The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1898-08-19
SPAIN IS EVER CRUEL
HER PLEASURE IN INFLICTlNG TOR
TURE ON THE HELPLESS.
Atrocious Treatment of War Prisoners Has
Away Been a Natural Characteristic
Deeds as Horrible as Any Savages Ever
Thought Of.

Away Been Natural Characteristic
Deeds as Horrible as Any Savages Ever
Thought OF.
Aside from anything that a wilful
partisan or a Economically inclined his
tQrian may have written, one can say,
without fear of contradiction, that Of
all the civilized nations on earth, none
ever has waged war in more cruel
and fraudulent manner than the Span
ish," says a recent writer. .sIt is with
horror only that the Germans think
of the times of Alva, who devastated
their fatherland by his atrocious ac-
tons, 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 in
habitants were murdered, among them
1900 women, who, after having been
subjected to unspeakable outrages and
tortGres, 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
tiles committed during the long war
Of the Spaniards against the French
(1SGS1S14). When Napoleon had put
his brother Joseph on the Spanish
throne, and had taken possession of the
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 mimi
cal to the Catholic faith, and that Ma
poleon was 'anti-Christ in person.
They armed the peasants and started
bloody guerrilla war, and in this sort
of warfare the diabolic character of
these much-praised chivalrous Castil-
lians revealed itself with full force.
The Spaniards murdered their enc
mics whenever and wherever they
could lay their hands on them and in
variably committed horrible atrocities
against the wounded and prisoners,
cutting off their noses and ears, or
they sawed them in pieces, or crucifed
or slowly burned them The Spanish
women, those noble souls, whose vir-
tues have been sung by exalted ro-
mances, committed acts Of brutality
heretofore almost unknown to man.
In the Sierra Morrena, for instance,
the transports of prisoners were at
tackled by them and they dug out the
eyes of these unfortunate people with
pins and scissors, 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 1903, when the French general. Du-
pont, and his $4,000 men surrendered
at Baylen, a great many OF the pris-
oners 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 barracks
and killed most of them on the spot.
IAN English reporter, who was with
Wellington's army, tells of peasant
who followed a transport of wounded
Fr.nchmen for hours, and begged the
English escort most imploringly to
give him one of the wounded enemies.
When the English soldier asked him
what he intended to do with the
wounded man, the brute coolly replied,
Why, torture him.. In the second vol
ume of his memoirs, the famous French
General, Marriott, tells of dreadful
ride performed by him while captain
CT the Chasseurs Cheval in 1903. He
started from Indela, in the Ebro VAL
ley, with important dispatches from
Marshal Lannes for Emperor Napo-
leon, who was stationed at Amanda, a
village on the road leading from Bur-
COS to Madrid Marriott had to ride
through a lonesome and mountainous
region, where many bands of guerillas
moved. He took two hussars with him
as escort as soon as he reached Tara,
as he was told from there on his ride
would be a most perilous one. 1t was
moonlight when the three Frenchmen
reached the mountains Suddenly they
heard the we'll known whizzing of bull
lets, but were unable to discover the
enemy. As they had not been hurt
they moved on and soon found scores
of dead soldiers belonging to Ney's
corps. They had been plundered,
robbed of their clothing, and left naked
by the roadside Shortly after this they
came to lonely barn, where they met