Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1898-09-01
THE OBSTINATE SPANIARD.
lie Has Way of Making Mere Facts
Fit i'm with His Theory of
the World.

well, | suppose by this time your
friends, the Spanish, will begin to be-
lieye they really did get the hot end of
it at Santiago" said one Long Island
suburbanite to another.
"Oh, no." said the man, who lived
in Spain before he settled in Flatbush.
Not at ALL"
What"
Il say not at all. You don't under
stand the Spanish people. | don't un-
derstand them, for that matter, but |
have picked up one or two points in the
course of a long experience. Let me
tell you a story in illustration. One
summer evening, when | was at school
in England, not in Spain, four or five
of us boys were watching the sunset.
Presently a young Spaniard who had
oniy recently arrived-and he happened
TO be from Havana, too-came and
joined us. We had just been wondering
why the sun seemed to get so fiat as it
got near to the horizon. We all noticed
that the sun did seen to flatten, and we
all had different ways of accounting
for the phenomenon. BY way of be-
ing civil to this foreigner, who under
stood hardly six words of English at
that time. one of us told him in French
what we were talking about. He nod
ded and smiled just to show that he
understood, but he was standing with
his back TO the sun and didn't turn
around to look at it.
THE acting interpreter was instruct
ed to ask the Spanish gentleman if he
could tell us why the sun seemed to be
swelling out right and left like that.
But the Spanish gentleman only smiled
affably, still keeping his back to the
sun. Then we suggested to him all our
different explanations, one after an
other, but he dismissed every one of
them with a grave, courteous smile and
a shake of his head. AT last. when oul
Interpreter once more demanded of him
the Havana theory of the thing, he
vouchsafed to say in French:
1T does not look so because it can
not. The sun is round And all that
we could do could not make that Span
for himself.'
"H'm," said the untraveled American,
"he must have been particularly null
ish."
Not particularly" said the other. "If
tcomes to being mulish can give other
instances just as strong. Do you know
how they drive mules in the Pyrenees?
No, they don't light fires under them;
that would make them go too fast
| mean on those mountain roads. The
driver gets together a lot of stones on
the box beside him, and every now
and then. when the mules get too slow
he Just fires a rock at the leaders head.
At least that was what my driver did,
and it interested me very much, for
ii was when | first went to Spain. and
everything interested me. SO | asked
my driver why he didn't use Il whip.
He looked at me very seriously and
said that Spanish mule didn't need
a whip. | thought he was making fun
of me. so | climbed out on the seat be-
SIDE him and poled at the wheeler with
an aIpenstock | had strapped up with
my waterproof and things. Well. | had
to stop it and apologize or get out and
fight the driver on that narrow, lonely
roadside.'
"Why" Didn't your plan work as
well as the bombarding?"
at made the mules so all right, but
the driver said it didn't He said they
were not common mules, but Pyreneean
mules of blue blood. and that if | did
= again they would be insulted and
die right there rather than haul us a
step further. He himself was very
angry and swore between his teeth, and
he fired a fresh broadside of rocks just
when the mules were really doing un-
usually well.
But about the coolest piece of po-
lite obstnacy / ever met in Spain was
at a little country railroad station. |
was so inconsiderate as to ask the sta
ton master if he thought my train
would be on time. / ought to have
known that Spanish trains never are
on time, as we understand the term.
The answer | got was enough to wilt
me. The station master smiled mag
unanimously. and bowed and said: Sin
embargo. senior C'Without doubt, sir).
But the schedule time came and no
train. | couldn't say any more to the
station master on that subject, but he
saw me look at the clock once or twice.
AS it turned out, the train was unusual
ly punctual-onIy 40 minutes late. The
station master gave me another low bow
as ] got on board, and then ! saw him
deliberately climb on the back of
bench and set the hands of the clock
n Y
lnrmnufh'S RrNnINin. trnNyer