lie
likes to take his governmental subordinates unawares, and a story is
told of his dropping in at the post-office on a late visit to Seville,
and asking for the chief. He was out, and so were all the subordinate
officials down to the lowest, whom the king found at his work. The
others have since been diligent at theirs. The story is characteristic
of the king, if not of the post-office people.
Political freedom is almost grotesquely unrestricted. In our American
republic we should scarcely tolerate a party in favor of a monarchy, but
in the Spanish monarchy a republican party is recognized and
represented. It holds public meetings and counts among its members many
able and distinguished men, such as the novelist Perez Galdos, one of
the most brilliant novelists not only in Spain but in Europe. With this
unbounded liberty in Andalusia, it is said that the Spaniards of the
north are still more radical.
Though the climate is most favorable for consumptives, the habits of the
people are so unwholesome that tuberculosis prevails, and there are two
or three deaths a day from it in Seville. There is no avoidance of
tuberculous suspects; they cough, and the men spit everywhere in the
streets and on the floors and carpets of the clubs.
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