The Republican., 1898-04-07

the sword, neglected the real essen
tials of prosperity, and to this day
the evil results are felt. Mexico was
a similar victum. The strange crea-
lures whom Montezuma ruled were
exceedingly progressive. But their
works and plans and agricultural
gains were scattered to the winds by
their bloodthirsty conquerors, and to
this day the spiritless Peon seems
sunken beyond all hope of revival.
Thus everywhere, at home, abroad,
Spain has prepared the way for her
own undoing.
~
THE GRANDEE SPIRIT: - For
centuries after the destruction of the
Roman Empire by the Cloths and Van
dals, the human intellect was practi-
cally benumbed A pail of darkness
was over all; the mobiles were almost
as unlearned as the serfs and the serfs
were utterly hopeless. Aspiration
lay like a giant chilled by the cold.
But since that time stimulation of
thought has caused the great heart
of the world to throb with increasing
power until the feeling of common
humanity thrills in some degree even
those most separated by birth and
wealth. But against the tendency of
the people to think and act, hope and
accomplish, the proud and stubborn
spirit of Spanish Grandeeism has
stood out resolutely. The rising tide
of human aspiration cannot be with
stood. If a government, even though
hoar with age or crusted with heroic
deeds, try to turn a deaf ear to the
cry of the poor for life and liberty,
for education and for hope, the cry
will not die out but its pleading tone
will be turned into the fierce and fate
full growl of a cornered beast. Thus
has it been with Spain. Far more
organized than Nihilism in Russia, is
Anarchism in Spain. The nation
is honey combed with lawless
sentiments. The men in power
are under the hopeless necessity of
guarding against the home popula-
tion as if it were an invading army.
No other government in Europe, not
even Russia, is in so serious a cOndi-
ton. Spain stands revealed before
the world as not having controlled
the growth of hope and thought, but
as having withstood it. The newt
able disaster draws nearer each day,
and is not delayed by the fact that
Spanish statesmen welcome foreign
complications as Offering a favorable
diversion of the direction in which
the combative spirit seeks to expend
itself.
Much more might be written, but
why multiply words? Spain is being
hurried to her doom by the binding
forces within her. Her brutality in
peace and in war make her unworthy
of kinship with the sisterhood of prog
ressive peoples. She is a survival of
bloody times that have for many ma
tions long ago passed away. 1t will
indeed be strange historic parallel,
if the Anglo-Saxon race that first
curbed her career in the western
world, should also be the one to fin
ally eXpel her!
Fallen the PRIDE of fAragon,
The lordy might OF high CASTLE!
Mark how the closing shadows steal
Where erst the sun of empire shOne
AS some stroog seed minimizing pent
In costly vase or fragile jar,
Its sturdy roots down. stretching far
Burst outwards, seeking nourshment:
SO when Il new world had its birth.
The swelling seed of wide domain
Fell on the barren soil ofSpain.
1t withered there for lack of earth.
Thus many dawning lives we see,
Closing too soon in dark despair
Too narrow-souled to rightly bear
Full-grown responsibility.
Live Foxes Brought to Town.