RECENT IMPRESSIONS OF SPAIN 21 



apart. The lower house of the Cortes meets in the Palacio de 

 Congreso on the Carrera de San Jeronimo, an unimposing 

 building, while the Senate meets two miles away to the north 

 of the Royal Palace, in an old building which was originally 

 an Augustinian college. Further north is the Central Univers- 

 ity, made up of the union of the University of Alcala and the 

 University of Madrid in 1836, and now attended by 6,600 

 students. The main building of the University is known as 

 the Noviciado, because it was originally a novitiate of the 

 Jesuits, when the Society owned the property before their sup- 

 pression in the eighteenth century. A little further on is the 

 great Hospital de la Princesa, which, together with the great 

 Hospital General, make two extensive institutions, probably 

 the equals of any in the world. In fact, Madrid would seem 

 almost too well supplied with hospitals for a city of 600,000 

 inhabitants. It has eleven altogether, besides a special one 

 for small children. In addition it has fourteen ambulance 

 stations (Casas de Socorro) scattered over different parts of 

 the city, affording first aid to the injured. 



The number of news-stands and the great sale of illustrated 

 papers, newspapers, and light novels was noticeable. Span- 

 ish illiteracy cannot be as great as represented, or these and 

 the numerous book stores would soon go out of business. On 

 coming home I looked the matter up. I found the statistics 

 on the subject were much at variance with the popular ideas 

 and loose percentages given. For instance, I had heard it 

 repeated that there was 68 per cent of illiterates among the 

 population in Spain. That would mean that more than half 

 the people could not read or write. Yet I never met a person 

 who could not read or write during my whole trip through 

 Spain ; on the contrary I saw everybody reading newspapers, 

 novels, letters, etc. I found that the 68 per cent was true 

 enough when it was written, but unfortunately the figures were 

 taken from the Encyclopedia Britannica and referred to the 

 census of 1880, and could hardly be controlling to-day. When 

 we reflect that Spain is essentially an agricultural country, with 

 only a small urban population (even now only two cities have 

 a population of over 500,000), it will be seen that the diffusion 

 of education must necessarily be of slower growth. I have 

 not the figures of any late census by me, but the census of 

 1900 puts quite a different phase upon the situation. 



