The sister then took us to the playground, where hundreds of little things, from the ages of three to six years, were playing; the boys on one side, the girls on the other; the sisters with them. We were invited to remain and see them go into school, that we might see the system of uniting instruction with amusement, which has been so successfully employed by these charitable teachers. At the sound of an instrument, (something like a castanet,) the little things fell into ranks, one behind the other, the hindmost holding on with both hands to the shoulders of the one who preceded him. In this way, and slowly keeping time with their little feet, they marched into the room, marching and countermarching with admirable precision. Three divisions of eight, headed by a "captain," (a well-drilled soldier,) form, and go to their seats; each captain helps to seat his division, and then counts to see if he has the correct number. The children then rise to say the Lord's Prayer, all in concert, slowly and reverently, preceding it with the "sign of the cross," made with, some, such tiny fingers! The sister next proceeds to give a lesson. Great black letters, on wooden blocks, (so large as to be seen by all,) are one by one laid in grooves upon an inclined plane, the children all (together) calling out the letter as it is placed, spelling the word, then reading (or rather, singing) the sentence. If the sister makes a mistake, a dozen little voices correct it. A child of six is next chosen to spell a sentence, and severe were the little critics when he misplaced a letter. Next came a lesson in Scripture history. A book of colored prints was opened here and there, and the stories were told by the children in their own pretty way, of Adam and Eve, David and Absalom, etc. We were presently shown the children old enough to be taught to work, little things of five and six years, knitting or sewing; and then a class making plain sewing; and then the larger orphan girls, working the finest needlework and embroidery.
And this is one of eight such institutions in Madrid! It is kept up by individual charity; and the fear is, that it must be curtailed if not closed on account of the revolution; the ladies who contributed most to it having been forced to leave with the queen's party, or having absented themselves from fear of getting into trouble. These high-born ladies have had also many schools in different parts of the city, where they taught the poor every Sunday, as in our Sunday-schools. The provisional government has stopped all these, on the pretext that they are "incendiary," as they have also that of the "Conferences of St. Vincent de Paul"!
Our Spanish friends tell us of the closing, yesterday, of the "royal school," (founded many centuries ago by one of the kings of Spain, and supported from the privy purse of the reigning king or queen,) for the daughters of the nobility who have met with reverse of fortune, orphans and others of good birth but of no means. Yesterday these poor girls were turned out, homeless, houseless; and as they passed along, the brutal rabble insulted them with cries of, "Come out, you thieves; you have eaten our bread long enough; come out, and let us have place." To-day, we see them tearing down the building. And this is "progress!"
We hear that the carriage of the Duchess Medina Coeli has been assaulted to-day, the crown upon her carriage pelted, the glasses broken, with the cry of "Down with the aristocrats!"—that fatal cry, which (with many other bad things) they borrow from the French, and which was the signal to spill so much "good" blood.
Toledo.
October 25.
Only three hours' time (by rail) separate Toledo and Madrid, the old and new world of Spain! What a contrast between the two! Toledo towers like an eagle's nest on the steep rock, the "dark, melancholy" Tagus winding below, with walls and Moorish gates and steep crags, with Roman and Gothic and Arabic ruins, with glorious memories of the fierce and warlike Goths, and of its imperial renown under Charles V.; while the modern upstart, Madrid, has nothing of which to boast, save fine houses, and shops, bustle and traffic, noise and dirt, "progress" and revolution!
Toledo is said to have been a Phoenician or Grecian colony, then conquered by the all-absorbing Romans, 146 B.C., and the favorite resort of the Jews who fled from Jerusalem after its fall, and who became here rich and powerful, and exercised an important influence in the history of the country until expelled by Ferdinand and Isabella, in 1492.
In the fifth century, the Goths conquered Spain and founded that splendid and powerful kingdom which, after three hundred years, ended with Roderick in 712, when the Moors, under Taric, overthrew the Goths in the battle of the Guadalete, and overran all Spain. In 1085, it was reconquered by Alonzo V., and Toledo was the seat of the court until removed by Philip II. to Madrid in 1560, and (for a few years) to Valladolid.