Evening star., 1932-03-27
Continued From Third Page.)

own progress to realize that other coun-
| tries, too, were changing. American
automobile manufacturers have, per-
haps. noticed certain increase in their
South European sales; an American
| telephone company was engaged to re-
construct and modernize the Spanish
! telephone system. But most of us con-
tinued to believe that Spain, lying of
the main highways of travel, was still
the Spain of George Borrow ard Wash
ington Irving. Actually. Spain has
| changed more rapidly in the last two or
! three decades than has any other coun-
! try in Europe. Today there are more
modern office buildings in Madrid
Barcelona and Valencia than in any
city in France; these cities. no less than
New York, have their traffic problems.
Spain is no longer medieval state. but
| the youngest of republics and a modern
country.
| Remains the Same at Heart.
Still, despite such visible and actual
evidences Of change. Spain remains at
heart the same. The people in Madrid's
Puerta Gel Sol today wear clothes that
would cause no comment in London or
New York They are fully as noisy and
! precisely as busy doing nothing as they
were when George Borrow arrived from
Portugal with his muleload of Bibles.
The peasants from around Toledo still
come to the Tuesday market and lounge
/ in the Plaza de Zocodover as they must
have lounged in the days when Ger
vantes lived in the Posada de la Sangre
! a block away, and Cortez and Pizzaro
were returned adventures rather than
muSty names.
If there are five-ton trucks, buses
| and 1882 model touring cars on the
! highways of Spain, on the byways, at
least, the donkey is still king. A twen-
tieth century veneer has made Spain
into a country through which one can
travel with perfect comfort, but even in
Madrid one cannot help feeling that
the veneer is thin. And this, to a very
large extent, is responsible for the
unique charm Of Spain. There are good
hotels, but Seville is by no means
Miami.
In the less travelled provinces Of
France of Germany. of England, there
are still bits of countryside that remain
| in every sense unspoiled, and still GER
/ tain little towns that seem TO have
been forgotten by time and by the
world. But from the mountain wall
which rises 5000 feet out of the Bay
of Biscay, on the north, to the Sierra
| Nevada, which towers to $4,000 feet
behind Granada on the south, Spain IS
all unspoiled, all, In sense, sui generis,
and all, to a certain degree, timeless.
The French are fond of saying that
Africa begins at the Pyrenees They
are wrong; Africa begins beyond the
| Strait of Gibraltar, but between France
and Morocco lies something which be-
longs neither to Africa nor to Europe
and at the PyreneeS begins Spain.
One Is aware of this break, this
abrupt transition, almost from the mo-
ment that one crosses the frontier at
Irun. The France that one has left
| behind seems suddenly very settled,
very prosaic and very small. The
French train, even, seems small in COM
parison with the wide Spanish car
riages which await one beyond the
custom house. One fills ones pocket at
the exchange Office with the great
round silver duros of Spain, asks for
information, perhaps from the P. N. r.
interpreter (who is forbidden to accept
tips or remuneration of any kind) and
at length slides noiselessly away toward
San Sebastian.
Valleys Rugged and Magnificent.
After San Sebastian one begins to
climb up the rugged and magnificent
valleys which fall away on all sides
from the wide central mesa of Spain
"a thousand feet, two thousand feet,
three thousand. Abruptly the hills
level of, become treeless; the rich green
OF the coastal country fades gradually
to brown, to a streaked red and yellow
shading away at the horizon into a
hazy blue which even the brilliant
morning sunlight cannot dissipate.
Brown towns appear, sparsely scattered
over the rolling, deserted plain, each
crowned with the square tower of an
ancient church. One has reached
Spain. the Spain of Queen Isabella, of
the Conquistadores, of Cervantes and
VelasqueZ, a countryside spacious as our
own American Southwest, utterly unlike
France and Italy and England, coun-
tryside which can seem at times un-
bearably monotonous and at other times
incredibly beautiful, with a Somber and
magnificent beauty all its own.
| In the early afternoon pair of great
openwork spires rises up to puncture
the horizon of to the right of the train
I-Burgos, city OF that greatest of Span
ish heroes, the Cid. Two hours later.
Valladolid, where, under Philip II,
auto DATES were held-where, in 1906,
Columbus died, impoverished, dis
credited and alone.
Another two hours and, rising out
/ VI 1OChy waste, AN1ld, The
most astonishing walled city of Europe,
its 10 gateways and Sc towers still per-
feet and formidable. And, finally, Just
as the abrupt twilight of Spain begins
to fall, one sees, crowning great spur
of the granite hills of to the left, a
colossal square block Of gray masonry,
somber, forbidding, mysterious-the Es-
corial palace monastery and tomb in
one, reared by Philip II 80 miles from
nowhere, perhaps the most colossal
monument to royal folly erected since
the imperial days Of Rome. Then,
under the starry. crystal sky of CASTLE,
one reaches Madrid.
There IS the usual clatter Of taxis
outside the Norte Station. One rattleS
up the PaSeo de San Vicente much as
one ratified seven or eight years ago, |
and suddenly realizes that the enor-
nous hulk off to the right is the Royal
Palace, and that the Royal Palace is |
dark. Then, for the first time, per-
haps, one remembers that even Spain |
has changed.
And Spain has changed. A king no
longer salutes the royal guard at IL |
sharp from the balcony of the Plaza
de Armas. The signs posted up on the |
palace during the hectic days of the
revolution CPeople of Spain, this |
building belongs to you: Respect it") |
are faded, but still there, and the
Cortes (Congress) building, which had |
been empty for six years, is crowded |
now with the elected representatives
of the Spanish people, deputies su-
premely conscious of their new re- |
sponsibility and supremely anxious to !
prove to the world that Spain is, in |
intelligence, if not in population, first
class power.
No Longer Expensive.
Yes. Spain has changed 1t was ex-
penSiye in the old days, but no longer.
At quiet and comfortable little hotel
hardly more than a block from the
city's center, the proprietor tells us that