SPECIAL ARTICLE

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18129, 19 July 1924, Page 11

SPECIAL ARTICLE

f DISCOVERING SPAIN. PENNILESS, * BUT BRITISH," (ByW-D'A-CEBSSWixL.) i Tnuiv in the morning a mist hunp Jftne river, and a complete still--21 which made our movements on Hank and our plunge into the dark ll„ water seem inaugural and Seeing the hilltops touched Stn%nt as we took to the road Sn, we endured the extreme chill.. X relish, well knowing the heat that 'United us, notwithstanding the mildness of the morning. . The beauty of the gorge in which *\ «e slept was not sustained. We soon '■" ~Lhed undulating, hilly country amid 2d. we travelled all day. It™ *ttered with sickly, afflicted-Joolung ♦Ls and more robust but almost Sonless cattle who raised their Lds and stared at us as we slunk tbreugh their territory, but never tested us. Loose, irregular wnlls of rtone divided up the country,' and our «o*d as might be espected in such apI propriate surroundings, was rfothing Jure than a track, that divided often caused us much perplexity. But in Spain the tracks divide only to join again, for the towns are so toxoe,, the country is so desolate, and water so infrequent that any show of a choke of destinations can only be a I pretence, a detour that is largely the I whim of your donkey. _ if 'Hour by hour we followed that C thread of dust, that dipped into hol'f' Jots and climbed hills and threaded h the charred, emaciated trees. Every- £♦' -where else was the staring, impene£~JTtrable*ky; and that was Spain; An ■' .inscrutable polish, sterile and' unreal .I$4S glass. All will know how, in such ifJa.Undscape, tne sparks-of one's aspir- > *§jng caught and flourished like a fire. kMOat, of the land that stretched like llfttbes to the Bky rose again the flames W*Qu& had lit the worjd and shown for U-a* moment, in the red of avarice, % strange forests and phosphorescent, seas. . , , . £&-' -That fire was thin: and nearly m- '■'' visible now, as flames are in sunlight f> ghosts of passion and madness that : between the trees and ;trem- - > tied where the hills were dim, in the ■ "nccamulated heat of great distance. ' ' Through this infirm mirage ran the threadof ourttractk t the only certainty ' for us who would discover Spain, until i «;nVtoo, would divide,, into „ several rtWling paths and.threaten us with -' bSWderment altogether. Such a ailenee as reins about us, as .txe'ftand and wonder, was never yet. i wflere comes someone towards us, a w£ oil a donkey, the beast needing tome urging and control at sight or ' Si and the man himself,, with tattered waistcoat,, dusty cotton trousers and fan" Afab-like feet, amazed, not to ' iay 'frightened at "every circumstance: tfAMMiva?" we ask. . } ,.Sjj«j£ Signor." And" he passes, to mh and regard us from behind, until ntfrfsfnotl- because ie-oares-Vthat he isi! 1 ttiMW^red- be - curious, Aut.because ' fte?is-himself -'\ a .* j^^oa^jJ^^weloo^'-Wii^astound-&>we stepped once, while the scattered » - forest was still about ue, and bathed I jfcur feetiin a little stream. ' v I, • ■:- '. /.•« ';■'."' ' fe-#l » 1" < «l*a tae Blest. reached Oliva, a collection #K« .crect-and ,stiffened dust that- filled in ihe Kills. .*"'•-'! IS*-'lt*wis as savage and repellent as it - -..,-, ,-,. i*M*' > y$ t erepJs.4nto a field of corn m where we shaved," dusted our If?! ctothes*. brushed our hair,, and put on **iJ&fr<4M goltistoekings. Our -position «^«as.^o, desperate foi foolery. , We had 1 - 'Jearnt already that in.jSpain the beg"ii gar 1 must fisg, and /not; talk:,,about ""■? abcidarta and a rich b uncle, -as he do in England. We, then, "jaurtrcease to look like beggars, since Wijinßt cash our notes, must; talk in' 1 of' bankß and customs in a ,z country. of, these, preparations ':■ we t i "met^latfirst' with humiliating rejecour road into the Vwbilto a dusty, impermanent looking " fromiwhose; surrounding, walls ~ i- seemed to obliterate all v _ distinctions. Here was a cafe, whose , l "- on the path; outside, and - |esd|'otib of these we sanS,. forgetting no cash; Crowds of idlers A, ?*-lan6netjiem, surrounded us. We were |k*|%itiab:\we ordered- them off! Do not # at ns, exasperated, hungry, us f/ J^fflov Would discover Spain. There was, |£*s|jmongßt others who. were •- sfiated, a &jHgung man in an incapable, crazy uni-

fcilp§£"A.rey° tta policeman, Signor P" I askhim, meaning that the crowd might i^^pe'cleared. -I jPtHe'rose and bowed and remaiKed: "1 * Everyone looked astonished. | v||why shouldn't hCbo a policeman i He J^liS 88 certainly something more outrageJss|raa~ He was a soldier 4 1 6 fi o ] o ou r letter and asked, 1 1 might that address be found '< s'%&*& waiter, dressed like a muleman, - **' *°d all surrounded him. One them, calmly extracted the letter >fr* d read it. With unintelligible sari':*wa'B.i iwnoved it, and sealed it beface. Something, being penm- * * us to this preposterous ' Jlfc??^* ur " * BVe Deen pen ll *! 6B3 * si noe J> earnest, and understand the ,NA*gnnlity-it brings. Letter in hand, we " e ; < " recte d to a pleasant, substan- [ mse » adjacent to the Plaza., r arid urchins, characteristic of I ) tigg nnspeakable town, swarmed at our r*' .«SU. 'lhey blocked the door-way and U ' audacious but silent, into the I TOy hall. Two glowering, suspicious &- I^*6 * 4 ?«t letter and thrust it fl *2!9. ** m gestures l&at were a f *s«ess negation I pi a iny * k?*"i. ""'"dered us a demonstration," Bytthe worst elements of Ohva; that ]o£L?s' '' oie we wanted, it " tf"y Wte awa y- "Tramping auwut « of breia » M they seemed to ' tRLL. a 0 *** mad uengerous." %to& they both disappeared and closed * door. If £?*&*& hut desperate, we seated ourI „ . W**!** *» 000i > alluring hatfj after ¥ '* I-Jb&SIISJ?* 8 * -A* any moment the gentle»j4* -JSSfTT* 8 ;!?" 1, H» co«ld not be far; be unbearable. Suddenly f •p^7i* t * 0Bl «» came back, angry ana exta tiou g' a they would drive Lv^^fa? 1 ? 111 «»' nou *» whicn indeed they SWsSp **» doors and waving us "©» 1*? 6 * ol * B * finallt y and ridiSrw't ' somehow--it is not me#3 \TSfi* t I*** me » for M ba P" I l^*^* 1 -*? *« at town was as bewildering .* ??J??^ en aa it is now—somehow we "were ®d and admitted to another b»S*?9B»s»<' to a little room where we sat ^ d searched our dictioh§9&&{* WS r *. »ornber of perspiring, one oi whom, we were J married *to the man we

sought. Bat he was away and would noteoan-b* back, we learnt at last. "Could we telephone?" No; for some reason, no. "When would he be Uackr Oh! a? long it seemed like never. A Letter to Heaven. But we were penniless. T7e «s*£ move from this t«» notes were recognised "Could we write, Signora? Would ne answer?" The fans about us kept SriSg in turn and then shutting Wi Oh, a it n w P as so far, so far away. "Is he in Heaven?" I asked, after a scuffle with the dictionary. "He is in Huelya. •Porconeo; si. buen! buen!" They brought us pencil and paper and I wrote » say ing that we carried a letter f»« £w friend in ViUanneva, and dejenbing the manner in which we were strandal ,'n Oliva I begged that he would 'answer at once wTth a letter to someone in o'iva who might «««*«•" seemed .<uT we could do; and there was hope, as he was a man of some culture, [ could see, by the. bookshelf at my back, from which his wife produced pride a substantial English dic--10 that we should call the next day and Ine next until there should that night in a Posada that was shown us by some of the urchins who followed us continually. A cavern it was. below, in which was cooking and eating and sleeping and harnessing of mules. You entered by great shambling doors, as though once in Spain they built for giant needs that are now no more; as thoiigh the chickens and mice and pumpkins of modern Spain were the shrunken litter of Cinderella, the Palace and the Prince. So much in Spain, cathedrals, gardens, traditions, the very landscape itself, is a towering, deserted structure beneath which men have thinned and shrunken to the stature of "bright, inquisitive mice. Men there, you TeeT, as you stare through the enveloping gloom of the posada towards the great opening of the doorway to the street, that is like a proscenium set with bright scenery, men there are the puppets of some magic that once made them giants and may mate them so again. A Meal at Last Above that cavern, from which you climbed, a steep, dark stair, were a number of plastered, shuttered rooms, some containing hay, some strings of onions, some few sacks, and a blanket. In one that was quite empty we asked if we might sleep and be served with food. s After much hesitation the woman agreed, and that night we had eggs, bread, cheese, grapes, and wine. We rolled in our blankets on the floor and slept there, preferring this to any bedding they might have offered us. We must have amazed them deeply, for next day they would never leave us, crowding into our room, women, girls, and swarms of boys, in the least pretext of bringing something we desired. To a Britisher, trained to aloofness, the intrusiveness of Spaniards is at first appalling. From the street the urchins threw stones into, our room until we were obliged to close the shutters and sit in darkness. We were a spectacle and a joke in that town. To escape them, we left and explored the narrow, cobbled streets for a while, that would confine us inescapably to doorways, vegetables, darting children, and donkeys coming in and out v and then eject us into 'some gully, some' pit'of rubbish and rooting pigs, with' the burning, brown hills beyoncL We returned, to encounter a grave dilemma. There wad no lunch for us, it seemed, and the woman would supply us with nothing more without cash The iustiee of her position did not mend the danger of our own. We held a council of war upstairs, where the family, it seemed, bad been examining; out belongings, blankets, dirty shifts, and socks without heels, that declared us half soldiers, half tramps. ... .. .;inust be invoked; we 'iriust take ourselves to the presence of someone responsible for order and preservation, the police, the Mayor, who would see -that starvation and death was not our normal lot.

I prepared some sentences, ,in execrable Castilian, that began politely, and <a||pealingly enough, but in•creased in assertiveness in case of need, and even ended in peremptoriness and a threat. 'Usted debe por haoerlo. de aloiin modo; es su debef de: TJstod;" .-Then lastly, ' "Ent6nthes yo quejarme .«1 Consul Ingles en Madrid." (I have the paper yet.) Then, followed by a thrilled and expectant crowd, from whom we had enquired for the office of the Alcalde, we climbed some steps and knocked. But the Alcalde was not within, and an appointment was' made ; for us at four, at, which hour we returned. r■■-:--. - The Stayor's Joke. The Don Raphael, was grand and distant but decisive. Standing before his desk I read him the first sentences about our predicament, while he gazed at our bare knees and dirty boots through most majestic eyeglasses, and half the town' stood tittering behind us. We were not, I said "Mendigos'/; -we were Englishmen who walked for "sport": (no Spanish equivalent); pur notes were good. '.''.[■: • I had no sooner begun than I realised that all the. idlers and urchins who bad joined us in the street wero behind me,, and "more were pressing in, through -the'.grand doorway, against

the calendars, the memos, th» proclamations, under the very arms of Spain —that rabble.; Don Raphael, policemen rio one seems to mind. Before'that delighted audience you must speak your broken Spanish; You consult your dictionary. "Have I," you say indignantly, "an appointment with Don Baphael or with the population of Oliva!" There is a noise" and a stir, as though the police are clearing the room; but the crowd merely shuffles and remains. There was no bank here, no bank, "said the Mayor at last. But in Jarez there was a bank. He would send us to Jarez in a car, with a letter to the Mayor.; (It sounded fine!) But the car—the costl We had no means yet. ,- That was to him, and the hotel bill. It was nothing. He smote the air with his glasses and glared at us. - Ruined and dark he was. We seemed to irritate him intensely. "Does an Englishman" his gestures cried, "think it incredible he should starve?'* "We believed, as we left, that wo were to be sent in car to Jarez, with n letter to the Mayors We pictured ourselves being handed on from Mayor to Mayor, none able to cash our notes, crossing Soain for nothing, jit the expense of* the nation. For, of course, these Mayors would, have endless ways of recuperation. When one remembers the stupendous and unnecessary new post office in Madrid, the largest in Europe, a debacle of vanity and extravagance, second only to the sunken naw, when one remembers how it was recently the means of enriching an official by an estimate for a thousand brooms a week that were never use! and never needed, then one need have no fear that,, the Mayor of Olivalost money by getting rid of us so grandly. The wily old fox! ' We -were a problem he had no intention of facing. And "why should he have faced it? With a plausible, magnanimous gesture with a grandeur befitting our sentences, and an inward merriment that must explode-him to this day, I am certa in he P*** 6 * l ." B off > .**"" miles out of our route/ with an introduction to the most ineffectual, aimless booby in the whole of Spain, the Mayor of Jarez, on whom, rather than on us it willhie instantly■ perceived, Don Raphael played this incomparable J °'- * - (To Be continued.) -