The White Pine news. [volume] (Treasure City, Nev.) 1868-1906, 1898-10-08
SPAIN s PAST GLORY.
Greatness of the Once Proud Kingdom
That Now Groyels in the Dust.

Greatness of the Once Proud Kingdom
That Now & roveIs in the Dust.
Whatever else we get out OF our pres
ent war we ought To get wisdom. SO
far has Spain sunk that few except
students OF wide reading understand
the heights from which she has fallen.
But II IS true TINT no finer race was
ever born than that which inherited
the .old -celt-Iberian peninsula with
vlDsealeAple we art at war. The tray
eler standing in the midst of Rome
looks up Mt the wonderful column
which bears upon II the story of a Ia
elan campaign. remembering that tins
alone remains of work which cost
perhaps 500, 100000 whose magnifi-
cent buildings OF marble and alubaster
we feebly initiated in our Columbian
court of honor. In stueeo and white
wash. And he remembers that the
Emperor who Won this campaign and
executed this work Of art. wis Span
lard. Ii his thoughts 20 further lie re-
members that the Emperor who push
Ell the boundaries of Rome north to the
Caspian. east 10 the Tigris. aud south
so the Persian gulf WIS Spaniard.
III his thoughts run on TO the day when
that Roman empire was revived north
OF the Alps, and with still wider boun-
DIARIES embraced a vast new western
world, he welded this seepter of still
wider dominion. was Il Spaniard. And
it all tells him how the Roman. the
Vandal. the eiotlrand the Moor In swift
succession swept over the plains be-
tween the Pyrenees and the Pillars OF
Hercules. not destroying but only en-
riehing "A mighty people. From each
submergence the nation rose more Wig
orous than ever. having absorbed the
best elements in each race of lis TEN
porary conquerors. Ii was FROM these
heights, as Casteller said. that ARA
eoA- swept down from Sobrabe 10 HUI.
esca, from Huesea TO Saragossa, and
from Saragossa leaped into the sea.
She subdued the Arab in the Balearle
Isles and Valencia; conquered the
fhouse Of AnJ6u and drove them from
their Italian possessions; broke
the chains that guarded the har-
Dor OF Marseilles. and hung the frag
ments in her temples; and then, as II
the west were too confined for her
strength. swept on wings OF victory
eastward; drove the Moslem from the
BosphoFns, aud upon the stones of the
heights of Olympus and the gates OF
Asia, wrote her Immortal name.
We, at least, ought 10 recall that.
while the ships of London We're creep
Ing timidly along the shores Of what X
now New England, and while France
was practically content TO explore one
North American river and its afiiuents
Spain by her soldiers and her priests
trayersed two continents. established
herself In the Hall of the Incas. ascend
ed the throne or the MonteZumas. and
from the heights Of hitherto unsealed
mountall ranges. looked down upon
the wider eNpanses OF unknown seas.
Mighty In art a in arms. her Escu-
rial makes even the Tuilleries seem
mean. and her eathedrals are to ST
Panl's as u cut gem to river pebble.
Before England possessed a language
Spain possessed n literature; and she
possessed parliament before the An
glo-Saxon had Magma Charta.
What Is II. then. that I'm three cen
turtles has robbed her OF her territories
stripped the crown from her head.
bankrupted her treasury and left no
nation so poor as to do her reyerencey
1t is because. wide as was her do
minion. she never learned that nobler
conquest. the conquest OF herself. and.
fine as were her native powers. she
never consecrated them to the service
II the world.