The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-06-05

Madrid, excused himself by explaining
that he did not know the offended no.
b1eman's rank.
my friend" replied his grace. 'the
safe rule is to presume that everybody
IN the palace who looks like a monkey
Is q grandee of the first class"
But for the startling frankness of
che duke-which seems quite the re-
verse of Spanish-nothing could be
more characteristic than this anecdote,
true or false. At one stroke il dis
plays the inordinate pride of pedigree
which makes Spanish %grandees more
plenty than Kentucky colonies. and
exposes the utter worthlessness of the
stock.
The truth is. the Spanish are a thor
pughly mongrel race. and their conceit
of themselves amaZes us. Their coun-
try has probably been oftener overrun
and conquered than any other territory
of equal extent in Europe. Phoenician.
C~arthaginian. Roman. Nandal. Nisi-
goth and Moor have all successfully
made IL their stamping ground. to say
nothing of the more peaceful invasion
of the thrifty but bitterly hated Jews
and the effect of all this upon the
'.pure Castilian blood" whatever that
may be, is indelibly stamped on every
really Spanish face.
But playing the gentleman has been
called 1.-THE endemic disease of Spain"
and the national vanity is something
xrotesUue. One of their historians Sc
riousiy advanced the theory that the
first Inhabitants of h country ar
rived by air." so impressed was he by
their superhuman qualities that moth
ing short of a descent from the sky
could account for them. A subsequent
historian, however. after a long and
grave discussion of the question, final
~ announced his opinion that they
more probably came by land"
After this we need not be ~astonished
that the Spanish claim to possess the
oldest families in Europe. The sur
prising circumstances is that the claim
Is not wholly without foundation.
Their family names can i'm some cases
be traced back to an incredibly remote
period. though IL must not be assumed
that the original blood exists in any
purity.
Probably the most ancient family in
Spain lis the house of Pacheco, whose
estates are not far from Carteia, now
called Cartaya, I'm Andalusia. Plutarch
tells us that when Crassus fled from
Italy he concealed himself for eight
months at Ximena, near Carteia. in
caves belonging to a Spanish gentle
man named Paciccus. Cicero also
mentions this generous ~Spaniard, and
there can be no doubt that he was
one Oh lnt d1tfSlblS VI ~ nv
family. whose name is obviously de-
rived from his. and who still own the
caves. This carries them back about
1000 years. to a period "antedating the
Christian era: but Ii is possible TO trace
the line much further. The name is
clearly of Phoenician origin. being ul-
zimately derived from "pataicoi." the
word by which the Tyrians designated
the carved figure heads of their gall
Ieys. The Identification is made COM
plete by the fact that the Phoeni-
clans were the founders of Cardeia, as
OF Cadiz i'm the same province.
adds another thousand years or so to
the Pacheco pedigree. Think of TIA
landed estate remaining i'm the posses
sion of the same family for 5000 years!
This is doubtless the most wonderful
family tree in the world, and unusual
w well authenticated. The Pachecos
may well be p~ardoned for taking pride
in IL, though il roots in rather unsav-
DRY soil at last, for the great original
Pacheco Vas evidently a Tyrian free
booter.
Names hat trace back to the Car
fhaginian occupation in the time of
Hannibal are also found. and the title
of H~annibaI own clan. Barca, IL per-
by the Barcias n Garcias,
well known families of Andalusia.
There are also several names of Ro-
man antecedents-as Ponce and Cano,
in Latin Pontius and Canius. A Span
Ssh gentleman bearing the latter name
was a personal friend of the poet Mar
tial: all of which seems to bring an
fiuuity very near-in Spain. The fact
OF the matter is, she has never emerged
from antiquity; Roman n Cartha-
ginian methods persist like the names.
The Spanish. however. are inclined to
look back to the Goths as the purest
- Tltz a. se N ~ ~
seems a strange perversion Of senti-
ment, for of all the barbarians that
came down from the north to lay
waste Roman civilization with fire and
sword, the Goths. with their cousins,
the Vandals. were the most irredeem-
ably villainous. From them unhappy
Spain has derived much of her intoler-
ance and bigotry. and that atrocious
system of legalized injustice which
found its final expression in the In
cuisition: also the Grass and conceited
ignorance. and the almost oriental in
capacity for truth. which are so prom
inent in all her u~tterances. And these
Goths were no extraordinary heroes
either, even in war. With the same
supine and braggart incompetency
which their alleged descendants are
manifest.ng to-day. they lost to the
Moors In the eight months campaign
a supremacy which IL cost eight GEN.
turies Of conflict to regain. Yet Goth
ic gentlemen Of Spain is the pet
phrase.
To a rank outsider IL would seem
tina the Basque families have the
most honorable lineage. and their pedi-
grees run back to time immemorial,
though not easily traceable. The
Basques represent the original popula-
ton of the Spanish peninsula. Their
seat Is in the mountains of the north
ern district, and in many way they
remind us Of the Welsh. They have
the same simplicity of life: and the
same really ~justiiabie pride Of birth,
for their blood is the purest in Spain,
IL that counts for anything. Like the
Welsh. also. they have, TO a consider
able extent. maintained their ancient
language, one of the strangest which
survives upon the earth, bearing no re-
semblance to any other spoken in Eu-
rope. These Basque families for the
most part bear names which appear 70
- oaa2r1nh1na in fhair origin as