Standing on the grand stairway of the Royal Palace, his hand upon the
balustrade, and looking at the splendor about him, Napoleon Bonaparte
said to his brother Joseph, to whom he had given the throne of Spain,
“You are better housed than I am.” That was the emperor’s opinion of
the royal residence in Madrid. To Napoleon the conquest of this ancient
and famous land of Spain was one of his greatest victories.
Many people, when they first see the country around Madrid, are
surprised at the lack of trees there. It is known that the mountains
of that region were once covered with a heavy growth of forest which
has since been cut away. The trees were felled to put money into the
royal treasury. One reason they were never replanted is that many of
the Castilians have a strong dislike for trees. They think only of
the birds that nest among the branches and feed in grain fields; they
forget that trees are both useful and beautiful in themselves, giving
shade and moisture and beautifying the scenery.
In later years a wise government has come to see that the slight loss
of farmland is not nearly so important as the effect woodlands have on
climate. Groves now dot the landscape with patches of refreshing green,
and the climate about Madrid is already improving. It is hoped that the
bleak country, which now grows only a spare crop of corn, will become
fertile and fruitful again when new forests have influenced a more
regular rainfall and a steadier temperature. Scientific forestry can
probably redeem the error that was committed centuries ago.
Madrid, though a modern city, has been from the beginning a center of
art and literature. Velasquez went there from Seville to spend the
greater part of his life. It was there that Cervantes, author of “Don
Quixote,” lived and died. More important, perhaps, than any other
figure in the Spanish drama was Lope de Vega, a native of the city.
He led an eventful life while writing poems and plays with wonderful
readiness. According to his own statement, more than a hundred of his
plays were written so quickly that it took only twenty-four hours from
the time he started to compose each one of them until it had been
produced on the stage. He wrote 1,800 plays. He is said to have printed
21,300,000 lines, which, if we can believe his own account, was only a
part of all that he wrote. To do this he must have written nearly nine
hundred lines a day all through his life.
Many other artists and writers have worked in Madrid, and the Spanish
capital is still a well known center of culture.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 31
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
[Illustration: ALCÁZAR AT SEVILLE, SPAIN]
_SPAIN AND GIBRALTAR_
_Alcázar at Seville_