The Mothers In Israel Are Ranged For The Evening
Around The Walls In Comfortable Chairs, Which They Never Leave; And
The
colonels and generals and chiefs of administration, who form the bulk of
all Madrid gatherings, are gravely smoking in
The library or playing
interminable games of tresillon, seasoned with temperate denunciations
of the follies of the time.
Nothing can be more engaging than the tone of perfect ease and cordial
courtesy which pervades these family festivals. It is here that the
Spanish character is seen in its most attractive light. Nearly everybody
knows French, but it is never spoken. The exquisite Castilian, softened
by its graceful diminutives into a rival of the Italian in tender
melody, is the only medium of conversation; it is rare that a stranger'
is seen, but if he is, he must learn Spanish or be a wet blanket
forever.
You will often meet, in persons of wealth and distinction, an easy
degenerate accent in Spanish, strangely at variance with their elegance
and culture. These are Creoles of the Antilles, and they form one of the
most valued and popular elements of society in the capital. There is a
gallantry and dash about the men, and an intelligence and independence
about the women, that distinguish them from their cousins of the
Peninsula. The American element has recently grown very prominent in the
political and social world. Admiral Topete is a Mexican. His wife is one
of the distinguished Cuban family of Arrieta. General Prim married a
Mexican heiress.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 11 of 254
Words from 2739 to 2991
of 67759
