Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-01-23
ChiIians as a PeDDie

Not all readers of the daily press, per
hsps, understand exactly the situation 10
ell its aspects of the CHILEAN question. If
we are to 60 to war with Chilli it goes
without saying that Chill must be over
whelmingly defeated sooner or later in
the strife. But it may be well enough TO
know, and to consider that the C6iliars
as race or people are not to be de
spised. LAS cruel as q Spaniard" has
become proverbisl, and the ferocity of
the men who under Alva burned heretics,
ard regardless of religion murdered men
and outraged women in the Netherlands,
who under Certez tornCd the Aztec en-
pire into slaughter house, ard under
Pizsrre made blood the cheapest thing in
Peru, seems to animate their descendants
today in Chill. Tie Cbiiians are of q
purer Spanish blood than any other race
on the American continent, and they are
at the ST ne time the bravest. the most
disciplined and the most cruel of the
Latin nations in the new world.
The infusion Of Indian blood in Chill is
but small, though in Peru, Paraguay, and
some other South American states it pre-
dominates. Foreign immigration has
changed the character of the Argentine
and the Uruguayan, but there has not
been enough of it to alter the CHILEAN
type, He is the genuine Spsniard of the
earlier centuries, transplanted to an
American home, and nowhere else can be
be found. 1t is curious fact that the
types of two great European nations as
they were two or three hundred years ago
are present in America while the nations
themselves have altered greatly. Thus
the Frenchman of Canada is the French
peasant of France of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries. and the French,
man OF France is altogether unlike his
ancestors. The Spanisrd OF Chill is still
the Spaniard OF Charles V and Philip
III, but the Spsniard at home has changed
The peasant of ancient Spain was war;
like and cruel; the peasant of modern
Spain may be cruel but he is not warlike.
The ChiliaDs are both. France and Spain
have planted colonies in the new world
that have stood still in mar ers and GUS.
toms, while the present nations have
marched on.
The recent civil war in Chill. resulting
in the overthrow of the Balmsceds goy-
rnmtnt. was, in proportion to the popu,
lstion and resources, almost as bloody
and desperate as our own war for the
preservation of the union. The Chiliar
in that conflict showed his early Spanish
characteristics and made the war more
like conflict between Sioux and Cbippe-
was than war conducted by ciyiliz ID
armies. Mercy was tossed to the winds
and determination was the cry of eth,
side. Prisoners were massacred, towns
were burned. the country laid waste, and
nothing was neglected that might add &c
the horrors of war.
The Gillian common soldier is q man
of wonderful strength and endurance, and
he can march and fight where the average
European or North American would
starve or die Of weakness While it is tc
be hoped that the resources of diplomacy
may be adequate to the settlement of oul
difference with Chill. it is certain that il
war must be the uliimatum, our people
will find Chill not only courageous bui
vindictive and relentless foe
Call on E. B. McKown for hard wooc
and soft COL Teiephone 4 .1gs