The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-05-13

|
| thing Our own Highlander
has precisely the same quality in the same
| degree, and till a very recent period he
| also dressed the part. There is something
very impressive about this feeling, partc-
| ularly when it leads, as it often does, TO
| the endurance of immense risks, and 1t Is
a little perplexing to know from what root
| it ultimately springs. It is a matter of
race, some say; but there is no knsnip
of race between the Highlander, who is
Celt, a little crossed with Norseman, and
the Iberan, who comes probably from the
same stock as the Mongol-it remains pure
in Biscay-deeply crossed with the Visi-
goth and with a trace, varying in quantity
in each province, of Semitic blood. 1t is
his history, say others; but, though the
Spaniard has a great history, we do not
know that it is greater than that of the
Frenchman or the Englishman, while it is
not so great as that of the Italian. IL
does not come from pride of pedigree, for
the common Spaniard does not know his
pedigree any more than his rival in any
other nation; and it does not come from
pride of career, for it shows it just as
much, perhaps more, If he has done Moth
ing but loaf.
Our own theory is that it springs from
soldership; that the Spaniard, like the
centuries past, has got the soldier char
of appearing dignihed. the tendency TO
Incidence when off duty, the instructive
loneliness about grade, the personal pride
as of the man who faces death while 9TH
er men only live. Certainly the Spaniard
has it, and it makes him on occasion one
of the most TO be respected, and on occa-
sion one of the most irrational of Gods
creatures. He seems when his pride is
don. a
put aside the greatest temptation, or act
with the greatest folly, according to he
provocaion.
1t is. we believe, of his pride, united TO
his other and worse quality, callousness,
that the Spaniard's reputation for cruelty,
which as run down through all the ages,
has been born. 1t may be doubted II he
hurts anybody for the sake of hurting,
though he has not the general European
idea of the value of human life-neither
had the Roman-but he regards any rebel
as one who has insulted him, and who
must be chastised until he is obedient
again. He will utterly crush, to his own
injury very often, rather than not be mas
ter, and acknowledged master. The feel
ing seems to be entirely independent alike
of race and color. During the terrible
wars of independence in South America,
the true history of which has never been
written, the Spaniard treated rebel Span
iards Just as he treated Indians" at the
time of the congressional is, he, when
ever that seemed the only way, slaught-
cred them without mercy. He does the
same to-day in Cuba, and from the same
motive. He must, however, be callous as
well as proud, or he could not let women
and children die of want, or exult in the
risk to human life,which is, after all apol-
ogies have been made, the true source of
excitement in a bull-hght. That callous-
ness may be the result, as 1t was 10 the
Roman, of centuries of battle, or 1t may
be survival from his original forefathers,
who it seems almost certain descended
from some tribe akin in language and
characteristics to the Mohgol the race in
which, of all the greater divisions of the
human family, the sentiment of pity is
most weak. Even negro feels more for
the suffering than Tartar or a Chinese.
To complete our appreciation of char
acter which, with all its faults. evokes
sympathy for a certain underlying noble-
ness that on unexpected occasions becomes
motive force, we must add that the Span
lard, brave proud and self-dominatlng as
he is, has some hidden root of inefiiciency.
He never quite succeeds. With every re-
quisite for great army he has never yet
made one that permanently conquered. He
has never succeeded in keeping Portugal,
which is almost indispensable 10 his safety.
His ships. often splenddly fought have
never won a great engagement. He has
never made government which contented
him, and with every wish for wealth and
magnificent estate he has remained poor.
He does not wrestle vigorously with his
modern difficulties. such as tenure, and the
continuous emptiness of his exchequer, and,
in fact, to be brief, does not succeed in re-
alizing his wishes. Something, in fact, pre-
vents his applying his strength, which is
great, in the right direction, and so he
falls back exhausted, leaving the evil unre-
moved for the blessing unattained. What
the cause of that futiity, which has reap
peared throughout the whole course of his
domestic history, can possibly be must be
left to himself to discover He himself Is
aware Of 1t, and suggests as the cause
with a demure smile, that heaven Is en-
vlous of Spain. He will grow serious on
the subject one day, and when he does
there will be a revolution in Spain such as
the world never saw and perhaps a career
for Spain such as shall once for all make
her irritable pride serene