158 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 



is off the beaten track even for the modern tourist. Those who desire 

 the latest comforts of modern times are only beginning to find them 

 in Spain, and hence do not go there in large numbers. Theater 

 lovers in particular would find the theater system peculiar. In some 

 theaters plays occupying a whole evening are given. The successes 

 of Paris are drawn upon, and may be seen in Spanish translation. 

 But the theater of distinctly Spanish type is given over to one-act 

 plays, four of which are given in one evening and the people pay for 

 the number of plays they wish to see. It is possible to pay for the 

 entire evening on entering, but as a rule, a ticket-seller passes up and 

 down between the plays, and the people already present decide 

 whether or not they will remain. There are advantages to this sys- 

 tem. The four plays are presented in a different order on successive 

 evenings so that the convenience of all is eventually suited. A person 

 has the privilege of presenting himself according to his convenience 

 at 8, 9, 10 or n o'clock, the time for the beginning of each play being 

 announced in the newspapers, on handbills and at the entrance to the 

 theater. It should be said for these little plays that many of them are 

 highly meritorious. They represent all styles of drama, tragedy, 

 comedy, melodrama, farce and zarzuela, or musical comedy, somewhat 

 as we understand that term. In the last-named there is frequently 

 introduced some Spanish dancing with castanets, which is still in high 

 favor in Spain, though it strikes us as peculiar — at least as very differ- 

 ent from the modern dancing steps seen on the American stage. 

 However cosmopolitan we may be, we still remain outsiders in Spain. 

 If we would seek to understand the soul of Spain we must read the 

 book of that title by Havelock Ellis. 1 There we shall find absorbing 

 chapters on Spanish manners and customs, painting, literature, 

 dancing and types of beauty. The name of the author bespeaks the 

 rare insight with which the book is written. In this connection it 

 is to be noted that, at present in New York, some of the higher-class 

 theaters are beginning to give an evening of one-act plays. This is 

 nothing new, however. Fifty years ago a short curtain raiser was 

 always in order, and is to this day in England in many theaters. 



« Havelock Ellis, The Soul 0/ Spain, Houghton, Mifflin Co., 1908. 



