The Portland daily press., 1898-05-18
sPAIN's.AsToUNDING IGNORANCE.
ia 10 t(Chicago Chronicle,

Iheqfo1lowing letter, DATED at Paris,
April 2SS was sent by an American stu
Dent there to his mother in Chicago. It is
interesting as showing Spanish ignorance
this country Certain por-
tlons OF the letter have been omitted as
tney related to the personal affairs of the
writer. The remainder is as follows:
. One OF the students here, an Ohio boy.
studied for two years in Madrid and his
former teacher, Martalan, sent him a
bundle Of Spanish papers, some of them
containing marked references to America
and American affairs. Parkinson, who
received them, brought them up to the
studio night or two ago, and he let me
keep a number, after we had both
laughed heartily over the whole batch.
Mind you, these ludicrous mistakes
newspapers, but were common to nearly
all OF the Spanish press represented. This
is not astonishing when one considers
that statistics show thats67 per cent. OF
the Spanish pc pulation can neither read
nor write, and that an infnitesimal per-
centage carry on the correspondence for
the whole nation. Park says the schools
are of the most elementary character. and
even the universities of Madrid and else
where are unworthy of comparison with
really serious institutions of learning.
Of the remaining 50 per cent of popula-
ton comprising what may be termed the
intelligent class, not more than ten per
cent have ever travelled beyond Rome or
Paris, land five minutes conversation
with one of them will prove that his edu-
cation is confined to the classics and q
sketchy outline of modern and European
literature, politics and history.
Madrid journalists. my friend Parkin-
son tells me, although they pretend to
mould public opinion there. are no more
intelligent than the others; and certainly
the samples of their work sent by his
teacher would sem to bear him out. For
Madrid newspaper and one which COM
pares itself with the Temps here. or the
Times of London, under the date Of April
says in its principal editorial article:
''But behind and beyond the natural
fear of Americans to meet the brave
Spanish army upon land or our gallant
navy upon the sea, is the danger the
Yankee republic runs of facing reyolu.
ton at home. 1t is q fact we'll known to
all European statesmen that only BY
means of armed forces stationed in the
late Confederate States has the Washing
frr, hoon o1, To kLo
semblance of peace. Even now the new
generation of the Confederacy is but
waiting for the word to revolt. When
war is declared, General Lee, who has
been consul general at Havana, and who
was kicked out Of Cuba by Governor
General Blanco, will raise the standard
of revolt and the old Southern Confedera-
oy. This Lee, is the same Lee who was
general-in-chief of the Civil war in 1850
to 1856, and whose surrender to General
Lincoln in the last named year broke the
revolution. His acts at Havana were for
the purpose of plunging the government
into war with the Kingdom OF Spain, at
which time he and his followers would
rise against Senior Mackindley.
''It Is not likely that Spain will find
the United States opposing her, for the
SoVoruiHoHb Ab WdsHiug VII VIII po pusl1y
engaged in putting down civil war.
Another newspaper, Ell Heraldo de
Madrid, of much later date, said: Cali
the troops of the Yankees are in the far
western part of the country, many thou
sand miles from the Atlantic coast.
There are only few thousand men all
told, and they are Ill paid and lifted
and not willing to fight. 10 utilize this
force it will be necessary to bring 1T to
the eastern seaboard. There is but one
railway by which it can be transported,
and that is an old and poorly constructed
affair. At one place this railroad passes
over Niagara Falls, cataract l, 600 feet
high, near Labrador. At last accounts
the bridge at this place was in very dan
gerous condition. 1t need surprise no
one to hear that some agency had made 1T
still more so. 1t would serve the hateful
pigs of, Yankees right If their miserable
rlny was thus drowned.
In afiother part of the same newspaper
correspondent suggests that the Spanish
fleet run over to America, which he says
it could do in four days from Cadlz, and
seasports. The Diario issues an extra,
saying: w. puo,,dan+o N1aac,n,u
committed suicide for fear the Spanish
fleet would capture New York. The
next day it corrects this and says that he
died from wound inflicted by brave
Spaniard. In biographical sketch of
several Americans the Diario says. Mag.
ginly is a naturalized Chinaman, having
been born at Canton"
The impartial and the TEMPO. under
the date of April 20, both have dispatches
from Havana saying:
WORD has Just been received here that
the Indians are rising against the Yam
KEGS in Illinois, Ohio and other places.
The farmers are petitioning the govern
ment to protect them from the blood
thirsty savages, who are burning houses
and killing on every side. Troops are
asked for at Colorado. in the State of
DIIesnyer, and at St. Louis (San Luis), in
Missipa.''
The impartial in the same Issue said:
we have repeatedly called attention to
tne lacb that the Americans are ignorant
swine who cannot take care of themselves
under any circumstances. That they
are are 81 imbeciies is shown by the fact that at
Philadelphia the other day a boiler burst
in cigar factory and killed twenty sew
en- people; And these are the people who
dare to defy md insult the Spaniards,