6 CASINO CHARACTERS

Al llegar el invierno, las noches largas y frías hicieron a Hurtado buscar un refugio
fuera de casa, donde distraerse y pasar el tiempo. Comenzó a ir al casino de Alcolea.
Este casino, "La Fraternidad", era un vestigio del antiguo esplendor del pueblo;
tenía salones inmensos, mal decorados, espejos de cuerpo entero, varias mesas de billar y una pequeña biblioteca con algunos libros. Entre la generalidad de los tipos vulgares, oscuros, borrosos que iban al casino a leer los periódicos y hablar de política, había dos personajes verdaderamente pintorescos.

Uno de ellos era el pianista; el otro, un tal don Blas Carreño, hidalgo acomodado de Alcolea. Andrés llegó a intimar bastante con los dos.
El pianista era un viejo flaco, afeitado, de cara estrecha, larga y anteojos de gruesas
lentes. Vestía de negro y accionaba al hablar de una manera un tanto afeminada. Era al mismo tiempo organista de la iglesia, lo que le daba cierto aspecto eclesiástico. El otro señor, don Blas Carreño, también era flaco; pero más alto, de nariz aguileña, pelo entrecano, tez cetrina y aspecto marcial. Este buen hidalgo había llegado a identificarse con la vida antigua y a convencerse
de que la gente discurría y obraba como los tipos de las obras españolas clásicas, de tal manera, que había ido poco a poco arcaizando su lenguaje, y entre burlas y veras hablaba con el alambicamiento de los personajes de Feliciano de Silva, que tanto encantaba a Don Quijote.

WHEN the winter came, the long cold nights made
Hurtado seek a refuge outside where he might
amuse himself and pass the time. He began to frequent
the casino of Alcolea.
This casino, called Fraternity, was a remnant of the
former splendour of the town. It had huge rooms badly
decorated, great mirrors, several billiard tables, and a
library containing a few books.
Among the mass of commonplace, indeterminate
characters who went to the casino to read the newspapers
and talk about politics there were two persons who were
truly picturesque.
One of these was the Casino pianist; the other, a certain
Don Blas Carreno, was a well-to-do gentleman of
the town.
Andres became fairly intimate with both of them.
The pianist was a thin, clean-shaven old man with a
long, narrow face and thick spectacles. He dressed in
black and gesticulated in a rather effeminate way; he was
also organist of the parish church, and this gave him a
half-ecclesiastical air.
The other man was also thin, but taller, with an aquiline
nose, grey hair, a sallow complexion, and martial
air.
This good hidalgo had become a part of the life of
centuries ago and had succeeded in convincing himself
that people spoke and acted like the characters in the
classics of Spanish literature; his language had gradually
grown archaic and, half in fun, half in earnest,
he spoke in the fantastic style of the characters in Feliciano
de Silva which so enchanted Don Quixote.

El pianista imitaba a Carreño y le tenía como modelo. Al saludar a Andrés, le dijo:
—Este mi señor don Blas, querido y agareno amigo, ha tenido la dignación de
presentarme a su merced como un hijo predilecto de Euterpe; pero no soy, aunque me pesa, y su merced lo habrá podido comprobar con el arrayán de su buen juicio, más que un pobre, cuanto humilde aficionado al trato de las Musas, que labora con estas sus torpes manos en amenizar las veladas de los socios, en las frigidísimas noches del helado invierno.

 

Don Blas escuchaba a su discípulo sonriendo. Andrés, al oír a aquel señor
expresarse así, creyó que se trataba de un loco; pero luego vio que no, que el pianista era una persona de buen sentido.

Únicamente ocurría, que tanto don Blas como él, habían tomado la costumbre de
hablar de esta manera enfática y altisonante hasta familiarizarse con ella. Tenían frases hechas, que las empleaban a cada paso: el ascua de la inteligencia, la flecha de la sabiduría, el collar de perlas de las observaciones juiciosas, el jardín del buen decir...
Don Blas le invitó a Hurtado a ir a su casa y le mostró su biblioteca con varios
armarios llenos de libros españoles y latinos. Don Blas la puso a disposición del nuevo médico.
—Si alguno de estos libros le interesa a usted, puede usted llevárselo —le dijo
Carreño.
—Ya aprovecharé su ofrecimiento.
Don Blas era para Andrés un caso digno de estudio. A pesar de su inteligencia no
notaba lo que pasaba a su alrededor; la crueldad de la vida en Alcolea, la explotación inicua de los miserables por los ricos, la falta de instinto social, nada de esto para él existía, y si existía tenía un carácter de cosa libresca, servía para decir:
—Dice Scaligero... o: Afirma Huarte en su “Examen de ingenios”...

The pianist took Carreno for his model and imitated
his style. On making the acquaintance of Andres he said:
"My dear friend Don Blas has introduced me to you
as a favoured child of Euterpe; but unfortunately I am
but a poor and humble follower of the Muses, as the
fine myrtle of your intelligence will have perceived, and
I am forced to use my unskilful hands to render agreeable
evening entertainment at the club these icy winter
nights."
Don Blas listened smilingly to his disciple. Andres at
first thought that he must be a lunatic, but presently
found that, on the contrary, the pianist was a man of
good sense. It was merely that both Don Blas and he
had taken to speaking in this emphatic, high-sounding
way until it had become a habit. They had certain readymade
phrases which they were always using, such as the
forge of the intelligence, the arrowú of wisdom, the pearl
necklace of wise sayings, the gardet. of good style--
Don Blas invited Hurtado to his house, and showed
him his library with several book-cases full of Spanish
and Latin books. He put these at the disposal \)f the
new doctor.
"If any one of these books interests you, take it away
with you," he said.
"I will certainly avail myself of your offer." ' To Andres Don Blas was an inte~esting case;although he was intelligent he noticed nothing of that
went on around him; the cruelty of existence 'in Alco lea,
the wicked exploitation of the poor by the rich, the lack
of social instinct; nothing of all this existed for him, and
if it did, it took on a bookish atmosphere, and served
to introduce such remarks as "Scaliger says" or "Huarte
states in his Speculations on Talent--''

Don Blas era un hombre extraordinario, sin nervios; para él no había calor, ni frío, ni placer ni dolor. Una vez dos socios del casino le gastaron una broma trascendental; le llevaron a cenar a una venta y le dieron a propósito unas migas detestables, que parecían de arena, diciéndole que eran las verdaderas migas del país, y don Blas las encontró tan
excelentes y las elogió de tal modo y con tales hipérboles, que llegó a convencer a sus amigos de su bondad.

El manjar más insulso, si se lo daban diciendo que estaba hecho con una receta antigua y que figuraba en “La Lozana Andaluza”, le parecía maravilloso. En su casa gozaba ofreciendo a sus amigos sus golosinas.

—Tome usted esos melindres, que me han traído expresamente de Yepes...; esta
agua no la beberá usted en todas partes, es de la fuente del Maillo. Don Blas vivía en plena arbitrariedad; para él había gente que no tenía derecho a nada; en cambio otros lo merecían todo. ¿Por qué?

Probablemente porque sí. Decía don Blas que odiaba a las mujeres, que le habían engañado siempre; pero no era verdad; en el fondo esta actitud suya servía para citar trozos de Marcial, de Juvenal, de Quevedo...

Don Blas was an extraordinary man and he had
no nerves; for him heat and cold, pleasure and pain
had no existence. Once two members of the club, for a
practical joke, took him to supper at a wayside tavern
and set before him a horrible mash like sand, saying
that it was the characteristic dish of the country. He
found it so good and gave it such extravagant praise
that he ended by convincing his friends of its excellence.
The most insipid food, if he were told that it was
made from an ancient recipe and was to be found m
The Luxury of Andalusia, seemed to him exquisite.
In his own house he took much pleasure in offering
his friends special delicacies: "biscuits brought express\
y from Yepes; water, such as one cannot drink
everyvhere, from the spring of Maillo."
His scheme of life was perfectly arbitrary; he considereC:
that some people had no right to anything and
some people had a right to everything. Why? Probably
because he chose to think so.
He said that he hated women, and that they had always
betrayed him, although this was not the case; really
he adopted this attitude in order to quote passages from
Martial, Juvenal, and Quevedo.

 

A sus criados y labriegos don Blas les llamaba galopines, bellacos, follones, casi
siempre sin motivo, sólo por el gusto de emplear estas palabras baroja_scas.

Otra cosa que le encantaba a don Blas era citar los pueblos con sus nombres
antiguos: Estábamos una vez en Alcázar de San Juan, la antigua Alce... En Baeza, la Biatra de Ptolomeo, nos encontramos un día...
Andrés y don Blas se asombraban mutuamente. Andrés se decía:
—¡Pensar que este hombre y otros muchos como él viven en esta mentira,
envenenados con los restos de una literatura, y de una palabrería amanerada es verdaderamente extraordinario! En cambio, don Blas miraba a Andrés sonriendo, y pensaba: ¡Qué hombre más raro! Varias veces discutieron acerca de religión, de política, de la doctrina evolucionista. Estas cosas del darwinismo como decía él, le parecían a don Blas cosas inventadas para divertirse. Para él los datos comprobados no significaban nada. Creía en el fondo que se escribía para demostrar ingenio, no para
exponer ideas con claridad, y que la investigación de un sabio se echaba abajo con una frase graciosa.

Don Blas used to call his servants and workmen
knaves, rogues, and scoundrels, usually without any reason
and simply to employ words l!Aed in Don Quixote.
Another of his manias was to give towns their ancient
names: "We were once at Alcazar de San Juan, the
former Alce; at Baeza, the Biatra of Ptolemy," and so on.
Andres and Don Blas were a continhal source of astonishment
to each other. Andres used to say to himself:
"It is really amazing that this man and many others
like him can live this false existence, poisoned by the
remains of a literature and an empty wordiness filled
with mannerisms."
On the other hand, Don Blas would look smilingly at
Andres and think: "What a strange man!"
They had several discussions on the subject of religion, politics, and the theory of evolution. Darwinism
to Don Blas seemed a mere game; for him proved facts
had no significance. He believed really that authors wrote
in order to show how clever they were; not to set forth
ideas clearly, and that learned investigations could be
overthrown by a witty phrase.

A pesar de su divergencia, don Blas no le era antipático a Hurtado.
El que sí le era antipático e insoportable era un jovencito, hijo de un usurero, que en Alcolea pasaba por un prodigio, y que iba con frecuencia al casino. Este joven, abogado, había leído algunas revistas francesas reaccionarias, y se creía en el centro del mundo.

Decía que él contemplaba todo con una sonrisa irónica y piadosa.
Creía también que se podía hablar de filosofía empleando los lugares comunes del casticismo español, y que Balmes era un gran filósofo.
Varias veces el joven, que contemplaba todo con una sonrisa irónica y piadosa,
invitó a Hurtado a discutir; pero Andrés rehuyó la discusión con aquel hombre que, a pesar de su barniz de cultura, le parecía de una imbecilidad fundamental.
Esta sentencia de Demócrito, que había leído en la Historia del Materialismo de
Lange, le parecía a Andrés muy exacta. El que ama la contradicción y la verbosidad, es incapaz de aprender nada que sea serio.

Although they differed, Hurtado did not dislike Don
Blas.
On the other hand there was a young person, the son
of a money-lender, whom he found unbearable; this
youth, who was considered a prodigy at Alcolea, often
went to the Casino. He was a lawyer and having read a
few reactionary French reviews, considered himself the
centre of the universe.
He affected to view everything with a smile of pity
and irony. He thought that one could discuss philosophy
in the familiar commonplaces of the Spanish classics and
that Balmes was a great philosopher.
Several times the young man, who contemplated everything
with a smile of pity and irony, attempted to draw
Hurtado into argument, but Andres avoided discussion
with one whom, despite his superficial culture, he considered
essentially foolish.
A sentence of. Democritus, which he had read in
Lange's History of Materialism, seemed to him very
true: "He who is fond of controversy and wordiness 1s
incapable of learning anything serious