Some Of
The Leading Men Of New Spain, One Or Two Ministers, Were There, And We
Passed A Pleasant Two Hours On The Road In That Most Seductive Of All
Human Occupations, - Talking Politics.
It is remarkable that whenever a nation is remodelling its internal
structure, the subject most generally discussed is the constitutional
system of the United States.
The republicans usually adopt it solid. The
monarchists study it with a jealous interest. I fell into conversation
with Senor - - - , one of the best minds in Spain, an enlightened though
conservative statesman. He said: "It is hard for Europe to adopt a
settled belief about you. America is a land of wonders, of
contradictions. One party calls your system freedom, another anarchy. In
all legislative assemblies of Europe, republicans and absolutists alike
draw arguments from America. But what cannot be denied are the effects,
the results. These are evident, something vast and grandiose, a life and
movement to which the Old World is stranger." He afterwards referred
with great interest to the imaginary imperialist movement in America,
and raised his eyebrows in polite incredulity when I assured him there
was as much danger of Spain becoming Mohammedan as of America becoming
imperialist.
We stopped at the little station of Villalba, in the midst of the wide
brown table-land that stretches from Madrid to the Escorial. At Villalba
we found the inevitable swarm of beggars, who always know by the sure
instinct of wretchedness where a harvest of cuartos is to be achieved. I
have often passed Villalba and have seen nothing but the station-master
and the water-vender. But to-day, because there were a half dozen
excellencies on the train, the entire mendicant force of the district
was on parade. They could not have known these gentlemen were coming;
they must have scented pennies in the air.
Awaiting us at the rear of the station were three enormous lumbering
diligences, each furnished with nine superb mules, - four pairs and a
leader. They were loaded with gaudy trappings, and their shiny coats,
and backs shorn into graceful arabesques, showed that they did not
belong to the working-classes, but enjoyed the gentlemanly leisure of
official station. The drivers wore a smart postilion uniform and the
royal crown on their caps.
We threw some handfuls of copper and bronze among the picturesque
mendicants. They gathered them up with grave Castilian decorum, and
said, "God will repay your graces." The postilions cracked their whips,
the mules shook their bells gayly, the heavy wagons started off at a
full gallop, and the beggars said, "May your graces go with God!"
It was the end of July, and the sky was blue and cloudless. The fine,
soft light of the afternoon was falling on the tawny slopes and the
close-reaped fields. The harvest was over. In the fields on either side
they were threshing their grain, not as in the outside world, with the
whirring of loud and swift machinery, nor even with the active and
lively swinging of flails; but in the open air, under the warm sky, the
cattle were lazily treading out the corn on the bare ground, to be
winnowed by the wandering wind. No change from the time of Solomon.
Through an infinity of ages, ever since corn and cattle were, the
Iberian farmer in this very spot had driven his beasts over his crop,
and never dreamed of a better way of doing the work.
Not only does the Spaniard not seek for improvements, he utterly
despises and rejects them. The poorer classes especially, who would
find an enormous advantage in increased production, lightening their
hard lot by a greater plenty of the means of life, regard every
introduction of improved machinery as a blow at the rights of labor.
When many years ago a Dutch vintner went to Valdepenas and so greatly
improved the manufacture of that excellent but ill-made wine that its
price immediately rose in the Madrid market, he was mobbed and plundered
by his ignorant neighbors, because, as they said, he was laboring to
make wine dearer. In every attempt which has been made to manufacture
improved machinery in Spain, the greatest care has to be taken to
prevent the workmen from maliciously damaging the works, which they
imagine are to take the bread from the mouths of their children.
So strong is this feeling in every department of national life, that the
mayoral who drove our spanking nine-in-hand received with very ill humor
our suggestion that the time could be greatly shortened by a Fell
railroad over the hills to La Granja. "What would become of nosotros?"
he asked. And it really would seem a pity to annihilate so much
picturesqueness and color at the bidding of mere utility. A gayly
embroidered Andalusian jacket, bright scarlet silk waistcoat, - a rich
wide belt, into which his long knife, the navaja, was jauntily
thrust, - buckskin breeches, with Valentian stockings, which, as they are
open at the bottom, have been aptly likened to a Spaniard's purse, - and
shoes made of Murcian matting, composed his natty outfit. By his side on
the box sat the zagal, his assistant, whose especial function seemed to
be to swear at the cattle. I have heard some eloquent imprecation in my
day. "Our army swore terribly" at Hilton Head. The objuration of the
boatmen of the Mississippi is very vigorous and racy. But I have never
assisted at a session of profanity so loud, so energetic, so original as
that with which this Castilian postilion regaled us. The wonderful
consistency and perseverance with which the role was sustained was
worthy of a much better cause.
He began by yelling in a coarse, strident voice, "Arre! arre!" (Get up!)
with a vicious emphasis on the final syllable. This is one of the
Moorish words that have remained fixed like fossils in the language of
the conquerors. Its constant use in the mouths of muleteers has given
them the name of arrieros.
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