The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-03-14
SPANlARDS AND OUR TARS.
PRIVATE SCORES IN THE NhTT
1BAT REMAIN TO BE SETTL ED.

WASHINGTON, March l3.-"I never could
make head nor tail Of a Spaniard," said an old
chief petty officer OF the United States Navy,
now on leave OF absence here. They're n
queer lot Of people. I've always believed that
they Just naturally can't help hating the people
Of this country. | know that they've been hat
ing the naval uniform OF Uncle sam ever since
I've been in the United States Navy. and that's
not much short of thirty yonrs.
81 don't refer to the Spaniards OF Spain
alone. but TO Spaniards everywhere, and cspe.
cially in South and Central America. Amcri-
can man.o'.war's men have submitted ton good
deal from these South and Central American
Spaniards that has never got into print. | put
in eight years on both Of tho South and Central
American.coasts, and l know what I'm talking
about.
"a Spnniard won't fight fair. I was in Mon
tovideo In SO. There were two mcn-owar, n
Frenchman and n German. anchored alonRside
OF us. l went rshore to look around with
about twenty Of our men. most OF them petty Of
fcers and well. behaved men, n couple OF days
after we dropped our mudhook In that squnlly
harbor. Wo found about n hundred or the
French and German bluejackets on the beach
ahead OF us. They were treated with great
consideration, bur we got the cold eye every
where. A Spaniard's avarice. Ire noticed. will
generally. beat out all his other feelings. lut it
wasn't so on this occasion. We went to five
restaurants before We struck one that would
serve us. We kept together, because we saw
the ugliness OF the people as soon as we hit the
beach. When we finally made a restaurant
where It looked as 10 we were to be served we
Judged so, because the greasy proprietor didn't
announce to us MS soon as we showed up that he
didn't have n thing in tho house-we sat down
and gave our orders. There were thirty or
forty of tho French and German bluejackets in
the restaurant at the time. hut they didn't
mingle any and we had nothing to do with any
Of them, but attended to our own business,
When we had eaten and drunk and went up to
settle the Spaniard who ran the place had a bill
for each Of us that would have about tapped all
of our monthly money had we paid 1t. We
kicked, of course. The proprietor said we'd
have to pay the bills as he rendered them or DO
handed over to the police. l was the Oldest
man in our party, and I was pretty hot. l went
over to one OF the French petty officers sitting
at q table and he let me glance over his bill. The
items on his bill: were one-ffth the amounts
marked on ours. Then I told the proprietor in
the pigeon Spanish that l knew that I'd see him
hanged before any man wearing the uniform |
wore would submit to that sort Of imposition.
! paid each mans reckoning, taking four-nfths
off of every bill, and we walked out. The pro-
prietor rushed to the door. yelling for the gen
darmes. Four or five Of them were posing out
on the street, but they made no move. toward
us, seeing tho we we're pretty strong in num-
"a couple of days.later another batch.of men
from my ship went on the beach They hadn't
Of them happened to pass by the restaurant
where the proprietor had tried to put 1t on us.
The proprietor saw them, and he made his yell
for our men with clubs and small swords. The
Three bluejackets hadn't done anything, out Of
.l,- ..-a, and NOV nt1lnf nrGF n M tklIlt
they were being tackled for. So they gave the
six gendarmcs plenty of fight They were over
ard cut up. They were beaten and shamcfully
abused even after they were secured in cells.
Each of them had to pay the equivalent Of SO
wcro charged with swindling an innkecper,
drunkenness. fighting. and resisting peace off,
himself wheiA he returns to his ship beaten up.
Dur skipper listened to their stories. but he took
disorderly, and he punished them by putting
their names on the bad conduct list. Those ,hreo
men are all i'll the navy yet. and you can gamble
they'll ENJOY getting a crack at Spain II the
while serving on another ship cruising on
decided. to run up from the coast and have a
look at the Lima cathedral. There wasn't what
The gang. Most of us were Roman Catholics.
too, 3D. we knew how to conduct ourselves in a
church of the faith we We're born In. We spread
the slews Of bcggars that are everywhere in
Lima before we reached the cathedral. The
guide who offered to show us around the cathe-
dral was a young dude of n Spaniard, and he
collected his fee in advance. knowing, probably.
F sss' Trough he a iina wi S4n US. way a IL lF,S GS fo osl%Te o nt
that this guide chap was one of the leaders of a
pure-Spanish organization IN Lima. Well, he
reached the main door on our way out, there
being a draught, most of us put on our caps just
ought TO have heard the howl that miserable
little, devil made. He ran into the square;
5esecrated the cathedral. and the first thing we
knew. VIC were surrounded by n horde of those
spindly, little coppers they have down there.
Gordon. but l knew that that would only have
made the thing worse. 1 asked the sergeant of
He said that the guide had stated that we had
made faces at the stations OF the cross and exc
e eatSe is ''' I told the "' sergeant re ant and the rest es Of
his little peqehblow cops that they'd bette,
name--the alcalde. KNEW where the Office was
for I'd. been in Lima several times before. The
1t cost every man in our party, 30 pesos to get
away from his office without bloodshed. II we
hadn't paid up, we'd have had to fight all the
troops in Lima.
''Thcse are only samples of the game Ameri.
S against @aa DOWN IN s @sf A n9Hs ese since ran the days up
Of the old luscarora. They get worse and more
"Tho chief gunner's mate of my ship-.his
was in 79-went ashore one day alone in Fer
rol, Spain. lie was n big bruiser. but a very
quiet, inofensive, non-drinking man, named
Nelson. Nelson got "A calash and started to
drive himself around the town. He knew how
TO handle a horse. Tho horse that tho livery
man hitched to his calash had been in the stable
2 long time. and was as scary and nervous as a
just.tnrown cayuse. Nelson started out OF the
stable and up the main street with n good hold
on the relns. A couple OF blocks from the liv-
cry stable n little devil of a boy caught sight OF
the rather unusual thing of n lluejacket driv-
ing q horse. and he picked up a stick and bolted
the hcSse beside the head with all his might.
The horse gave II couple of jumps just to stretch
himself, and away he went. He ran with the
barrel touching the ground for two miles, Mel
son standing up in the calash and giving an cX-
hibition of driving skill that opened the eyes OF
some Of the ships men who were ashore and
the horses teeth when the runaway had hauled
the trap. away, out in the suburbs. Then no
about ship and drove the horse back to the
stable where he had got the rig. Naturally the
sides Of the beast were fOamy, and he was
breathing hard. The Spaniard saw a chance,
and the Snaniard never misses n bet when there
10 coin in 1t. He led the painting. lathery horse
right NJ TO n trough md gave him a hide full of
cold wnter. Nelson protested.
he. but the Sraniard only smiled. Ten min
utes later tho horse MAS in distress. and,
though he would probably have "ullcd through,
the SpaniArd shot the beast. Then Nelson saw