Homage to Catalonia Down and Out In Paris and London by George Orwell
Author:George Orwell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
XIV
THE worst of being wanted by the police in a town like Barcelona is that everything opens so late. When you sleep out of doors you always wake about dawn, and none of the Barcelona cafés opens much before nine. It was hours before I could get a cup of coffee or a shave. It seemed queer, in the barberâs shop, to see the Anarchist notice still on the wall, explaining that tips were prohibited. âThe Revolution has struck off our chains,â the notice said. I felt like telling the barbers that their chains would soon be back again if they didnât look out.
I wandered back to the centre of the town. Over the P.O.U.M. buildings the red flags had been torn down, Republican flags were floating in their place, and knots of armed Civil Guards were lounging in the doorways. At the Red Aid centre on the corner of the Plaza de Cataluña the police had amused themselves by smashing most of the windows. The P.O.U.M. bookstalls had been emptied of books and the notice-board farther down the Ramblas had been plastered with an anti-P.O.U.M. cartoonâthe one representing the mask and the Fascist face beneath. Down at the bottom of the Ramblas, near the quay, I came upon a queer sight: a row of militiamen, still ragged and muddy from the front, sprawling exhaustedly on the chairs placed there for the bootblacks. I knew who they wereâindeed, I recognized one of them. They were P.O.U.M. militiamen who had come down the line on the previous day to find that the P.O.U.M. had been suppressed, and had had to spend the night in the streets because their homes had been raided. Any P.O.U.M. militiaman who returned to Barcelona at this time had the choice of going straight into hiding or into jailânot a pleasant reception after three or four months in the line.
It was a queer situation that we were in. At night one was a hunted fugitive, but in the daytime one could live an almost normal life. Every house known to harbour P.O.U.M. supporters wasâor at any rate was likely to beâunder observation, and it was impossible to go to a hotel or boarding-house, because it had been decreed that on the arrival of a stranger the hotel-keeper must inform the police immediately. Practically this meant spending the night out of doors. In the daytime, on the other hand, in a town the size of Barcelona, you were fairly safe. The streets were thronged by Civil Guards, Assault Guards, Carabineros and ordinary police, besides God knows how many spies in plain clothes; still, they could not stop everyone who passed, and if you looked normal you might escape notice. The thing to do was to avoid hanging round P.O.U.M. buildings and going to cafés and restaurants where the waiters knew you by sight. I spent a long time that day, and the next, in having a bath at one of the public baths. This struck me as a good way of putting in the time and keeping out of sight.
Download
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.
France | Germany |
Great Britain | Greece |
Italy | Rome |
Russia | Spain & Portugal |
Fanny Burney by Claire Harman(25792)
Empire of the Sikhs by Patwant Singh(22185)
Out of India by Michael Foss(16315)
Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson(11919)
Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult(6108)
The Six Wives Of Henry VIII (WOMEN IN HISTORY) by Fraser Antonia(4799)
The Wind in My Hair by Masih Alinejad(4427)
The Lonely City by Olivia Laing(4127)
The Crown by Robert Lacey(4115)
A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership by James Comey(4039)
The Iron Duke by The Iron Duke(3650)
Millionaire: The Philanderer, Gambler, and Duelist Who Invented Modern Finance by Janet Gleeson(3576)
Sticky Fingers by Joe Hagan(3456)
Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read(3320)
Papillon (English) by Henri Charrière(3280)
Joan of Arc by Mary Gordon(3270)
Stalin by Stephen Kotkin(3091)
Aleister Crowley: The Biography by Tobias Churton(3026)
Ants Among Elephants by Sujatha Gidla(2928)