nd on Pindus a poet writing
fourteen-syllable endecasyllabics. He visits with a similar
disenchantment Constantinople, and then makes his way to England. There
poor Pedro is disgusted by the sordid, selfish spirit of the people. An
absurd scene at a village church fills him with horror. The bare walls
of the temple chill his heart, and after the service a domestic quarrel
between the curate and his jealous wife caps the climax and Pedro flees
to America. On landing in New York he is robbed of his watch: the thief
is arrested, but gives the watch to the magistrate, keeping the chain
for himself, and Pedro is condemned to pay the costs and the damages
suffered by the thief's character. On returning that evening from the
theatre he is garroted and robbed of all he has with him. The landlord
tells him that no one thinks of going out at night without a pair of
six-shooters, and adds that what happens in New York is nothing to what
goes on at Boston, Baltimore and New Orleans. The next day he reads an
editorial in the _New York Herald_ advising American merchants to
repudiate their foreign debts. He then determines to visit the different
States, and on passing through the South thanks God that slavery is
unknown in Europe. Railroad accidents, murders and political and social
corruption cause him to regard with profound horror the young republic,
which seems to him old in vice, and he starts for South America, the
Spanish part of which reminds him of a virgin overwhelmed with
misfortunes, but still full of youth and faith. In Vera Cruz, Pedro
visits the sepulchre of the "Indian" to whom he owes his fortune. A
letter from his mother is awaiting him there, and he bursts into tears,
and sails at once for his beloved home, which he reaches one beautiful
Sunday morning in May. His meeting with his mother takes place in the
church, and there also he sees Rose, whose constancy is now rewarded.
The story closes with the lines from Lista: "Happy he who has never seen
any other stream than that of his native place, and, an old man, sleeps
in the shade where he played a boy!"

Another story of the same collection, and one of the author's best, is
entitled _Juan Paloma_. The principal characters are Don Juan de
Urrutia, nicknamed Juan Paloma ("dovelike"), a wealthy and crusty old
bachelor, and Antonio de Molinar, a poor peasant, and his wife. The
moral of the story is in Don Juan's last words: "Blessed be the family!"
and in Juana's remar