Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1898-07-20
FIRM HATERS OF SPAIN.
FOR FIVE CENTURIES THE PoRTU-
cUEsE HAVE LoATHED sPANlARDS.

Public Sentiment in Portugal ConBists
Chiefly of Detestation of Their Next
Door Neighbors The 11-Fee1ing Is
Kept Alive Principally by the Wonien.
'sI was astounded when saw that
bulletin about Portugal hesitating to
turn the Spanish feet away from the
Cape Verde Islands," said d cosno-
politan looker-on in New York to 9
S"n man. "Whet struck me as 80
impossible about it was tie hint of an
alliance between Spain and Portugal.
"Why, have lived in Portugaland
mixed with the people, and know
that they could stand. al,acsstS anything
better than that. Portuguese senti-
ment-the sentiment Of the people at
large, of Antonio Maria consists
chief y of hatred to the Spaniards.
They may be Indifferent about other.
matters, or divided in feeling. Some
of them are Miguelistas, or Legiti-
mists, some are heartily attached to
the actual dynasty; many in the cities
most of all in Lisbon-are republic
cans, but the one unifying sentiment
of the people is the anti-Spanish sen-
timent.
"When you come to consider what
their history has been 1 don't see how
they could have been otherwise. They
have altogether five great national
heroes, Dom Enrique, who was pio-
neer of all European exploration III the
Atlantic; Vasco da Gama, Dom Sebas:
tian, "the Faithful Prince who Is
the centre of various poetical legendsj
Dom Joao, and Gil Eannes Psreira:
1t is safe to say that most of the plain
people of the whole country know lit
tie or nothing of the first two Of these
beyond their names. As fof the Faith:
full Prince, many of them, probably,
are not quite sure whether he was d
real historical parsonage Or only
mythical. But every Portuguese.
lavrador,' from the Mimic to st. Vim
cent, knows Dom Joao, who in 1885
drove the Spaniards all the way from
Aliubarrota, in Portugal, to Burgos,
in the middle of Spain, and Gil Eannes,
who beat them Mt Valverde in the
same year. Those two are the Bruce
and the Wallace of the Portuguese,
but there is this difference between
the Scottish and the Portuguese here=,
worship, that the one is mere mat
ter of historical pride, while the other
is part OF a living. active, political
force.
"The fact is that since she lost
Brazil and fell into d state Of general
decline the people Of Portugal have
become intensely retrospective. They
nourish their pride on national memo
ries, and the fundamental national fact
for them is their independence of
Spain. They began to be nation
when they broke loose from the king
dom of CASTLE and Leon in the
eleventh century, and ever since then,
except for couple of generations IN
the sixteenth and seventeenth centur-
les, they have existed MS na.ion
under the continual threat of absorp.
ton into Spain. The house of
Braganza stands to the Portdguese
people for no good thing but the re-
volt of 1910, by which their countrS
was redeemed into independence. Aid
the people feel that the price Of inde:
pendence is perpetual hatred Of Span:
iards. We can understand the feeling
only BY imagining what it would have
been III our country if the original
thirteen states hid been collectively
auch smaller than Great Britain eaaa
separated geograph hicall y from that
country onlysby a line on.the map. q
Nobody who has lived in Portugal
can fail to have noticed the signs Of
this undying hatred on all hands. Do
you know, for instance, the true mean
ing of the saying. "A bad Spaniard
makes good PortugueseH Of course,
there is the Spanish Interpretation,
which is the obvious one. But there
is also the deeper Portuguese inter.
pretation, and that is, that any bad
friend to Spain is by that very fact. "a
J good friend to Portugal.
"You can see evidences of the feel
ing, too, in the very language of Pof;
tugal, which its speakers seem tohave
purposely developed in such way as
to make it as unlike Spanish as pos;
sible. Written, it looks like Spanish,
but spoken it sounds much more like
Polish or Czech. 1t is a curious fact
that no self-respecting Portuguese
woman would be seen wearing q man
tilla, for the mantilla is the Spanish
woman's headgear. And during. the
last reign it used to be remarked in
Lisbon that only two ladies there ever
smoked, the queen, Maria Pia, mothei
of the present king-au Italian-and
the Duchess of Palmella-this; again;
because the habit of smoking had long
been distinctive of the Spanish among
all other womankind.
II believe this anti-Spanish feeling
has been kept alive all these centuries
very largely through the perseverance
of the Portuguese women. Perhaps
they remember that it was woman
who cast the die for the anti-Spanish
rcvoltin 1910 by pronouncing themem,
orable sentence, AS for me, I would
rather have death as Queen Of Por-
tugal than a long life as Duchess
of Braganza'-although, it is true, that
woman was Spauiard.
"Once I asked Portuguese girl i
she really hated all Spaniards. She
said of course she did. I reminded
her that the Christian religion com
manded us to love all men. 'Yes,
she said, but that was long time
80, before there were any Span.
ards. ,"
A Bag Full of Breath.
The ''pneumatophor, an Austrian
invention for enabling miners, fremen