The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1898-04-13
Spain the Same Yesterday
and To-day.

and To-day.
Well may all nations of this CEN
tury stand appalled, at the story told
by Senator Proctor Of the horrible
condition of the inhabitants of Cuba
Of no other nation save Turkey alone
could such stories be told, but the
Spain of the Sixteenth century in
Europe and America is the Spain of
to-day ; brutal, bigoted. ignorant and
obstinate What is said now of Spain
In Cuba has been told of Spain at
home, of Spain in the Netherlands,
Of Spain among the American In
dians the ages change Spain not
the least. Commerce passes her by ;
the ages of science and discovery do
not enligbten Spain. and Weyler of
1898 is the legitimate successor of
Torquemada aud the Duke of Alva.
Motley tells US that during the
eighteen years of Torouemada's ad
ministration of the Inquisition, 10,-
220 individuals were burned alive.
aud 97.321 were puoished with iu
famy. confscation of property or
perpetual imprisonment. so that this
one friar destroyed 114,401 families.
Naturally when Charles V. pro
posed to establish this Spanish inqui
sition in the Netherlands, the Neither
lands reyolted.
In the Netherlands Ava organized
his Council Of Blood Here is Mot
ley's description of its work
..Tbus the whole country became
charnelhouse the death bell tolled
hourly in every village not family
but was called to mourn for the dear
est relatives, while the survivors
stalked listlessly about, the ghosts Of
their former selves among the wrecks
of their former homes 'rhe spirit of
the nation, within few months after
the arrival of Alva, seemed hopeless
" broken The blood Of the best
and bravest had already stained the
scafold Z; the men to whom it had
been accustomed to look for guild
andce and protection were dead. in
prison or in exile. The scafolds, the
gallows. the funeral pyres, which had
been sufficient in ordinary times furn.
ished now an entirely inadequate ma
chinery for the incessant executions.
Columns and stakes in every street !;
the door posts of private houses. the
fences in the fields were ladened with
human carcasses. strangled. burned,
>bebeaded. The orchards in the coun
try bore on many tree the hideous
fruit Of human bodies "
This is the story Of the Spaniard
in Europe; it is reproduced when we
read of the Spaniard in Mexico and
Peru. Indians" says Fiske, in
writing of Peru, ..Indians were
slaughtered by the hundred. burned
alive. impaled on sharp stakes, torn
to pieces by bloodhounds In retail
alton for the murder of Spaniard it
was thought proper to cali fifty or
sixty Indians and chop their heads
of. Little children we're flung into
the water to drown vita less concern
than if they had been puppies In
the mingling of sacred IDEAS with the
sneerest deviltry, there was gro
tesqueness fit for the pencil of Dore
Once in honor of Christ aud His
twelve apostles, they hanged thirteen
Indians in a row at such height that
their toes could just touch the
ground. aud then pricked them to
death with their sword points. taking
care not to kill them quickly
The story is too well known and
too horrible to be repeated at further
length 1t is the same bloody record
of brutality from beginning to end !;
story il which Spain is ever the
foe OF civilization, of humanity, Of
freedom, and the apostle of bigotry.
cruelty and despotism.
AS Spain was then, so is she to-
day in,Cuba /; more feeble, it is true,
but because feeble, more cruel. She
sees power slipping from her, and
she clings to it with the tenacity Of
despair.
Let Spain and Turkey remain TO
blot the map of Europe if Europe
Will have it so. but the time has come
TO close the history of Spain in the
New World, after Eve hundred years
of almost uninterrupted savagery and
bloodshed Home and Farm
Most Cordial Sympathy.