188 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



SKETCH MAP OF SPAIN 



picks it up, runs ahead and repeats the 

 operation. Needless to say, the car soon 

 stops. 



The Spanish railways have the best 

 mileage-book system in the world ; the 

 more mileage you buy, the lower is the 

 rate per mile (or, rather, per kilometer) 

 and the longer the validity. One book 

 is good for a family or members of a 

 firm. If one plans to travel several thou- 

 sand miles, it is possible by the use of 

 these books to ride first-class (that is, 

 Pullman accommodations) for not much 

 more than regular third-class rates. 



But travelers who know a little Span- 

 ish and have learned by experience in 

 other lands that the genuine people, 

 whom one comes to know, travel third- 

 class, go in with them, regardless of bare 

 wooden seats and crowded quarters. One 

 can be very comfortable with a rug or 



two ; and, instead of sophisticated French- 

 speaking travelers, one has as neighbor 

 an intelligent Castilian farmer, who uses 

 an American harvester and whose wife 

 has an American sewing machine, and 

 who laments Spanish illiteracy and offi- 

 cial corruption as the chief cause of her 

 troubles ; or it may be a Barcelona com- 

 mercial traveler, who lays Spain's ills — 

 which all admit, saying. "Pobre Espana !" 

 (poor Spain) — to her highly centralized 

 administration, which taxes the whole 

 country, and especially rich and populous 

 Catalonia, for Madrid office-holders. 



The ancient divisions of Spain, for 

 centuries independent and often hostile 

 countries, still hold somew^hat aloof from 

 each other. The Catalans even speak a 

 different language, allied to Provencal, 

 as different from Castilian as Dutch is 

 from English. They are an enterprising 



