Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-09-02
Commerce Reports Add
Touch of Modern Progress
to Lines of Song.
Yet Lure Survives as Band
GreetS All Visitors With
BIare of Prosperity.
Valencia. in my dreams il always seems
| hear you softly call to me.
Valencia, where orange trees forever
Tempt the breeze beside the sea.

~ NY "~NN
valencia where orange Sss;d trees tbs forever Hsa
Commerce reports add a third line
to the now popular song which pro-
claims the Spanish city a paradise of
love and romance. The third line
! should be:
city hall and central market.
For Valencia has embarked on an
ambitious program Of public improve
ments, according to a bulletin from
the headquarters of the National Geo
graphic Society.
Songs Music Like City.
1.-The music of the song is like the
city" the bulletin continues. 1.-The
band crashes into the opening meas.
ures with every brass and every
drum, then levels down to a thin
little melody before it RECEIVERS cour-
age The city of Valencia greets the
visitor with a blare Of prosperity.
but the music changes and one
catches as an interlude and under
tone the refrain Of old Valencia
Moorish life, to which gardens were
. more important than cigarette fac
tories, has survived more strongly in
this third city of Spain, it is said,
than any other in the peninsula.
Darker eyes and deeper compilations
are met with on Valencia's streets
than in Barcelona, to the north. IT.
rigated orchards that are more like
gardens than grovesl still mark Va
lencia's countryside away from the
busy hub-bub of the port. The scent
bottle of Andalus' the Moors called it.
Spaniards know their city of 256.000
people as Valencia del Cid Thus
do they surrender the city once more
to the Cid, a Robin Hood bandit, who
Is quite lovable at a distance Of nine
centuries.
"A practice in harmony with the
old Valencia can be witnessed every
Thursday morning at 10 o'clock before
the door of the Apostles, main en-
trance to the 500-year.old cathedral
Here meets the Tribunal de las
Aguas, the Court of the Waters.
Holds Court Under Sky.
1.-THE tribunals courtroom is the
pavement, open to the blue SKY, ana
has been for five centuries. The
Judges bench is a sofa, upholstered
in green. 1t appears from some
mysterious hiding place. Following
the judges sofa comes the bar or
Justice, a portable iron railing. And,
can these men Judge? They have no
long black cloaks. They have no
wigs like the English judges. They
have not professionally serious faces.
They are dressed like peasants, in
Sunday black with black felt hats.
Indeed, they are ordinary peasants
elected by the peasant water users
of the Huerta or gardens OF VAL
encia's countryside.
Every American who has MAD any
contact with the furious contentious
which have marked the history OF
irrigation in the United States, will
he interested in the procedure and the
remarkable history of the Tribunal dc
las Aguas Of Valencia.
No Place for Lawyers.
".S'obri ell tribunal announces
nleasant official of the court. The
court Is convened. The plaintiff,
peasant, in person makes his statement
to the court. Any interruption brings
a fine. Then the defendant. also q
peasant, states his side of the case.
One Judge announces the verdict or the
court. There Is no appeal from the
decision. Neither the government
Of Spain nor of Valencia nave any
part in the court, yet they honor It's
acts. None Of its decisions IS ever re-
corded. No lawyers are permitted to
appear before the judges of the
waters. They are men who know
whereof they Judge. They know what
effect their rulings will have on the
families concerned. They use water to
grow oranges. olives and rice. one
who watches the judges depart, the
railing and sofa disappear, feels that
there is a finality in this justice IN
her;ted from the Moor Prosperous
orchards and farms throughout the
irrigation district give evidence that
II Is also successful justice.
"Papel v tinta poca justica. goes
the proverb of the peasant. Paper.
ink and little Justice"