[Illustration]
_A Trip Around the World with DWIGHT L. ELMENDORF, Lecturer and
Traveler_
Gone is the ancient glory of Spain. To the visitor it appeals chiefly
as a country of a splendid past. This is not true, of course, of
some of the more populous localities. Barcelona is full of life and
commercially enterprising, and Madrid is full of activity and is a
natural center of interest as the capital of the nation. But many
of the cities and towns of Spain attract chiefly as interesting and
picturesque survivals. They breathe the atmosphere of a former age. We
feel the influence of it wherever we turn. Spain is not much traveled
by tourists. More would go perhaps if they realized what splendid
scenery was there, and how rich in historic and romantic associations
the country was.
Since the days of the first inhabitants, the Iberians, and beginning
with the Celts who crossed the Pyrenees some five hundred years B.
C., Spain has been invaded by Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans,
Vandals and Visigoths, Arabs and Moors, and each of these races has
left evidences of its dominion, in monuments of one kind or another, in
architectural forms, in roads and buildings, and in the language and
customs of communities. The interesting Basque people of the northern
provinces of Spain are declared by students of history to be almost
unmixed descendants of the original Iberians.
[Illustration: GENERAL VIEW OF TOLEDO
_Toledo is one of the most ancient cities in Spain. It was at its
zenith under the Moors. Later it became the residence of the kings of
Castile._]