The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-05-09
THE SPANISH TEMPERAMENT
IT POSSESSES PECULIAR PRIDE
BRAVERY IND CALLOUSNESS.

An Artistic Sense and Dignity Compared
With the Highlanders-The Hidden
Root of Inefficiency.
Two qualities, and only two, certainly
differentiate Spaniards from the other
southern races of Europe but they are
qualities displayed in such excess that
they appear to constitute an entirely
separate national character, which in
hundreds Of years has never changed
either in fact or in the impression
which it makes upon the remainder of
mankind. One of these qualities is a
peculiar kind of pride, and the other is
steely callousness. Spaniards are
about as brave as the other Latin races
that is, they are perfectly brave, with
certain liability to panic, and a re-
luctance to go on when victory seems
not to be attainable. They were sup
posed in their best period to be Drawer
than Frenchmen or Italians, and their
picked Adventures certainly showed in
the new world audacity of really
to which odds made no difference, and
which suggested that they thought
themselves specially favored of heaven;
but we do not know that their history
quite confirms this claim. The Romans
defeated them and the Moors defeated
them, and in threir long conflict with
France they never obtained any serious
or permanent advantage They did not
succeed against the men of the Low
Countries, they We're defeated by Brit
ish sailors, and they did not triumph
in their struggle In Mexico against in
ferior numbers of Americans That
they are brave is certain, and they are
probably more self-confident than eth
err Frenchmen or Italians; but we
should not describe their courage as
differeniating them from any other
people of Southern Europe.
We do not know that they are more
revengeful, though they attribute that
quality to themselves, and owing to
the absence of good legislation, rely for
vengeance more on their own efforts;
nor are they in reality as Italians, but
not more readily, and though they as
sassinate more often than Frenchmen
have lived for ages under much more
effective laws. The Highlander of
Great Britain is to-day hardly ever an
assassin, but he used to stick his foe
with knife which he called dirk
very readily indeed. The Spaniard,
again, is supposed to be specially sup
erstitious; but we fancy some at least
of that idea concerning him arises
from the fact that his superstition
takes the direction usually of strong
Catholicism. Those who really under
stand either Frenchmen or Italians do
not think them free from superstition,
Enough in both instances the quality is
found combined with a great DISPOSE
tion to irreligion, sceptical irreligion
among F'renchmen, secularist or pagan
irrelgion among Italians.
AS to truthfulness, there is not much
to choose between the races, though
they speak truth, or neglect truth,
upon somewhat different impulses.
The Frenchman has a mathematical
side to his head, rarely lies to himself,
and tells the truth whenever it is OBJ
viously inexpedient in the sense of be-
ing contrary to utility, to tell lies. The
S Spaniard tells the truth whenever the
contrary would seem to himself to be
discreditable, and therefore tells it OF
declines to tell it at unexpected mo-
ments and in ways that surprise the
northerner; while the italian tells il
whenever it will not roughen a patti
which he thinks it his clear business
to make smooth. He will utter a false.
hood for your comfort as readily as fol-
his own, thing which the Frenchmar
never does unless he has an epigram tt
be delivered of, and the Spaniard very
seldom.
The Spaniard too, must have some
where in him a keen artistic sense. Hi
language and the way he uses it show
that as well as the things he has bull
and the pictures he has painted. His il
perhaps the most beautiful architecture
in Europe, and even in the new world
where he was in a hurry, nothing tina
he built has the want of charm an
picturesqueness which distinguish
everything built on that continent b.
the Anglo-SaXon. In literature he is a
great humorist as the Frenchman
though his humor is more sardonic. HI
has the capacity of being a grea
dramatist; and in all graver produc
tions, as in all public utterances, h
has a special gift for a rather full
mouthed eloquence. The ignorance o
the three peoples is about equal, thong
the Frenchmans seems the less be
cause he wants to know whatever h
thinks will pay him in any way; Their
is no great difference in their habit G
economy. Perhaps the Spaniard car
ries it furthest because he is so indif
ferent to the quality of his food; but
capacity for continuous self-denial dis
tinguishes all three, though as they ar
not equally industrious the capacit
enriches the Frenchman, while it leave
the italian poor and the Spaniard al
most a beggar.
It is his quality of pride which dis
tinguishes the Spaniard alike from tn
italian and the Frenchman. A persona
dignity, quite apart from mere vanit.
appears to be as essential to him a
freedom to the Anglo-Saxon or order
the German. This feeling shows itse
in his dress, in his bearing, in his Ian
guage, in all his acts, public and pr
waite He cannot cringe, he cannc
brook slight, he cannot suppress him
self when self effacement would /
convenient He must be acknowledge
as gentleman ON all occasions as tn
condition without which business car
not be done, and he usally adds to til
sword erartIor1ar 10 word ri II