CIGARETTES.

Bush Advocate, Volume I, Issue 41, 9 August 1888, Page 2

CIGARETTES.

-j ♦■ ■■ (" Puff" in the Press.) A pillar in the Cathedral at Seville collapsed, causing serious damage to the interior of the church ! That's rather small beer to telegraph all the way from Madrid ! Oh, I don't know ! It's far more interesting then many items of "news "we receive! The Cathedral of Seville is one of the grandest buildings in the world ! Do you not think it would be worth telegraphing if the dome of St. Paul's caved in, or the iron spire of Notre Dame tumbled down ? Yes, of course it would ! But somehow, one dosen't think of any Spanish church in that way ! No ? Why not ? The Spanish churches are the finest examples of Gothic architecture in existence, and. tho Cathedral of Seville is the finest of them all ! I always think of oranges or II Barbw'e, in connection with Seville ! Aye, Seville oranges are the best for marmalade, and tha. Barber of (Seville is immortal ! But the city itself is a dreair of beauty,, and crammed with historical association !

Is it a large place ? Like most Spanish towns is has been decaying for 300 years, but it still has 130,000 people, and is the fourth city of the Kingdom ! What are the first three ? Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia, but Seville beats them "all : for natural beauty, buildings and antiquities ! It's the show, place of all Spain ! Don't you # remember what old Tom Ingoldsby has,. to say on that subjeot ? ':'""' '■ ' • * J '" No, whoro ? I forget ! ■ It's in The Auto-da-f&, a Legend of, Spain ! Well, tell us it ! -I'm never tired of Ingoldsby ! . Let's see, how does it go? Where shall I begin ? Oh, yes — The Portugese say, as a well understood thing, " Who has not seen Lisbon, has not seen a good thing," — Whilst an old Spanish proverb runs glibly as under, '• Quien no ha vista Sevilla No ha vista marctvilla !" "He who ne'er has viewed Seville has ne'er viewed a Wonder !" And from all I can learn this is no such great blunder. In fact, from the river, the famed Quadalquiver, Where many a Knight's had cold steel through his liver, The prospect is grand. The Iglesia Mayor Has a splendid effect on the opposite shore, With its lofty Giralda, while two or three score Of magnificent structures around, perhaps more, As our Irish friends have it, aro there " to the fore :" Then the old Aloazar, More ancient by far, j As some say, while some call it one of the palaces Built in twelve hundred and odd by Abdalasis, With its hoise-shoe shaped "arches of Arabesque tracery, Which the architect seems to have studied to place awry, Saracenic and rich ; And more buildings " the which " As old Lilly, in whom I've been looking a bit o'late, Says " you'd be bored Bhould I now recapitulate ;" In brief then, the view is so fin.c and so, new, It would make you' exolahn, 'twould so foroibly strike ye, If a Frenchman, " Superbe !" — if an Englishman, " Crikey !" Good ! Very much bravo ! Yes,, the Legend of Spain conies back to me now ! I)o not those splendid verses about the martyrdom of the victims of the Inquisition come after "Crikey?"

They do ! They are about the best Ingoldsby ever wrote ! Bo repeat them ! I like to hear you reel off poetry ! Gee- whiz ! It's as good, as a jbook with a red cover! . Haha! Poor 1 , little Jeffie! No, dear boy, no more to-day ! I think we've lingered at Seville long enough ! Well, tell us all about this ! A French army officer has been arrested at Kiel charged with being a , spy ! Where the dickens is Kiel ?Is , it in Germany ? The telegram is \ from Berlin ! » • - . Well, Kiel is in Germany, — just . enough to swear by ! If everybody s had their rights, it would be in . Denmark ! Kiel is a port on the ; Baltic in the Duchy of Schleswig- \ Holstein ! Ah, that's the place which you ; said the Prussians grabbed from ! the King of Denmark in 1864 ! Yes, and the chief reason why ; they grabbed it was to get hold of Kiel I It gave Prussia a chance of I access to the open sea by an eas}' | canal ! Her own ports were all in ! the Baltic, and were very shallow, and shut in by ice for three or ■ four months in the year ! ' It waa a swindle, though taking i it ! | Downright robbery, nothing else ! The Danes made .a desperate 1 defence of Kiel, fighting behind a 1 big bank of earth like rats in a hole ! But it was no good ! The , Prussians were too many for them ! They seized the whole duchy and : made Kiel their chief naval station ! i And now the French are smelling round there ? It seems so ! In the event of war, Schleswig-Holstein would be one ' of Germany's weakest points, because it is assailable from the sea, and the French could use their maritime superiority ! They didn't attack it in the last war, did they 'r - No, curiously enough, they did'n't u'je their naval strength at all, except for blockading, which did'n't matter ! The reason for that has never been explained ! One theory i<; that they were afraid of torpedoes! But a much more probable one is that there was a secret understanding by which the Naval Powers agreed to remain neutral so long as the war was confined to the land ! But that would'n't be the case again ? No, just the other way ! If Russia and France had gone in together against the Triple Alliance, they would have depended a great deal on naval warfare, and Denmark would very likely have joined them! What will the Germans do with this French officer ? Will they hang him ? No, civilized nations only hang spies in time of war! They'll try him by Court Martial and if he can't give a satisfactory account of himself they'll give him a long term of imprisonment and make him so uncomfortable he'll wish they'd hanged him, !