The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-07-30
SPAIN WAS EVER CRUEL.

'
 I Her Pleasure in Inflicting Torture on | the Helpless-Atrocious Treatment ! of War Prisoners Has Always Been a National Characteristic-Deed as | Horrible as Any Savage Ever Thought Of-Crucifixion and Roastings.
 | Professor c. Michaelis of this city | has made a translation of a letter 1 written by Professor Halzhauser, pro- lessor of history in the University of Bonn, Germany, to the New York | Staats-Zeitung on the cruelty of the Spaniards in their warfare as illustrat- ed by historic incidents. Professor Halzhauser writes:
 ''We were several German doctors of philosophy who, while enjoying the | balsamic air in the beautiful court | garden of the university, discussed 1 eagerly the all-absorbing news which had just reached us, i. e., the opening of hostilities between the United States and Spain. The sympathies were some- what divided, as could be expected, | though the large majority sided with the Stars and Stripes.
 | One of the company, however, prov ed to be a warm friend of Spain. He l is professor of literary history and spoke with great enthusiasm of the noble character of the Spaniards, and pointed as examples to Posa, a Car l los, a Hermann, and to the heroic Cid 1 Campeador. He was further greatly impressed by the recent patriotic out bursts at Madrid and Valladolid. I shook my head to all his fervent words and invited him and his friends to be seated on one of the numerous benches
 of the old park, and then I began to
 unfold the real character of the Span iards, rolling up before the eyes of my astonished listeners scenes of Spanish warfare of the past, whcih I had col lected in my manuscript of the history of the campaigns of Napoleon l., which intend to publish ct the beginning of the twentieth century. herewith submit portion of them to the pe- rusal of the Cerman-American public to which I believe they are of special j.interest at the present time.
 Aside from anything that a wilful partisan or romantically inclined his- torian may have written, one can say without fear of contradiction, that of all the civilized nations on earth, none ever has waged war in a more cruel and fraudulent manner than the Span- ish. It is with horror only that the Germans think of the times of Ava 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- Np ish leaders in the war waged for the in- dependence 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 in- habitants were murdered, among them
 1900 women, who, after having been subjected to unspeakable outrages and tortures, were positively butchered.
 ''The cruelties of the civil war be- tween the followers of Philip V. and of Carlos III. can hardly be described, and
 they are only surpassed by the brutal ities committed during the long war of the Spaniards against the French dS0S-1S14). When Napoleon had put his brother Joseph on the Spanish
 throne and had taken possession of the country with his army the people be-
 came furious, and the fanaticism of the bigoted masses showed up in a revolt
 ing manner. as they feared for their re- ligion from the enlightened French; the clergy, and especially the monks,
 preached that the French were inimical
 to the Catholic faith. and that Napo- 1ryas. .oy CI,,gs% ;y,
 armed the peasants and started a
 bloody guerrilla war, and in this sort
 of warfare the diabolic character of
 these much-praised chivalrous Castil-
 ians revealed itself with full force, The
 Spaniards murdered their enemies whenever and wherever they could lay
 their hands on them and invariably
 committed horrible atrocities against
 the wounded and prisoners, cutting off
 their noses and ears, or they sawed
 them pieces, or crucified or slowly
 burned them. The Spanish women,
 those noble souls, whose virtues have
 been sung by exalted ronancers. com
 mitted acts of brutality heretofore
 almost unknown to man. In the Siera
 Morrena, for instance, the transports
 of prisoners were attacked by them
 and they dug out the eyes of these un-
 fortunate people with pin and scissors,
 and to enhance the misery of those
 who were wounded they cut open the
 soles of their feet and then compelled
 thnl to march. In 1908, when the
 French general, Duponnt, and his 25,-
 900 men surrendered at Baylen a great
 many of the prisoners were tortured
 and killed in the above described man.
 ner.
 Tn the island of Malorca, where
 thousands of prisoners. had been for
 warded, the mob stormed the barracks
 and killed most of them on the spot.
 Again, many inhabitants of the islands
 solennly promised these prisoners that
 they would help to save and free them
 if they only would come to their hous-
 es: such of the unfortunate prisoners
 as trusted these promises were tortur-
 ed for many days and then killed.
 An English reporter, who was with