Part 3 (1/2)
Within an hour, however, we were pa.s.sing through a section of the country entirely different in aspect, where the cork industry gives employment to many people. For a distance of eight or ten miles groves of cork-oak trees were in sight. At the station were bulky piles of cork bark, cars stacked with cork were on the sidings, and great carts drawn by oxen were on the roads bringing in still more of this valuable commodity.
”Millions of bottles are made in our city,” said a New Jersey girl, ”and there is enough cork here in sight to stopper them all.”
Beyond this, the land was more fertile and under better cultivation.
Well built stone houses replaced the huts; glossy-leaved orange trees and pink-blossomed almond trees dotted the fields or filled the orchards. Instead of fences, the boundaries of fields and farms were marked at the corners by white stones projecting above the ground.
Farther along, yellow-green olive plantations, magnificent in size and beautiful in color, filling the valleys and hillsides as far as the eye could see with orderly, far-reaching lines of trees, made so impressive a sight that it drew forth many expressions of admiration.
[Ill.u.s.tration: SPANISH CHILDREN CAME TO THE STATION.]
Women, as gatekeepers, waved white flags to signal that the crossings were clear. Gangs of men, often thirty in a gang, were in the fields cultivating leeks or onions with crude, heavy-looking, short-handled hoes. Teams of long-horned oxen attached to old-fas.h.i.+oned plows, at times eight or ten teams in one field, were turning up the soil.
Occasionally ox-teams drawing heavily laden carts or wagons were seen along the smooth white roads; but more frequently appeared trains of slowly moving donkeys, five or six in a line, with gay trappings and bells and panniers piled high with produce, driven by red-sashed muleteers.
At stations where the train stopped five or ten minutes, the doors at the sides of the compartments were opened and the pa.s.sengers descended and walked up and down the platform. Spanish women, carrying jugs, cried ”Lacte,” ”Limonada,” ”Narrandjada,” and ”Acqua,” and other peddlers with baskets offered ”bollos,” ”tort.i.tas,” and ”narranges.” After some difficulties in obtaining information as to ”how much,” the s.h.i.+llings and pence, pesetas and centimes of the tourists were exchanged for the milk, lemonade, orangeade, and water, the cakes, rolls, and oranges of the dealers.
One of the ladies, after making a purchase, said, ”I asked that woman with the black-eyed baby the price of a half dozen oranges. She said, 'Fifty centimes.' Then I offered her an English six-pence, and she gave me six oranges and a penny in change.”
Spanish boys scrambled for a roll or boiled eggs thrown to them, and men, women, and children extended their hands for money or remnants of our luncheon. One boy who had secured an apple and an egg in a scramble laughed with happiness over his success. These people did not appear to be dest.i.tute; for children, as well as adults, were comfortably clothed, and wore neat looking shoes and stockings. As the day, however, was Sunday, probably they were in holiday attire.
The red-capped station masters were important personages. At the princ.i.p.al stations they directed the starting of the trains with the greatest care and deliberation. In our own country the conductor's hand touches the signal-cord and the train moves. At Ronda, a bell in the station rang, then a red-capped employee trotted along the length of the train ringing a hand dinner bell. A minute later he repeated his trip with warning bell, then the whistle tooted, but it was not until the red-cap was sure that every pa.s.senger was aboard that the whistle issued a second toot and the wheels began to revolve. These extraordinary precautions, although affording amus.e.m.e.nt for the tourists, may have been taken under special orders of the railroad officials in order to avoid accidents and insure our safety. At any rate, we know that the railroad officials and their Spanish employees did give us special attention and treat us with kindness and courtesy.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ”MAY WE KODAK YOU?” ”THEY ALL DO,” HE REPLIED.]
Through many deep cuts and tunnels, over romantic gorges of dark depth, and along cliffs whose heights we could not see, the train climbed and crossed a mountain range. As the car emerged from tunnel or cut, changing scenes of wild and savage landscape appeared near by, and charming glimpses of distant valleys far below. The torrents and waterfalls of the river Gaudiara added to the weird beauty of the scene.
A stanza in Southey's poem, ”The Cataract of Lodore,” fittingly describes the wildness of the river that we crossed and re-crossed so often:
”Here it comes sparkling And there it lies darkling: Now smoking and frothing The cataract strong Then plunges along, And das.h.i.+ng and flas.h.i.+ng and splas.h.i.+ng and clas.h.i.+ng: And so never ending but ever descending, Sound and motions forever are blending.”
A famous canyon, deep and narrow, with rus.h.i.+ng, foaming stream, seemed like a crevice sliced down by a gigantic blade. Towns and villages far away amid green fields and gray olive orchards, and buildings of white and cream, luminous in the sunlight, with backgrounds of dark and rugged mountains, produced a succession of picturesque views. Among the hills were seen young Davids, staff in hand, guarding flocks of grazing sheep, ancient swineherds lazily watching droves of swine feeding on the roots, and goatherds following their nimble-footed brown herds as they picked their way among the rocks.
As we approached our destination, the valleys showed signs of great prosperity. The fields were highly cultivated; the farms were irrigated by ditches of flowing water; the orchards were well trimmed; the buildings larger; and the red-sashed laborers more sprucely attired.
[Ill.u.s.tration: MARVELOUSLY BEAUTIFUL IN MOORISH SPLENDOR.]
At Pinos we saw the stone bridge where, in 1492, Columbus, on his way to France, disheartened by his failure to interest King Ferdinand in his plans, was over-taken by Queen Isabella's messenger and summoned back to court to receive his commission.
As twilight was settling down we arrived on schedule time at the white stone station in Granada where carriages stood in waiting to convey us to the hotels. The Spanish drivers strove to surpa.s.s each other in speed. Our coachman lashed his horses till they ran like a run-away team. Regardless of anyone in the streets, grazing wagons by the way, overtaking and pa.s.sing carriages ahead, he gave us the wildest ride we had ever taken. This chariot race to the hotel, a distance of over a mile, happily ended without accident or collision.
”Well, I'm thankful that ride is over without an upset,” exclaimed with a sigh of relief a nervous lady, who had tried ineffectually to restrain the driver's zeal by the use of English words which he did not understand.
The old Cathedral, covering ground equal to a block in length and half a block in width, always attracts many visitors. Ma.s.sive pillars support the roof and marble tiles cover the floor. The light, falling softly through stained gla.s.s windows, discloses valuable paintings on the walls, fine statuary in the aisles, and decorations of white and gold.
”Is this building very old?” some one inquired.
”Old!” replied the guide with scorn in his voice, ”this Cathedral was here when Columbus discovered your country.” The guide, however, exaggerated somewhat. It was built just about the time America was discovered.
[Ill.u.s.tration: HERE WAs.h.i.+NGTON IRVING LIVED FOR A TIME.]
In the Royal Chapel of the Cathedral, upon an alabaster mausoleum decorated with fine carving, lie the effigies of Ferdinand and Isabella.