The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1898-05-26
INvETERATE HATERS OF SPAIN
For Five Centuries Portuguese Have
Hated spaniards and Still Do So.

OF was astounded last week when / saw
.tat f,,ff.tfn about Portugal hesitating
A. turn the spanish fleet away from the
Ono Verde Islads." said a cosmopolitan
looxer-on I'm New York what struck
me as SO imp0ssible about &c was me MINT
of an alliance between Spain ana foI-
tugal. -
"vhy 1 have lived in Portugal and
mixed with the people ana / kho" .i.a1
they could stand almost anything pellel
than that Portuguese sentiment tne 9e.-
lmcnt of the people az large or -An1oi,io
e. Naria'-consists chiefly of hatred TO the
Standards. They may be Indifferent about
other matters. or divided DO leellnB. some
OF them are Mirlelistas. or Legitimists
some are heartily attached 10 the ace
tual dynasty: many in the cities-most of
an in Lisbon-are republicans, but the
one uuifving sentiment OF the people is
the anti-Spanish sentiment.
when YOU come TO consider what their
history has been ] don't see how THIS
could have been otherwise. They have all
together five great national heroes. Dom
Enrique who was the pioneer OF all hu-
ropean exploration I'm the Atlantic Nasco
da Cana. Dom Sebastian, tine faltnlul
Prince" who is the centre OF the various
poetlcal legends. Dom Joao, the Bastard
and Gil cannes Pcrcird. IL ls sale TO
saw that most of the plain people Of the
whole country know little or nothing OF
The first two OF these beyond their names.
As for the Faithful Prince many Of them
probably. are not quite sure whether he
was a real historical parsonage or only
mythical But every Portuguese lavrador,
from the Mimic 90 St. Vincent, knows
Dom Jaoa. who 90 1855 drove the Span
lards AN the way from A0ubarrota- In
Portugal. TO Burgos. in the middle or
Spain. and Gil cannes, who beat them
al Valverde in the same year. Those two
are the Bruce ana the Wallace of the Por-
tugese. but there Is this difference be-
tween the Scottish and the Portuguese
herO-wOrship. that the one Is mere mat
ter Of historical pride while the other
Is part of "a living active, political force.
THE fact is that since She lost Brazil
and fell into a state OF general decline
the people OF Portugal have become i'm
tensely retrospective. They nourish their
pride on national memories and the FUN
damental national fact for them Is their
independence Of Spain. They began 20 be
nation when they broke loose from the
kingdom of CASTLE and Leon I'm the clev-
cnth century. and ever since then. except
for a couple of generations in the six
teenth and seventeenth centuries, they
have existed as a nation under the con-
tiuual threat OF absorption into Spain.
The house of Braganza stands TO the
Portuguese people for no good but the re.
volt of 1910. by which their country was
redeemed into Independence. And the
people feel that the price Of independence
IS perpetual hatrd of Spaniards We can
understand the feeling only by imagining
what 10 would have been In our own cOun-
hn
been collectively much smaller than
Great Britain and separated geographi-
caiv from that country only by a line
on the map.
Nobody who has lived IN Portugal can
fail to have noticed the signs Of this
undving hatred on an hands. DO you
know. for instance the true meaning OF
the saying. a bad Spaniard makes
good portugese2 OF course. there is the
Spanish Interpretation. which IS the OBJ
vious one. But there is also the deeper
Portuguese Interpretation. and that is.
that any bad friend 20 Spain is by that
very fact a good friend TO Portugal
'You can see evidences of the feeling,
too. I'm the very language OF Portugal,
which fits speakers seem TO have purposeiy
developed in such a way ass TO make 1t as
unlike Spanish as possible. written, it
looks Ike SPANISH NA- "FN-H'-A 80 -r'----
more like Polish or Czech. tt Is a curious
fact that no self-respectng Portuguese
woman would be seen wearing mantilla,
for the mantnia IS the Spanish womans
headgear. And during tho last reign II
used to- be remarked IN Lisbon that only
two ladies there ever smoked, the Queen,
Maria Pia. mother of the present King
am Italian-and the Duchess OF Pamela
this. again. because the habit Of smok-
ing had long been distinctive Of the
Spanish among an other womankind.
Il believe this anti-Spanish feeling has
been kept alive an the centuries very
largely through tho perseverance Of the
Portuguese women. Perhaps they remem-
Der that it was a woman who cast the
die for the anti-spanish revolt IN 1910 by
pronouncing the memorable sentence, "As
for me, 1 would rather have death as
Queen Of Portugal than a long life as
Duchess OF Observation-Disclosures. II is
true. that woman was a Spaniard.
"Once I asked a. Portuguese girl II she
really hated all Spaniards. She said Of
course she ola. I reminded her that the
Christian religion commands us TO love
all men. Yes she said. but that was a
long time ago. before there were any
Standards Nav York Sun.