The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1898-08-27
AS SPAN|ARDS .......
SAW War COME.
WHIT THEY THOUGHT AND WHAT
THEY FELT. s..
People OF Spain Were Calm Though
'he Newspapers Foamed and Lied
spanish Honor Of Arms ana
Cheerful Ability to Die-They are
Reserved Toward Foreigners
They Admit that They are Don
Quixotes, but Not sancho Panxas.


They Admit that They are Don
Quixotes,. but Not sancho Panxas.
William T. Brewster in New York
Commercial Advertiser: During the
spring OF this year I passed several weeks
IN Madrid. ard it happened that almost
the last days. Of my stay in the Spanish
capital fell in the Easter time. I was
there simply fors study; the expected
events of the week, however, which vir-
tually preceded the breaking out Of war
between Spain and the United States
were OF character to quench ones zeal
for classical study and to drive one into
the streets for hourly news. The time
was excellent for impressions-a time of
grave affairs, of startling runors, of gay
holiday air, Of high religious festivals
and the opening of the bull ring. It was
agreeable weather, too, for thrusting
yourself out Of doors: all the week the
sun smote gently down from a cloud
less, bright Spanish sky, and you revealed
IN its warmth until the trickling north
wind from the Guadarrama drove you in
when the sun had gone. Everybody else
was out during the day, and so you had
to quit your books and stroll about with
the crowd, seeing how this singular peo-
pie carried ITSELF especially in the shadow;
of coming danger.
Coming home enc night from the bull
ring you might for the first time in the
week have noticed something unusual
I'VE have passed the observance of the
week as our fathers would have done.
decorously and honorably, and have OPEN
ed the season successfully: let US now
turn to the minor affairs of the country
and see. what our government and the
puercos across the water have been do
ing Thus the large crowd assembled
in the Puerto del Sol between and Z
might have been thinking, but scarcely
remember noting it in any other way
than from it's size. After dinner heard
some cheering from the direction of the
square, about as much noise as a dozen
snail schoolboys would let loose over
touchdown, and once a couple of officers
under my window. cheered along by a
score of ragamuffins. It appeared, how
ever, that these people were H. OBJ and
the shouting the shouting Of rioters.
Late that night and the next morning
each paper had at least two columns
about the demonstration, and the civil
governor, in conspicuous posters, deemed
it his duty to announce that there had
been disturbances the dav before any
repetition of which he would suppress
most vigorously. 1t also appeared that
one of the officers was Carlist general;
he had been arrested for having address,
cd the crowd. On Monday guards were
Puerto del Sol and little was to be heard.
But to tell the truth, it would have re-
CURED a very acute eye to divine from
what was PASSING in the streets that
grave trouble was ahead. The Spaniard,
as you saw him. was whether from diff
ference or laziness or contempt, or some
high trustfulness in the destiny of Spain,
/ cannot attempt to say, a being who
went about what little he had to do
quietly and with more heed to certain
antique customs than sense of present
danger and coming turmoil.
What struck me as curious and what
certainly spoke much for the Spaniard
was his quality of remaining unruffled
In the presence of, to say the least an
unreasonable press. The papers foamed
at the mouth about as often as they were
issued. They denounced any compromise.
and Yielding; fumed at America and
waxed warm over the deeds of their
ancestors. The worst of them printed
wild, nenda cous dispatches about Amer
lea and the generally weak. enervate.
good-for-nothing state of affairs in that
country. The best of them now and then
attempted some analysis Of document,
as of President McKinley's message, but
the analysis was never very penetrative
or long sustained. The leading article
was much more frequently an exhOrtatiOn
to the Spanish to stand firm and fight I'M
warrantable aggression. or glowing tri-
quite 10 the ancient glory ol the arms Oh
Spain and her modern honor, now
crudely Knocked at by the Yankees.
In what they had to print or this SUBJ
ject one found much interesting reading
and opportunity for generalization. If,
they were fond Of proclaiming, the
one-quarter of their population we" shall;
therefore. submit to their outrageous de-
mands, they deceive themselves Can a
nation of shop-keepers and pig-stickers-
such were their terms-combat success
fully with as, with the descendants of
soldiers who drove out of the Peninsula
the great Napoleon and his fierce war
riors. or Of the sailors who, had 1t not
been for the base fight of the French
would have Worsted the British at Ira
falgar? So too. one heard a good deal
about SagantIm and Numantia. to say
nothing about such less obsolete places
as Saragossa. In our own civil war, ac-
ccrding to the Spanish view. the only
valor of spirit Of arms was displayed by
the soldiers of the Confederacy; they, not
the northern armies. were "los alientes,"
had "honra.' So far as I could make out
from all their declaiming, the Spanish
idea of honor is to-day as in the time OF
Charles ". tho honor of arms, the idea
which is beginning to sap French and
German institutions. If any foreigner
interferes in your affairs, Withstand him.
for his interference means that Re re-
cards you as a fit subject for bullying,
an inputation against the honor Of your
soldiers which can be shown false only
by fight. Walk about with a chip on
your shoulder, and if you are unmerciful-
ly thrashed so much the better; you
will have shown yourself fearless in the
face of odds. Such, to anticipate events,
is the satisfaction the Spanish get out
Of the Manila fight: We can die. aye. and
die bravely; no man shall call us towards.
But in all this admirable idea, which the
papers were fond every day of proclaim
ing. you scar ,ely caught a glimmering of
that more modern and. as Anglo-Saxons
Il ink. higher idea of honor-the notion of
paying your debts, of blessing your land
with free institutions, of doing justice
to your servant and keeping faith with
your neighbor. So
Why all this talk had apparently 50
small effect on the people of Madrid was,
I fancy, the common reason, in more
striking illustration than usual. Nest of
us read only the journals we agree with
and the Spaniard not only refused to read
the opposition papers, but, being scant
reader at best. old not care to bother HIM
self with aiding reiterations of the most
fixed article of his secular creed-the
eternal glory Of Spain. News of course,
was well enough, but you could get it from
gossip in the Puerto del Sol or pick it
up in seme cafe along the Alcala, and in
quite as imaginative and interesting form.
Numerous illustrations Of this attitude
of mind of refusal to accept new ideas
Spar ish-are to be had. Perhaps the best
comes from the affair Of the Maine. There
were plenty Of articles about the cause Of
that sad event in the Madrid papers, and
the Spaniard had made up his mind that
the ship vas blown up from within by