walked beside, driving the oxen: they wore wide sombreros, and bright mantas folded over the shoulder. The car was an excellent representation of the House of Congress, with its Greek façade, white columns, timpanum, and bronze lions on either side the door. Behind the columns was a brazen pot filled with men dressed as locusts. The car was greeted with roars of laughter and applause.
“Thou seest?” said Jaime to Villegas. “The government devours the country like locusts! It is true! We have the best people in the world, and the worst government!”
“Bravo! El Congreso!” yelled the people in the carriages. “Muy bien!” The crowd that lined the sidewalks answered with cries of “Magnifico! Bravo! El carro satirico!”
Jaime was right, the prize was not awarded to the Congreso, but to the parrots. A mammoth cage in the middle of a float with a big sham parrot hanging on a ring and all around the cage a group of señoritas and caballeros dressed to look like parrots with green velvet coats, gray satin vests, red velvet caps and big beaks.
“It almost deserves the prize, only the Congreso should have had it!” said Patsy.
As the Government appoints the judges, that was hardly to be expected. The second prize was awarded to a wagon-load of toy soldiers in French uniform. They stood stiff as wooden dolls, till you looked close and saw, under the soldiers’ caps, the faces of pretty girls and laughing lads.
“Seville, the Feria, Concepcion!” cried Patsy; “this is magic!”
It was little short of it. On the float coming towards us was the patio of an Andalusian house with Moorish columns and azulejos, from which a maya and a mayo looked out on the crowd. The maya wore a black chenille overdress with a yellow satin skirt and a rose in her hair like Concepcion.
Down the middle of the Paseo de la Castellana, the most fashionable part of the route, a line of gaily decorated tribunes had been built; these were filled with well-dressed people.