There was a Catalan guitar player, besides
some girls from Madrid who walked the tight rope, whom we used to invite
to join us at the cafe from time to time. And then there was a whole
host of other persons, all more or less shabby, down at the heel and
picturesque.
XIV
LITERARY ENMITIES
Making our entrance into the world of letters hurling contradictions
right and left, the young men of our generation were received by the
writers of established reputation with unfriendly demonstrations. As was
natural, this was not only the attitude of the older writers, but it
extended to our contemporaries in years as well, even to those who were
most modern.
THE ENMITY OF DICENTA
Among those who cherished a deadly hatred of me was Dicenta. It was an
antipathy which had its origin in the realm of ideas, and it was
accentuated subsequently by an article which I contributed to _El
Globo_ upon his drama _Aurora_, in which I maintained that
Dicenta was not a man of new or broad ideas, but completely preoccupied
with the ancient conceptions of honesty and honour. One night in the
Cafe Fornos--I am able to vouch for the truth of this incident because,
years afterwards, he told me the story himself--Dicenta accosted a young
man who was sitting at an adjacent table taking supper, and attempted to
draw him into discussion, under the impression that it was I.
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