SNAPSHOTS IN SPAIN.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10628, 3 December 1910, Page 6

SNAPSHOTS IN SPAIN.

AT SANTIAGO, THE CITY OF A DREAM. (By G. B. Burgin.) You can find out easily enough for yourself about Sant lago, and how his body arrived in Galieia in the early centuries and drew pilgrims from all over the world to liis shrine. His sepulchre was revealed to pious Bishop 'i'heodimir of lria; and Alonso 11. commanded a chapel to be built over the saint's grave—a chapel which gradually grew into the magnificent cathedral of our own times. As a special favor, wo were taken, down into the crypt to see the saint's tomb, and the youngest and cheeriest member of our party, who is not greatly overburdened with' Scriptural knowledge, said: : "Saint James buried here! Who's he?"

We'told him to go back to the hotel and read, up, but he was not to be im-pressed-even when the great censer, the biggest in the world, was swung for our benefit.' It ' used to be" filled with incense- in the days of the pilgrims who slept in,the cathedral, a much-needed precaution'for the purifying of the atmosphere. Pilgrims in those days were just as dirty in their habits as they are now. ■ *

; ' Half a dozen men brought in the huge censer while the High Mass was being- celebrated, lit its contents, then -hauled it to the ceiling, gradually increasing "the swing until it travelled ■ with fearful velocity right up to the ..i oof. Then it was gradually stopped and carried away, and. as a special .favor, we .were invited into the Relic House, and shown the ninth wonders of the ■ work!—gold vestments, fragments of holy crosses, wonderful paintings, images blazing with jewelsT—until we were satiated with them.

"They must be worth thousands," said the member of our party who had previously distinguished himself. "Thousands! Millions, man!" hissed our leader. "Those jewels alone!" . He-shook his head, and led us back to the hotel.

The youngest member of the party wanted to, get back to the hotel and throw bouquets to the pretty girls opposite. He confided his intentions to the waiter. "Ah, bah, senor," said the waiter, with a shrug of his shoulders. "You coom wiz me. I take you there." "Wait till 1 brush my hair," suggested our young friend, and the waiter waited, then led him up a dark, narrow stair, flung open the aoor, and announced without ceremony that a young English lord had come to present flowers to the senoritas.

The "young English lord" began an impromptu speech as the door opened. "Ladies, these humble offerings -" he said,, then started back, for an aquiline-nosed old man with terrib'e eyes, blandly bowed to him. "The senor wishes?" lie -asked interrogatively. But, greatly to the waiter's surprise, the senor fled down the narrow stair. "You mak heem ver sorry," the waiter explained. "He marry you to. the Senorita Inez. Why you run away?" After that, the young man ventured out only after dark. There was little sleep for any of lis. The cathedral bells chimed every few minutes throughout the night. ; Medieval watchmen stood hidden in dark doorways ready to prod us with their spearliko weapons. And up through the cracks in the pavement arose the "Forty well-defined and separate stinks" of the sewers, "making asseweranco doubly sewer," as the punster of the party explained. But a judgment overtook him, for that afternoon lie tumbled in the river, and had to be fished out and hung up to drv.

Our hosts took us into all sorts of learned and other places. At the hospital we saw the most beautiful woman in the world, her great eyes lustrous and full of fire in spite of her sufferings. When the golden-haired girl took took the rose from her breast and gently placed it in the sufferer's hand the great tears welled up in her proud eyes. She bent her head and kissed tiie hand which had given her the flower. . "Take me away," said the golden-haired girl. "I can't bear to see all this suffering." In the afternoon, by way of a change, we were invited to an asylum, where the youngest member of the party began to jolay with some huge billiard bwis? Jnst as he did so the guide unfortunately explained, "Eet ees a game onlee for fool mans," and the youngest member ot the party was henceforth known as the "Fool Mans."

In the market-place were stalls filled with the plates used by the peasantry — plates of generous size and gorgeous with old Moorish patterns. I laid in twenty, thinking that they would lighten up the walls of my study. t After many vicissitudes, I got them to within half a mile of my home in safety, when the taxicab man give his wheel a twist, and sent my portanteau into the middle of the road. There was an awful crash. "What's in it, sir?" he asked. "China!" I said disconsolately. "I've brought it hundreds of miles, and then you smash it all up for me." His countenance cleared. "China!" he said, as one whose mind had been relieved of some dread burden. "Only china! Why, sir, I was afraid it was whisky." But I "proticipate." Reader, if you have never tasted fresh sardines, hie you to the market-place at Santiago and eat your fill, for they have been taken from the sea that morning, and, their oiled and betinned brethren are but mockeries when compared with them. But go early, or you will come empty away, for the whole of Santiago turns out' in its desire to get first choice. •

Despite the smells, Santiago is a city of dreams, from the giant magnolias in the squares, where the women come to draw water at the fountain, to the narrow streets, where dwell the metalworkers.

Oil, yes, Santiago is a wonderful place. Time does not matter there. Nothing matters. Centuries come and go, and leave a darkey stain on crumbling walls. And still the bells ring out o' nights. And still the lurking novio, guitar in hand, lingers to serenade his lady love, who comes to the balcony and throws him a flower to cheer him up. The "Fool Mans" was once explain-

ing to a group of laughing Spanish damsels the superior merits of Engl : sl> courting. "You knock at the door and she lets you in," he explained. "But you Spanish ladies are so high tip. and the poor man is down below on the ground!" '.'Ah," said the flower of the flock, "that 1 is because those who wish tp attain to Heaven, senor, must- first learn to look up to it." The "Fool Mans" had on inspiration. "It's so much easier, to get to Heaven if someone meets you half-way," lie suggested.