The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-09-18
A ROMANTIC STORY,
Tho Playing of Old, Familiar Music Re-
wives a Man from Trance.

Tho Playing of Old, Familiar Music Re-
wives a Man from Trance.
Among the men of Spanish regi-
ment sent to Havana about two years
ago, was a certain ung Galician, a
raw recruit, who became a prey to the
most intense form of nostalgia after
very brief sojourn in that lovely, but
feverish land, which has already de-
voured more than one hundred thou
sand soldier lives. The young recruits
condition became desperate - then
changed suddenly into catalepsy. All
efforts to revive him proved useless;
finally the physicians attempted to sus-
tain life by forcing open the soldiers
mouth and pouring milk into his stom-
ach. The effort was successful, and
life was maintained week after week
by artificial means. But still the trance
could not be broken. Six months
passed. and the soldier had neither
spoken nor moved. His limbs, inert
but flexible, preserved any position
into which they were thrown-he would
remain sitting if placed in a sitting
posture, or even standing, if perfectly
balanced upon his feet; but otherwise
he continued lfeless as a statue. After
the lapse of one whole year there
was no change in his condition. Fiji
teen months passed-ei- hteen months
an Unprecedented phenomenon! Then
one of the attending physicians sent
for munera Ga popular stringed in
strument peculiar to Northern SPAIN
and ordered fellow countryman of
the patient to play some of the old
mountain airs upon it. The effect of
the music was like witchcraft; the fixed
eyes frightened, the long torpid
muscles of the face began to culver
with such a trembling as the dead
might feel at the first great summons
of the resurrection. Astonished, the
physician babe the musician continues;
while another compatriot took the suf-
ferer's unresisting hand and talked to
him in the dialect of his own mountain
village. He neither moved nor spoke,
but the tears began to stream from his
eyes so profusely that, fearing the re-
| suit of too much emotion, the expert
ment was stopped. Then two days
later the muneira was again brought
in and the signs of life increased with
its playing; the face resumed its natural
color, the gaze its intelligence, the
brain its functions. And gradually
after many days of this musical heal
ing, vital force returnedand the soldier,
one more well and strong, was able to
leave the hospital forever. Needless to
relate what profound feeling this in
| cident produced among the Spaniards
of Havana-all of whom doubtless
love their native land not less dearly
than the simple soldier whose affection
for it had so nearly condemned him to
the grave, and who had been literally
awakened from the death sleep by the
voice of that land, speaking to him
across the broad seas through the
clumsy chords of a muneira. But
these Spaniards have a charming and
impulsive way of exhibiting sympathy
they do not merely utter words and
extend hands. In this case they made
the object of their interest a happy
man-richer than most of his people
at home, for he carries back with him
to his mountain village the snug little
sum of SIS, 000-quite q fortune for any
Galacian peasant. Spite of revolution
ton. fever, bad government and finan
cial loss, the bond that fastens Cuba to
Spain will not be easily broken; it is 6
bond of flesh stronger than a tether Of
steel. Love is better safeguard OF
the foreign interests of the mother
country than are bayonets; and since
the day when Spanish ladies cut their
hair to weave it into the portrait of {
patriot, the affection of the Spanish
colonists for Spain has lost none of its
noble fire.-M. 0. Times Democrat.