Spanish Life in Town and Country

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Spanish Life in Town and Country, by

L. Higgin and Eug?ne E. Street This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Spanish Life in Town and Country
Author: L. Higgin and Eug?ne E. Street
Editor: William Harbutt Dawson
Release Date: March 26, 2006 [EBook #18053]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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OUR EUROPEAN NEIGHBOURS
French Life German Life Russian Life Dutch Life Swiss Life Spanish Life
Italian Life Danish Life Austro-Hungarian Life Turkish Life Belgian Life Swedish Life

OUR EUROPEAN NEIGHBOURS
EDITED BY WILLIAM HARBUTT DAWSON
SPANISH LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY
[Illustration: "IN CHURCH." SHOWING THE MANTILLA AND VELO]

SPANISH LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY
BY L. HIGGIN
WITH CHAPTERS ON
PORTUGUESE LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY, BY EUGèNE E. STREET
* * * * *
ILLUSTRATED
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK AND LONDON The Knickerbocker Press 1904

COPYRIGHT, 1902 BY G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS
Published, May, 1902 Reprinted, February, 1903 May, 1904; September, 1904
The Knickerbocker Press, New York

NOTE BY THE EDITOR
It has been thought well to include Portugal in this volume, so as to embrace the entire Iberian Peninsula. Though geographically contiguous, and so closely associated in the popular mind, the Spanish and Portuguese nations offer in fact the most striking divergences alike in character and institutions, and separate treatment was essential in justice to each country. The preferential attention given to Spain is only in keeping with the more prominent part she has played, and may yet play, in the history of civilisation.
* * * * *
I am indebted for the chapters on Portugal to Mr. Eugène E. Street, whose long and intimate acquaintance with the land and its people renders him peculiarly fitted to draw their picture.
L. HIGGIN.

CONTENTS
SPANISH LIFE
PAGE
CHAPTER I
LAND AND PEOPLE 1
CHAPTER II
TYPES AND TRAITS 24
CHAPTER III
NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS 38
CHAPTER IV
SPANISH SOCIETY 55
CHAPTER V
MODERN MADRID 77
CHAPTER VI
THE COURT 97
CHAPTER VII
POPULAR AMUSEMENTS 111
CHAPTER VIII
THE PRESS AND ITS LEADERS 129
CHAPTER IX
POLITICAL GOVERNMENT 142
CHAPTER X
COMMERCE AND AGRICULTURE 156
CHAPTER XI
THE ARMY AND NAVY 183
CHAPTER XII
RELIGIOUS LIFE 198
CHAPTER XIII
EDUCATION AND THE PRIESTHOOD 213
CHAPTER XIV
PHILANTHROPY--POSITION OF WOMEN--MARRIAGE CUSTOMS 226
CHAPTER XV
MUSIC, ART, AND THE DRAMA 236
CHAPTER XVI
MODERN LITERATURE 246
CHAPTER XVII
THE FUTURE OF SPAIN 260
PORTUGUESE LIFE
CHAPTER XVIII
LAND AND PEOPLE 277
CHAPTER XIX
PORTUGUESE INSTITUTIONS 298
INDEX 315

ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
"IN CHURCH." SHOWING THE MANTILLA AND VELO Frontispiece
PEASANTS 2
A CORNER IN OLD MADRID 8
SEVILLE CIGARRERA 20
PEASANTS 20
VALENCIANOS 26
THE WATER TRIBUNAL IN VALENCIA. SHOWING VALENCIAN COSTUMES 34
PAST WORK 50
KNIFE-GRINDER 50
OUTSIDE THE PLAZA DE TOROS, MADRID 78
BUEYES RESTING 94
IN THE WOODS AT LA GRANJA 104
PLAZA DE TOROS. PICADOR CAUGHT BY THE BULL 120
PLAZA DE TOROS. THE PROCESSION 124
DRAGGING OUT THE DEAD BULL 126
THE ESCURIAL 140
A WEDDING PARTY IN ESTREMADURA 170
A COUNTRY CABIN IN GALICIA 292

SPANISH LIFE IN TOWN AND COUNTRY
CHAPTER I
LAND AND PEOPLE
Only in comparatively late years has the Iberian Continent been added to the happy hunting-grounds of the ordinary British and American tourist, and somewhat of a check arose after the outbreak of the war with America. To the other wonderful legends which gather round this romantic country, and are spread abroad, unabashed and uncontradicted, was added one more, to the effect that so strong a feeling existed on the part of the populace against Americans, that it was unsafe for English-speaking visitors to travel there. Nothing is farther from the truth; there is no hatred of American or English, and, if there had been, they little know the innate courtesy of the Spanish people, who fear insult that is not due to the overbearing manners of the tourist himself.
To-day, however, everyone is going to Spain, and as the number of travellers increases, so, perhaps, does the real ignorance of the country and of her people become more apparent, for, after a few days, or at most weeks, spent there, those who seem to imagine that they have discovered Spain, as Columbus discovered America, deliver their judgment upon her with all the audacity of ignorance, or, at best, with very imperfect information and capacity for forming an opinion.
For many years, the foreign element in Spain was so small that all who made their home in the country were known and easily counted, while those who travelled were, for the most part, cultivated people--artists, or lovers of art, or persons interested in some way in the commercial or industrial progress of the nation. Even in those days, however, too many tourists spent their time amongst the dead cities, remnants of Spain's great past, and came back to add their quota to the sentimental notions current about the romantic land sung by Byron. Wrapped in