The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1898-09-03

many, writing to the New York Stats
Zeitung on the cruelty of the Span
iards in their warfare as illustrated
by historic incidents, says:
".We were several German doctors
of philosophy who, while enjoying the
balsamic air in the beautiful court
garden of the university, discussed
eagerly the all-absorbing news which
had just reached us, i. E., the war be-
tween the United States and Spain.
The sympathies were somewhat di-
vided, as could be expected, though
the large majority sided with the stars
and stripes.
Zone of the company, however,
proved to be a warm friend of Spain.
He is a professor of literary history
and spoke with great enthusiasm of
the noble character of the Spaniards,
and pointed as examples to a Posa, a
Carlos, a Hermann. and to the heroic
Cid Campeador. l shook my head to
all his fervent words and invited him
and his friends to be seated on one of
the numerous benches in the old park,
and then I began to unfold the real
character of the Spaniards. rolling up
before the eyes of my ~astonished lis
teners Genes of Spanish warfare of
the past, which I had collected in my
manuscript of the history of the cam
paigns of Napoleon L.. which Intend
to publish at the beginning of the
twentieth century. herewith submit
a portion of them to the perusal of the
German-American public, to which l
believe they are of special interest at
the present time.
aside from anything that a willful
partisan or a Economically inclined
historian may have written, one can
say, without fear of contradiction,
hat of all the civilized nations on
earth, none ever has waged war in d
more cruel and fraudulent manner
than the Spanish. 1t is with horror
only that the Germans think of the
times of Alva, who devastated their
fatherland by his atrocious actions,
and transformed the industrial cities
and provinces of the Netherlands into
a desert.
NO better than this bloody execu-!
toner of King Philip were other Span
ish leaders in the war waged for the
independence of the Netherlands. The
city of Maastricht, for instance, was
plundered for three days, after having
been besieged for four months by the
Spanish general, Alexander Farnese,
duke of Parma. Eight thousand inhab-
itants were murdered, among them
1000 women, who, after having been
subjected to unspeakable outrages
and fortunes, were positively butch
cred.
The cruelties of the civil war be-
tweer the followers of Philip V. and of
Carlos III. can hardly be described,
and they are only surpassed by the
brutalities committed during the long
wal Of the Spaniards against the
French GSOS-1sfD. When Napoleon
had put his brother Joseph on the
Spanish throne and had taken posses
sion of the country with his army the
people became furious, and the fanati-
cism of the bigoted masses showed up
in a revolving manner, as they feared
for their religion from the enlightened
French; the clergy, and especially the
monks, preached that the French
were inimical to the Catholic faith,
and hat Napoleon was 'aEti-Christ in
person. They armed the peasants
and started a bloody guerrilla war,
and in this sort of warfare the dia-
bolic character of these much-praised
chivalrous Castilians revealed itself
with full force. The Spaniards muir
dered their enemies whenever and
wherever they could lay their hands
on them and invariably committed
horrible atrocities against the wound
ed and prisoners, cutting off their
noses and ears, or they sawed them in
pieces, or crucitied or slowly burned
them. The Spanish women, those no.
BILE souls, whose virtues have been
sung by exalted romancers. committed
acts of brutality heretofore almost
unknown to man.. In the Sierra Nor
rena, for instance, the transports of
prisoners were attacked by them and
they dug out the eyes of these unfor-
luhdIC pSoPIS It pms Ii SSiSSOlo I,
and to enhance the misery of those who
were wounded they cut open the soles
of their feet and then compelled them
to march. In 1S0S, when the French
general, Dupont. and his $4,000 men
surrendered at Baylen, 4 great many
of the prisoners were tortured and
killed in the above described manner.
I'm the island of Malorca. where
thousands of prisoners had been for
warded. the mob stormed the bar
racks and killed most of them on the
spot. Again, many inhabitants of the
islands solemnly promised these pris-
oners that they would help TO save
and free them if they only would
come to their houses; such of the I'M
fortunate prisoners as trusted these
promises were tortured for many days
and then killed.
IAN English reporter, who was with
WeilinGton's army. told of a peasant
who followed a transport of wounded
Frenchmen for hours, and begged the
English escort most imploringly to