The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1898-11-15
THE OBSTINATE spAHIARD.
W mas : Way efsralsins Mese racts
Titin with Ms Theoryof
tho World


It at Santiago" said ono Long Island
suburbanite TO another. ~ ~ y ~
'-Oh, no." said the man, who Lived
IN Spain before hs settled In Flatbush.
-Not at ALL 1 aGt ~
"Whatl"
4 II say not at all You don't under
stand the Spanish people. don't un-
derstand them, for that matter, but l
have picked up one or two points in the
course of long experience. Let me
tell you 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
only recently arrived-and he happened
| to he from Havana, too-came and
| Joined us. We had just been wondering
why the sun seemed to get SO fiat as 1t
| got near to the horizon. We all noticed
| that the sun did seem to fatten, 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 IT 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 grave, courteous smile anG
shake Of his head. At last, when our
interpreter once more demanded of him
the Havana theory of the thing, he
vouchsafed to say in French:
att does not look so because it can
not. The sun is round And all that
we could do could not make that Span
lard turn round and look at the sun
for himself"
Him" said the untraveled American,
she must have been particularly null
ish."
"Not particularly" said the other. "1f
itcomes to being mulish can give other
instances just as strong. Do you know
how they drive mules in the PyreneesP
No, they don't light fires under them;
that would make them go too fast
| mean on those mountain roads. The
driver gets together 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
1t was when l first went to Spain, and
everything interested me. So asked
my driver why he didn't use whip.
He looked at me very seriously and
said that Spanish mule didn't need
whip. I thought he was making fun
of me, so / climbed out on the seat be-
side him and poked at the wheeler with
an alpenstock I 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?"
''It made the mules 90 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
it again they would be insulted and
die right there rather than haul us
step further. He himself was very
angry and swore between his teeth, and
he fired fresh broadside of rocks just
when the mules were really doing I'M
usually well.
But about the coolest piece of po-
lite obstinacy ever met in Spain was
at little country railroad station.
was so inconsiderate as to ask the sta
tion 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 l got was enough to wilt
me. The station master smiled mag
unanimously, and bowed and said: Sin
embargo senor' cWithout 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 a
bench and set the hands of the clock
hack 40 minutes. IN Y Sum.