picturesque
churches, seem deserted; but the ca
thedral chapter has preserved one me-
mortal of past magnificence in the
Moorish mosque, the greatest Moham-
medan building west of Mecca.
The mosque itself Is a forest of
pillars, which divide the huge, low
building into a score of naves. There
are over 900 Of these columns; some
were sent here from the East, mates,
nf Of ha Of
for his palace at Aix-la-
Chapelle. Those were the days of
Haroun-al-Raschid and the Arabian
Nights; but the splendor of Cordova
rivaled that of Bagdad. Abderrahman's
palace-far more sumptu-
ous than the Alhambra, to judge from
the descriptions of the Arabic histo-
rians-has persisted utterly; but the
or prayer inches, in the |
give some Idea of the beauty |
If Cordova at the height Of her glory.
Romance of Granada.
Granada, long decaying provincial
,ity, Is now alive with trolley cars fnd
electric lights, and tourists are so COM
non here that the small boys have
wen learned few English words with
which to coax away small coin. But
he herds of goats, and an occasional
ow-an economical milk delivery sys
pastoral touch to the town.
Granada lies at the point where the
)arro and the Xenil, running down
rom the mountains. unite as they en-
er the fertile plain Of the Vega
Ibove the city rise the foothills-one
rowned by the Alhambia-and be-
ond them the snow-capped ridges OF
he Sierra Nevada, 10000 feet higher.
iranada has, therefore, 9 singulariy
eautiful situation, and II enjoys a
lid and agreeable climate. The 70
lantic interest Of Its history com.
letes the spell. Here was the last
aracen court in western Europe; here
ISABELLA Of CASTLE, with the money
,aned her by Spanish Jew. financed
ne Genoese adventurer's foolhardy
uest here Ferdinand and she, In that
anne momentous year of 1902, decreed
,e expulsion OF the Jews from Spain
nd here their ashes now repose, IL
he great Renaissance cathedral which
ley built in gratitude for their til
mph over Islam.