ROMAXTIC SPAIN 



193 



Photo by Louise Coleman 



DANCING GIRLS OF SEVILLE 



commercial and manufacturing people, 

 and the country is dotted with cotton 

 mills and factory chimneys. 



As one comes from the north, the first 

 important town is Gerona, memorable 

 for the heroic defense against the French 

 a century ago. The besiegers even poi- 

 soned the river. The city has several 

 ancient churches, one with an old bap- 

 tistery beside it, which a utilitarian age 

 has turned into a lumber-room. 



Barcelona, Spain's largest and busiest 

 city, is a most attractive place, possessing 

 the best climate in the western Mediter- 

 ranean — more equable than that of Nice. 

 A stroll along the Rambla, the chief 

 boulevard, is full of interest. This part 

 of it, the Rambla dels Flors (in Catalan, 

 "of the flowers"), is given up for some 

 blocks to flower booths. Just beyond are 

 many-colored birds, twittering away in 

 little wooden cages. One can take a de- 

 lightful ride on the top of a double- 



decked trolley car to the Tibidabo, a 

 pine-covered hill overlooking the city and 

 its magnificent harbor. 



A few miles down the coast is Tarra- 

 gona, whose stately aqueduct is a re- 

 minder that she was the chief city of 

 Roman Spain. In her museum is an old 

 Roman grain mill, on which a humorous 

 boy once cut in Latin : "Work, little don- 

 key, the way I worked, and much good 

 'twill do you." 



A few hours further south lies Tortosa, 

 on the Ebro, the only large river in Spain 

 emptying into the Mediterranean. Its 

 waters are largely diverted into irrigation 

 canals, which make the fields and gar- 

 dens a delight to the eye ; and the com- 

 bination of date palms and waving wheat 

 shows what a variety of ]iroducts the 

 country produces. One can still see on 

 the streets huge jars which remind one 

 of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and 

 in the wine stores wine is sold in pig- 



