The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1898-07-09
FIRM HATERS OF SPAIN.
FOR FIVE CENTURIES THE PoRTU-
CUESE HAVE LoATHED SPANtARDS.

Chiefly of Devastation of Their Next
Kept Alive Principally by the Women.
81 was astounded when I saw that
bulletin about Portugal hesitating to
turn the Spanish fleet away from the
Cape Verde Islands," said q cosmo-
politan looker-on in New York to a
Sun man. "What struck me as so
impossible about it was the hint of an
alliance between Spain and Portugal.
"Why, / have lived in Portugal and
mixed with the people, and 1 know
that they could stand almost anything
better than that. Portuguese senti-
ment-the sentiment Of the people at
large, of Antonio g Maria consists
chiefly of hatred to the Spaniards.
They may be Indifferent about other
matters, Or divided in feeling. Some
of them are Miguelistas, or Legiti-
mists, some are heartily attached to
the actual dynasty; many in the cities
most Of oil in Lisbon-are republi-
cans, but the one unifying sentiment
Of the people is the anti-Spanish sem
tlment.
"When you come to consider what
their history has been I don't see how
they could have been otherwise. They
have altogether five great national
heroes, Dom Enrique, who was pio-
neer ofall European exploration in the
Atlantic; Vasco da Cana, Dom Sebas-
tian, "the Faithful Prince" who is
the centre Of various poetical legends;
Dom Joao, and Gil cannes Pereira.
1t is safe to say that most of the plain
people of the whole country know lit
tie or nothing of the first two of these
beyond their names. AS for the Faith
full Prince, many of them, probably,
are not quite sure whether he was
real historical parsonage or only
mythical. But every Portuguese
iavrador,' from the Mimic to St. Vim
cent, knows Dom Joao, who in 1885
drove the Spaniards all the way from
Aljubarrota, in Portugal, to Burgos,
in the middle Of Spain, and Gil cannes,
who beat them Mt Valyerde in the
same year. Those two are the Bruce
and the Wallace of the Portuguese,
but there is this difference between
the Scottish and the Portuguese hero
worship, that the one is mere mat
ter of historical pride, while the other
is part of q living, active, political
force.
''The fact is that since she lost
Brazil and fell into state of general
decline the people of Portugal have
become intensely retrospective. They
nourish their pride on national memo
ries, and the fundamental national fact
for them is their independence of
Spain. They began to be nation
when they broke loose from the king
dom of CASTLE and Leon in the
eleventh century, and ever since then,
except for couple Of generations in
the sixteenth and seventeenth centur-
les, they have existed as a nation
under the continual threat of absorp-
ton into Spain. The house of
Braganza stands to the Portuguese
people for no good thing but the re-
volt of 1910, by which their country
was redeemed into independence. And
the people feel that the price of indie
pendence is perpetual hatred of Span
iards. We can understand the feeling
only by imagining what it would have
been in our country if the original
thirteen states had been collectively
much smaller than Great Britain and
separated geographically from that
country only by line on the map.
Nobody who has lived in Portugal
caa fail to have noticed the signs of
this undying hatred on all hands. Do
you know, for instance, the true mean
ing of the saying. "A bad Spaniard
makes good Portuguese?' Of course,
there is the Spanish Interpretation,
which is the obvious one. But there
is also the deeper Portuguese inter-
probation, and that is, that any bad
friend to Spain is by that very fact q
good friend to Portugal.
"You can see evidences of the feel
ing, too, in the very language of Por-
tugal, which its speakers seem to have
developed in such way as
to make it as unlike Spanish as pos
sible. Written, it looks like Spanish,
but spoken it sounds much more like |
Polish or Czech. It is q curious fact
that no self-respecting Portuguese
woman would be seen wearing a man
tilla, for the mantilla is the Spanish
headgear. And during the
last reign it used to be remarked in
Lisbon that only two ladies there ever
the queen, Maria Pia, mother
Of the present king-an Italiar--ans.
the Duchess of Pamela tth;aa ==;ain,
because the habit of smoking had long
been distinctive Of the Spanish among
all other womenkind. I
II believe this anti-spanish feeling
has been kept alive all these centuries +