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Show ..... trwMr.- 1 Gate of the Lion, Seville, Spain. (Prepared by the National Oeoiraphto Society, Washington, D. O REPUBLICAN Spain, latest among ancient monarchies to cast off royal traditions, ran best be visualized through Its leading lead-ing cities. For It wns the Spanish urban dweller, not the peasant of the countryside, who kept alive the long fight for political reform. First in Importance comes Madrid, Mad-rid, the capital. It is strikingly modern In many aspects. It quite upsets the geography student's mental picture of a typical Spanish city; for Madrid's city planners long ago gouged broad, straight streets where narrow, tortuous byways by-ways once ran and low red-roofed houses whose eaves nearly met overhead, have given way to modern mod-ern structures. Now and then an ox-cart from the rural district rumbles toward the market place; (1h r keyed seno-rltas seno-rltas In mantillas and brilliant colored shawls venture In the streets beside caped swains with gay vests and trousers; and bullfights bull-fights still are popular pastimes; but Madrid for the most part Is a bit of Paris, London and New York set down on a Spanish plain within In the sleeper or a hot day's Journey Jour-ney on the rapido. Trains from almost every Important Impor-tant city to another point on the opposite side of the country generally gen-erally arrive In Madrid a few minutes min-utes too late to make the connection. connec-tion. - Focus of Spanish Eyes. Of course, the capital is the focus of all Spanish eyes and but very few provincials could go through Madrid and resist the temptation to stop for at least a few hours; so perhaps little harm Is done by the lack of through trains. Next to be considered Is Barcelona, Barce-lona, so Indivlduallstis that It long has threatened to become the capital of an Independent Catalan state. Barcelona's life may be said to be dominated by the Rambla, the city's chief avenue. For several blocks along the Rumhla the curbstone curb-stone Is lined with open air shops. Flower shops emit the ecent of violets, roses and lilies, until the stroller passes a doughnut, fish or toasted sandwich booth. There are booths of professional letter writers, writ-ers, magazine stands with a complete com-plete line of periodicals and lottery lot-tery tickets, stands where women can buy silk stockings and other wearing apparel, and stands of bird sellers whose warbling merchandise mer-chandise Is concealed In tiers of cages. In the street humanity Is so thick that It is difficult for traffic to pass, The Rambla is not only a shopping district, but a meeting place, a loafing place, and an employment em-ployment "office." The Spanish sailor with his red sash and red and white handkerchief tied about I his neck, and the uniforms of merchantmen mer-chantmen from perhaps a dozen different countries add color to the throng. The bull-fight arena accommodates accommo-dates about 2fi,000 spectators and on Sunday afternoons every seat Is occupied. The remainder of the city's 700.000 Inhabitants throng the well-kept promenades and parka Harks Back to Middle Ages. Barcelona Is modern in appear a me, although the port dates to the second century and ranked with Genoa and Venice In Mediterranean Medi-terranean trade In the Middle ages. The spurious harbor Into which the Phoenicians sailed in quest of eyesnor or medieval castles and within a hundred miles of Toledo and other more typically Spanish cities and towns. Subway trains roar over a network net-work of tracks beneath Madrid's streets, cruising tiixlctilis are at the " visitor's beck and call, huge motor busses may he hailed to take him to a neighboring city over paved roads, and modern cars of more than fifty tram lines, with moll boxes attached, course the city streets. Cables thut curry the human voice and the tick of the telegraph key to all the capitals of Europe have recently been placed underground. under-ground. An underground sewage system, and an underground water supply system carrying sufficient water to enable street cleaners to wash down the streets several times a day, assure public health. Shop windows like those of Fifth avenue display the latest fashions from London and Paris, radios and electrical equipment from American Ameri-can factories. Bobbed-hair shoppers shop-pers trip from Detroit-made automobiles. auto-mobiles. The National Sport. new peoples with whom to trade, and which Columbus triumphantly entered after his return from America, now Is pierced by long, modern wharves. . each, accommodating accommo-dating several large oceangoing vessels at a time. The old quay, now well paved. Is lined on its inner side with modern buildings and a promenade flanked by two rows of palm trees occupies occu-pies Its center. The old part of the city, once surrounded by a wall, still has some ot Its canyonlike streets, many so nnrrow that the wheels of carts nearly scrape both curbs as they pass and balconied windows win-dows of bordering buildings nearly meet. Wheii the bullfight is on, a large part of Madrid's sporting population popula-tion still flows toward the ring or toward the newspaper bulletin boards for minute by minute reports. re-ports. Just ss Americans gather about our newspaper offices watching watch-ing play by play a world's series game recorded on an electrical baseball diamond. However, the "movie" with the names of Hollywood's Holly-wood's celebrities emblazoned In electric lights and on gaudy posters also enjoys the popularity of amusement seekers. Numerous parks and playgrounds have been laid out, new subdivisions subdivi-sions have risen above the surrounding sur-rounding plains, and the city fathers fa-thers are busy tearing down the But many of these crooked lanes open Into wide streets. For In stance, the aforementioned Humhln which bisects the city from the harbor northward is a tree-lined boulevard and the site of the old wall now Is a park called the Ron-das. Ron-das. One can walk In this parkway park-way from one end of the quay, through the center of Barcelona and bark to the other end of the quay, among flowering gardens and under shade trees. The Ronda frequently fre-quently opens Into public squares, one of which is the Plaza de Cata-luna, Cata-luna, the hub of Barcelona. Here trams, automobiles, busses and wagons, running Into the square from a dozen directions are bewildering to the pedestrians who crowd upon numerous safety zones, but the apparent traffic tangle seems not to alarm the well trained Barcelona traffic otllcers. oini and tiullding the new. But with nil the changes, the Puerto del Sol. the co-cnlled hub of the city, remains re-mains the "center of everything" that It was a century ago. . Mingling with the city folk are stocky Basques from the Pyrenean country, ruddy-skinned gypsies, olive coinplexlotied individuals from the south, 8 sprinkling of Frenchmen, Englishmen, Italians, and a few representatives from nearly all other European countries coun-tries and America. One of the spokes of the hub leads to the $15,000,000 royal palace. pal-ace. The palace yard has long been a public park and playground where throngs of men nnd women strolled on royul walks, and children chil-dren played games. . Madrid's oldest pages of history are newer than those of its Spanish Span-ish neighbors. Philip II chose It as One has to watch one's step In the Plaza, hut when the American gets a chance to take his eyes off the street, he Is greeted with two huge signs thut make him think of home. One advertises a popular make of American automobile nnd the other Is thnt of a language school which Is well known In all American cities. Barcelona has a magnificent Goth Ic cathedral, a university, many historic churches, museums, and new buildings of the pure "liiirce- ! lona school" of a nil i twin re, the I lines of which simulate ocean waves. But the outdoor life of the Inhabitants, is the lure of the Spanish Span-ish city. the Spanish capital in 1 r: so when be sought to satisfy the various races of Spain. Sargossa was Ara-gonese, Ara-gonese, Burgos was Castllian, Toledo To-ledo was Vislgothlc, and Cordova nnd Seville were Moorish. From a city of about 30.000 Inhabitonts. it has steadily grown until it now Is almost as large as Cleveland. Ohio. Madrid Is the geographic center of Spain, and In the same manner that all the main avenues of Washington Wash-ington radiate from the Capitol building, so In Spain do all the principal railways radiate from Madrid to the chief cities on the "oast It la always a night's ride |