Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1898-05-19

himself king. For about 200 year!
the troubles Of Spain were inter
necine, and confined to poisoning
court favorites, numbering kings
GROWING usurpers, deposing self,
made monarchs, and general treachery
though as a matter Of fact such bust
ness as this has extended all through
the years from then to now.
Disease and vices, both the result
OF lives spent in teasting, drinking
and pleasure-seeking, sapped the
strength Of the once vigorous Gauls
and when the Moslem Moors raided
the kingdom Of Gaul, it went down
before them like paper house.
The Spanish people had managed to
get considerable education, they
had made some advances in litera-
tGre, manners were somewhat more
polished, and splendid cities had been
reared, when the Gothic reign was
at its height, but luxury and SEN
suality had eaten the life out of all
enterprise when the Moors captured
them without battle. Bonner says:
By the beginning of the eighth CEN
tury luxury had ruined the rich and
brought tie poor to the verge of
starvation. The earnings Of the far
mer were taken by the mobiles to be
spent in riotous living. Feuds be-
tween family and family constantly
turned whole sections of the country
into wilderness. No Spaniard
could tell when he might be called
out to fight in a quarrel which was
not his own. No one could go to
bed sure that his vineyard and his
wheat field would not be rayaged in
the night time by the enemy. No
father Of family could feel certain
he would not be stabbed in the back
as he filled his water pail, or that the
band Of marauders would not carry
off his daughters.
Under all this Spain dropped 10 the
foot in the scale of nations. Her
people had forgotten all that they
had learned. The science of war was
lost, since no armies existed, and
everybody was a free lance. Very
naturally, courage gave place to
coWardice, when stabbing in the back
had displaced the manly combat in
the open. There was worse to fol-
low, however, for Spain was now
oVerrun by the Moors. This was
about TT A. D. But little resistance
was made to the entrance of the
Moors, and they had full possession
of Spain for several centuries. Nearly
all that is rich in architecture, the
development of the gold and silver
mines, the mosques and temples, the
stores of art treasures, the high de-
gree of cultivation Of the farms-all
these are due to the influence of the
semi barbarOus Moors. Yet of those
centuries only 40 years were quiet
ones. All the rest were given up to
anarchy and bloodshed.
1t was in July Of 1912 that the
Christians rode down on the Moors.
and in a single combat wrested from
them most of their rich Spanish DOS
sessions. One would imagine that
AAONS CN vast spain NOuld rouse
from her lethargy and display some
sign of courage and strength. On
the contrary her people continued to
plumber and piIlage, to murder and
imprison, and her petty kings put
people to death, just because they
could. The Spanish inquisition was
established in 1880, and for four
years the infamy of that and of the
persecution of the Jews overshadows
everything else. In 1893 the Jews
were finally expelled from SPAIN
formally and all those who failed to
leave were shamefulIy mistreated.
The first CLEAN Of brightness in all
the miserable centuries recounted in
which Spain had been changing the
map of the peninsula came from the
marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella
1t seems to have been a love match
and yet both Isabella and Ferdinand
in whom was united for the first time
most of the lands of Spain, and who
were supposed to be enlightened and
wise, prosecuted the Jews, and wan
tOnly put thousands of men to death
for political purposes, sending other
thousands of helpless men, women
and children into dreary exile.
It was in 1892 that Spain added tc
her territory for the first time through
the discoveries of Columbus. In the
end there was placed under the Span.
ish flag Florida, all of South America
except Brazil, the West indies, in
Guiding Cuba, Mexico, Texas and al
up the Pacific coast to the north linz
of California, as it is today. A prince
ly domain of incalculable wealth
The manner of acquiring her posses
siOns in Peru and Mexico was one O.
infamous cruelty, exactly such as shi
had practiced at home, exactly as sh
practices everywhere. The story o
the inoffensive Indians of Peru, VIII
were slaughtered like pigs by tn
naughty Cortez and by Pizarro,
one of the very blacklist pages in tn
history of a nation that does nc
: seem to have known, or cared t
know, what civilized warfare is. TIL
7 vicious treatment Of Columbus
d another dark page.
e Spain was now at the height of a
Y her greatness. When Ferdinand die,
e he left behind him the memory of
: vain ,penurious tricky, narrow maj
e Spain was the greatest power in Ell
q rope, and in fact, in all the worl
d Not because of the really great NE
-hN I,
d reign. His grandson came to tt