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THE REAR END OF A LOAD OF HAY Wagons are unknown in Andorra

now holds up perhaps two or three pesetas-a peseta is about eighteen cents. The patrol shakes his head, no. The Andorran raises the bid, one peseta at a time to six, seven, eight, nine or ten pesetas. As soon as the patrol is satisfied with the amount, the Andorran places it in a pile on the ground and goes on his way down

into Spain. The patrol continues his watching. Should the two be unable to come to an agreement, the Andorran takes to his heels while the patrol shoots.

Contraband or smuggled tobacco is sold all over Spain. The Spanish government knows that there is continual smuggling from Andorra, and every little while inspectors arrive on the scene. The Spanish patrols now begin to hustle, and woe betide any Andorran they are able to run down in the mountains.

This story of the Andorran smugglers I got from the Englishman with the hunting proclivities, whom I met at the inn in the valley of the Segre. As he told it to me over a cup of coffee, he rolled a cigarette, remarking: "This is Andorran tobacco and was smuggled down here over those high mountains you see out of the window. I got it through the mayor of this village. His house is the place of deposit where the Andorran smugglers, coming into this part of Spain, unload."

Andorra is a republic under the joint suzerainty of France and Spain. The

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It is of solid granite and was built in 1580. It contains the national prison, the village school, a chapel, sleeping, cooking and eating quarters for the patriarchal lawmakers, with a stable for their "steeds." The national archives are here stored in a cupboard, to open which the keys of the six communes of the republic are all required. This capitol building is called "The House of the Valley"

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In their official capacity, wearing their official three-cornered hats. The man in the center, with the two-cornered hat, is the Syndic, or President. At his left is the Vice-Syndic

department stores in the United States. It is several different things all in one. The basement contains the prison, the only one in the country, and when I was there it showed no signs of having been inhabited for a long time. The basement also contains stabling room for the steeds of the lawmakers. I use the term "steeds" because I do not know whether they ride in on horses, mules or donkeys. I should not be surprised if often all three classes of animals were represented.

The second floor contains the village school, a small chapel, and the council chamber, which is the headquarters of all branches of the government, legislative, executive and judicial. Locked up in an

cornered hats of the lawmakers. One hat has only two corners and is adorned with gilt braid. This is worn by the Syndic or President whenever he leaves his home and work and goes down to the capitol to attend to the business of his country. The room contains no other furniture except the hard-bottom, well-worn chairs of the council. The plainness of this council chamber is relieved by one thing. Coming in at the window is a picture beautiful and inspiring beyond description. It is a view of a lovely valley with a pretty village, Escaldas, one mile away, nestled at the foot of a magnificent mountain.

There is another room on this floor quite as interesting as the council chamber.

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HALF WAY BETWEEN THE VILLAGES OF ANDORRA AND SAN JULIAN A natural composition that rivals the old masters

an umbrella and fills up half the ceiling, while from somewhere up within its mysterious interior it sends down heavy chains with enormous hooks capable of holding up a whole ox while it is being roasted by the fire built beneath. On two sides of this fireplace stand heavy oak benches with seating capacity for a dozen or more. I asked who used these two benches, and was told the cooks, but I have a suspicion that more often than not some of the space on them is occupied by worthy old patriarchs who have slipped out from the lawmaking chamber to attend to the more important duty of seeing to it that the ox browns up nicely all over and gets tender all the way through.

The Andorrans I found industrious and honest, modest, cordial and hospitable.

mense lock, to turn which they use a key at least a foot in length. The archive cupboard is secured by six locks. Andorra is subdivided into six communes or parishes, and each commune has a lock and key of its own on the national archives. There is thus no chance of getting at the archives until all six sections of the country are represented in the council chamber. The Andorrans are proud of the contents of this cupboard and well they may be. Among other treasures, it contains their first charter of independence granted their forefathers over twelve hundred years ago by that renowned emperor and general, Charle

magne.

Now for the first railway station in Spain! Getting aboard my bicycle again

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In this village of San Julian de Loria smuggling is regarded as an honorable, praiseworthy profession, for the smuggler is the one who does and sees things

at Seo de Urgel, I started on a memorable eighty-mile wheel down the valley of the Segre to Lerida. A new road covered this eighty miles, I had been told, and was the finest in Spain. It may be both, but it is without doubt the worst road I have ever become intimately acquainted with in Europe or America. Bicycles, I judged, were unknown in that section. Before I

had been under way three hours, I had caused three runaways.

The first was a peaceful-looking donkey with a hayrack on his back and his lord and master on top of that. The donkey was walking along and apparently sleeping at the same time. As I came up back of him, I jingled my bicycle bell and thereby, I concluded afterward, wakened

him out of his sound nap. He turned his head around and looked at my bicycle with blinking eyes and a most surprised expression on his donkey face. His long and eloquent ears pointed straight at me. He doubtless thought I was "It," but he did not run. Perhaps, being a lazy donkey, he was afraid he would have to walk back. What he did do, however, he did quickly. Bunching his feet, he commenced to go round and round in a small circle something like a dog does when he goes after his tail. The poor man, who was rather slow in comprehending the situation, promptly fell off, all except one foot which. caught in the hayrack. But the donkey did not mind that and kept on going, while his master, making strange gestures with his two hands, his head and his free foot, followed the donkey something like the tail follows the kite. It looked to me as if the donkey was trying to have a little game of "Crack the Whip," with his master as the cracker.

I dismounted as soon as I could to see what I could do, for I was considerably

AN INN AT ESCALDAS

Also a flock of goats starting out on their way to pasture

worried about the health of the poor native. The donkey, however, did not want to have anything to do with me. After a little he got tired and stopped of his own sweet will. The man freed his foot, and then I began to feel for my own health. The gentleman's tranquillity of mind was completely destroyed, and he had lots to say about it. But I did not understand, and as soon as I could, without awkward

haste, I mounted my bicycle and lost no time in putting a couple of miles more behind me.

After having incited a mule with a half load of hay on his back to race me, and after having put into the mind of a second donkey thoughts of suicide, that is, of jumping over the edge of a high bridge, I gave up all idea of hurry, and as often as I met anything with four legs, I got off and hid my bicycle until it had passed.

Eleven miles from Lerida the rough road had succeeded in finishing up one of the tires of my bicycle, and the rest of the distance I covered in a two-wheeled stage coach with my bicycle suspended beneath. Thus ended my trip into and out of Andorra, the land of patriarchs and the land of the simple life.

The probabilities are that in the course of another quarter of a century a good, broad, modern macadam highway will bisect the nation. France and Spain have agreed to construct roads reaching to the Andorran frontier, while Andorra is going to connect the French and Spanish roads by a road through her principal valley. Spain is short of funds, but during the past couple of years has broken ground for something over a mile of her part of this new road. France is really building her road, while Andorra has constructed. bridges and laid the foundation of about four miles of magnificent road. This now stands ready for the steam roller and the top dressing, but can not be finished for the Andorrans have no steam roller and have no means of getting one until France finishes her road and opens the way to the frontier. At present this new road in Andorra is a river of small, sharp, broken stone.

But of all startling twentieth-century innovations in this land of patriarchs, the most astonishing is the fact that the inn at Escaldas has a real bathtub. Escaldas is a village with hot sulphur springs. The innkeeper has piped some of the water into his cellar and built a bathtub. He charges only twenty cents for a bath, which is really cheap considering the amount of water one gets. The bathtub is as deep as it is long. If any future visitor to Andorra, sojourning at Escaldas, wishes to sit down in his bath, I advise him to smuggle a high chair into the tub with him.

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