The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-07-30

CIVIL GUARD DISPENSING a MADRID MO6-
to continue the practice Of eating. OF
course it is most thoughtless and selfish
as well as unpatriotio to insist upon
thrusting forward trivialities of this ma
ture at such a time, but they are doing it.
The result is that Madrid and some of the
other cities are in a most unquiet state.
The conditions which have made II
somewhat difficult and often impossible
for the poorer classes of Spaniards to con-
tinue the custom Of taking three meals q
day, or even one, are due either directly or
indirectly to the war with the ssYanke8
pigs" IN the Spanish home ports lie the
Spanish merchant vessels, not daring to
venture out because of Watson's savage
feet. Therefore Spanish N is at
a standstill. This means that Spanish
factories and Spanish Industries of almost
every sort have been paralyzed. Little
food is being brought into the country,
and little exporting Ia being done;
hence thousands are idle.
Added to this is the fact that it is the
poorer classes who bear the bulk of the
war tax burden. The most oppressive OF
these war taxes are the octroi taxes, which
are levied on products taken from the
country districts into the cities, q vice
versa. Thus the peasant who ca7ries
eggs, chickens and fruit into Madrid pays
an octroi tax on each article at the city
gates as he goes in, and if he buys any
thing in the city he is again taxed as be
goes out. Naturally the prices which the
peasant demands for his produce are high
er than when he had no tax TO pay. In
the case Of the very poor, who always had
a lard time to get enough to eat, these
prices are now practically prohibitive. and
thousands In Madrid have been for weeks
without the barest necessities of life
Realizing that starving people are apt
to be desperate the municipal government
of Madrid has made Efforts to keep the
populace quiet by distributing food. and
so the open plazas have been made the
theaters of such scenes as are seldom Wit
messed in a European capitol. Motley
crowds of gaunt, hollow eyed Epantarts,
old and young, throng the streets leading
to the plazas and fight their way 70 the
distributing booths, where dinainUtfre rolls
Of bread, little parcels of pork, occasional
potatoes and broad Spanish beans aTe doled
out to the famished crowds. Under the
broiling sun they stand for hours at q
time waiting for their turn 90 come.
When the rush for the tables threatens
to overwhelm the. officials In charge, there
Is a call for the civil guards, and the troop
ers charge into the mob, cutting ID up into
sections and driving the people ont of che
squares.
The civil guard is the finest and best
equipped force forming part Of the Span
ish army. In o correct sense the guards
are not soldiers, but are more Of the ma
ture of police. They are organized OF a
military plan. The organization consists
of some 40, 900 men, and In rural sections
their special duty consists Of protecting
and guarding the country roads, ever in
the most wild and rugged provinces, SO
that a person can traverse Spain always
under the vigilance of a civil guard.
Another branch of this fine force does
ordinary police work in the cities and