Trigo put in his oar and uttered a number of preposterous statements. In
particular, he described a ship which had unloaded at Milan. When
Regoyos pointed out that Milan was not a seaport, he replied:
"Probably it was some other place then. What is the difference?"
He continued with a string of geographical and anthropological blunders,
which were concurred in by the journalist, while Regoyos and I sat by in
amazement.
When we left the cafe, Regoyos inquired:
"Could they have been joking?"
"No; nonsense. They do not believe that such things are worth knowing.
They think they are petty details which might be useful to railway
porters. Trigo imagines that he is a magician, who understands the
female mind."
"Well, does he?" asked Regoyos, with naive innocence.
"How can he understand anything? The poor fellow is ignorant. His other
attainments are on a par with his geography."
The ignorance of authors and journalists is accompanied as a matter of
course by a total want of comprehension. A number of years ago, a rich
young man called at my house, intending to found a review. During the
conversation, he explained that he was a Murcian, a lawyer and a
follower of Maura.
Finally, after expounding his literary ideas, he informed me that
Ricardo Leon, who at that time had just published his first novel,
would, in his opinion, come to be acknowledged as the first novelist of
Europe.
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