also by a bi-yearly exhibition
in Madrid, where prizes and commendations are given. The chief centres
of artistic furniture-making are Madrid, Barcelona, Granada, and
Zaragoza. Exhibitions of arts and crafts and of all kinds of industries
and manufactures are also held, at intervals, in the principal towns all
over the country. An interesting exhibition of Spanish and South
American productions was held in 1901 in Bilbao with great success.

Nor ought we to forget the industry for which Seville is famed. The
manufacture of tobacco is almost wholly in the hands of women, and is a
very important industry, thousands being employed in the large factories
making up cigars, cigarettes, and preparing and packing the finer kinds
of tobacco. The cigar-girl of Seville is a well-known type, almost as
much dreaded by the authorities as admired by her own class. The women
are mostly young, and often attractive, extremely pronounced both in
dress and manners, and are quite a power to be reckoned with when they
choose to assert themselves. On more than one occasion they have taken
up some cause _en masse_, and have gathered in thousands, determined to
have their way.

When this happens, the powers that be are reduced to great straits.
Neither the _Guardia Civile_ nor the military can be relied on to use
force, and unless the army of irate women can be persuaded to retire
from the contest it is probable that, relying with perfect confidence on
the privileges of their sex, they will gain what they consider their
rights--at all events their will.

No country in the world is more suited for manufactures and exports than
Spain. She has an unexampled seaboard, and many magnificent natural
harbours, and now an easy approach through Portugal to the sea, even if
her own ports should be insufficient. Common commercial interests are
likely to bring that Iberian kingdom or commonwealth to pass which has
been the dream of some of her politicians, and is still cherished in
parts of both countries. The northern ports in the Atlantic are,
perhaps, the most important; that of Bilbao, a most unpromising one by
nature, has grown out of all recognition since the close of the Carlist
war. The railway to the iron mines was already in course of construction
when the war broke out; everything was stopped, the workmen carried off
willy-nilly to join the marauding bands of the Pretender, the
town--which boasts that it has never been taken, although twice al