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74 DAYS IN THE SUN
to a hotel, for which service we are willing to pay, they
turn their backs contemptuously.
Once Córdoba meant to the world what Paris does
now; it was the city of beauty, of art, of science, of
progress—a focus of civilization. It was the first city
to lay pavements or put up street lanterns; in its most
flourishing period, ten centuries ago, it had about one
thousand public schools, fifty hospitals, a library with
half a million volumes, nine hundred baths and six
hundred mosques; the latter required, as counter-
weight, an equal number of taverns. The population
was fully one million souls, with an annual municipal
budget of about thirty million dollars. The city spent
fabulous sums on its adornment. In its day it was
celebrated for its overpowering splendor; Córdoba
secured a hegemony of the spirit both because of its
entrancing beauty and because of its learning and free-
dom of thought.
A peculiar feeling assails me as I stroll through the
site of such glorious memories—a sense of futility and
emptiness. Churchyards are not very stimulating,
though they hold the dust of great celebrities. Worse,
Córdoba is a neglected churchyard; the grassy mounds
have been trodden down. Only here and there a
corner of some tombstone still peers forth.
You have the Guadalquivir at Córdoba, but you have
no big steamers on its yellow waters as at Seville, and
the streets that run down to the river have no levees
at the lower end to prevent floods. Not even a small
vessel could navigate the river at this point; it is not
a river, but insignificant dirty water, flowing sluggishly
over a bed of exaggerated wideness and between sul-
lied banks. On one bank, the poor quarter serves as
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