The Street-Cars, Which In Valladolid Are Poetically Propelled Through
Lyre-Shaped Trolleys Instead Of Our Prosaic Broomstick Appliances,
Groaned Unheeded If Not Unheard Under Our Windows Through The Night, And
We Woke To Find The Sun On Duty In Our Glazed Balcony And The Promenade
Below Already Astir With Life:
Not the exuberant young life of the night
before, but still sufficiently awake to be recognizable as life.
A
crippled newsboy seated under one of the arcades was crying his papers;
an Englishman was looking at a plan of Valladolid in a shop window; a
splendid cavalry officer went by in braided uniform, and did not stare
so hard as they might have expected at some ladies passing in mantillas
to mass or market. In the late afternoon as well as the early morning we
saw a good deal of the military in Valladolid, where an army corps is
stationed. From time to time a company of infantry marched through the
streets to gay music, and toward evening slim young officers began to
frequent the arcades and glass themselves in the windows of the shops,
their spurs clinking on the pavement as they lounged by or stopped and
took distinguished attitudes. We speculated in vain as to their social
quality, and to this day I do not know whether "the career is open to
the talents" in the Spanish army, or whether military rank is merely the
just reward of civil rank. Those beautiful young swells in
riding-breeches and tight gray jackets approached an Italian type of
cavalry officer; they did not look very vigorous, and the common
soldiers we saw marching through the streets, largely followed by the
populace, were not of formidable stature or figure, though neat and
agreeable enough to the eye.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 67 of 376
Words from 18125 to 18421
of 103320
