Description Show and Tell

Here follows the opening of "Pamplona in July," an essay by Ernest Hemmingway, published in 1923.

In Pamplona, a white-walled, sun-baked town high up in the hills of Navarre,
is held in the first two weeks of July each year the World's Series of bull
fighting.

Bull fight fans from all Spain jam into the little town. Hotels double
their prices and fill every room. The cafes under the wide arcades that
run around the Plaza de la Constitucion have every table crowded, the tall
Pilgrim Father sombreros of Andalusia sitting over the same table with straw
hats from Madrid and the flat blue Basque caps of Navarre and the Basque
country.

Really beautiful girls, gorgeous, bright shawls over their shoulders, dark,
dark-eyed, black lace mantillas over their hair, walk with their escorts in the
crowds that pass from morning until night along the narrow walk that runs
between inner and outer belts of cafe tables under the shade of the arcade out
of the white glare of the Plaza de la Constitucion. All day and all night
there is dancing in the streets. Bands of blue-shirted peasants whirl and
lift and swing behind a drum, fife and reed instruments in the ancient Basque
Riau-Riau dances. And at night, there is the throb of the big drums and
the military band as the whole town dances in the great open square of the
Plaza.

Here, Hemmingway places us, so we are ready to hear his tale. We can see the people, the crowd, the color, the dancing. I especially like his method of describing
people by the hats they wear in the second paragraph. This not only gives us a picture of the scene, it also demonstrates the unity spurred by this event. Different people from all parts of Spain (and beyond, since Hemingway is American) have
crowded into this town for the spectacle of the bull running.