Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1898-03-27
WHY SPHNIHRDS HR6 CRUEL Starting With Bad Blood From Several Sources They Are Not to Be Pitied Because
 They Are Pitiless.
tcoPYRlGHT is9s.)


 take for granted. It is an opinion al most universally received, and with most people argument would be super fuous. The question of real interest is: What has made them so? For nature is never arbitrary; not even the seem ingIy willful peryersities of men are without cause.
 In the case of Spain some of the causes date very far back; they began their work almost before the dawn of history-as we might expect from the dogged persistency of the traits deve1- oped. It is q case of bad blood almost from the beginning.
 Yet not wholly bad, at first. The old Iberians. were passionate, tickle race as is the Spaniard of to-day From them he has inherited his hot and reck less temper, as well as his swarthy complexion; but an infusion of this blood does not necessarily result in q cruel and treaeherous disposition though it gives an uneommonly keen edge to such traits when they appear And they appeared soon; the importa- tion of the virus of cruelty began early.
 That the Phoenicians-pe perhaps the most atroeiously cruel of the races of antiquity-gained foothold in Spain in almost prehistoric times may be passed by with mere mention. These are the people who gave it's name to Cadiz. and who in the height of their alleged civilization fed Moloek with human sacrifices. We know too little of the extent of their influence-probably quite limited-to attempt to measure it; but whatever it amounted to, it was morally pernicious.
 That intercourse with the Phoeni- clans did, after all, have considerable effect on the impressionable Iherian character, is strongly suggested by the ease with which the Carthaginians sub sequently attained a dominant infiu- ence in Spain, This was practically the same thing, for. these new invaders were an offshoot of the same evil stock. They were about as mercifu1 as our American Indians-everyone is familiar with the story of poor Regulus-and "Punic faith" was d by-word. These Cartha- ginians oyerran most of the country, and we know that their generals en- couraged intermarriages between sol diers and natives. Very popular for a time were the Carthaginians in Spain the accepted type of cleverness and manhood. Few traces of their blood probably remain: but t was bad start. The clay was still soft and their ex- ample was potent. Like master, like man..
 Then came the Romans, with a yet more masterful dominion that lasted for centuries. Here there was no poison in the blood, but again the example was baneful. Rome's method of deal ing with subject provinces, which Spain learned by bitter experience, she seems to have adopted model for all time. Every schoolboy has read of the rapaeity and arrogance and inhumanity of the Roman governors, who regarded provincials merely as a source of rev enue, with no rights that lordly Ro- man need respect. These notions seem to have fallen on a singularly fertile soil, and unlucly Cuba is to-day reap ing the fruits of Spain's Roman train ing. No masters are so intolerable as those who have learned the trick of tyranny in the school of servitude.
 And still the corruption of blood went on; if Spain had been made the worlds penal colony she could scarcely have fared worse. After the Romans came the Nandals, whose name has become a synonym for brutal destructive ness; and close on their heels, the Nisigoths, of whom a celebrated authority has de clared that to them "may be traced all the maNimsfof the modern Inquisition"
 Even this was not enough The dis tracted country-as yet it could hardly be called a nation-was next oVerrun by horde of Moors from Africa. bring ing an alien and frantic creed to be en- forced by the edge eff the sword. Under this regime the Spanish Christians soon became even more intoIerant than their Moslem conquerors. The ferocious racial and religious strife which ensued lasted for the major part of millen- rium before it received its final quietus by the expulsion of the Aloors. and prob ably had more to do with making Span ish character what it now is than all that had gone before. In such a con- fiict, almost of necessity, piety became bigotry, patriotism but another name for cruelty. and loyalty to friends synonymous with treaehery to foes Such conditions, of course, have from time to time risen elsewhere, but rarely have they been so prolonged or so acute.
 Out of this fiery ordeal-too often literally exemplified on the cringing fiesh-spain emerged with just one eommendable quality. The spaniard had become a fierce fighter, whether in private broil or open battle-and this zest fer fighting, even at desperate odds, he has retained. It is fact not to be forgotten nor ignored.
 Forareason this prowess and ferocity in war made Spain one of the foremost nations of Europe, though in almost everything else one of the most back ward--a few brilliant instances to the contrary notwithstanding. Her boast ed art was fiorid foreign importation. Her literature is bombastic in style. and full of the mendacity and exaggeration.