The record-union., 1898-06-02
IA LUDICROUSLY PATHETIC EXHI-
BITION


Americans might laugh until their
ribs ached over Misrepresentation by
the Spanish press, We're it not so pitt
ful and pathetic an exhibition of the
throes Of a dying nation, a nation that
historians in the long ago forecast as
on its death bed. For it is as surely to
die and pass out of the worlds history
as the day is to dawn and the night to
Set in; and this because of the immut-
able law of nature which visits punish
ment just where it. belongs, with deadly
and unerring aim.
But repressing laughter and standing
In plying attitude, let us quote sober
and gravely uttered words, written. into
the columns Of sedate Spanish news
papers reckoned as leaders and molders
OF public opinion. For instance. "El
Impartial" Eel Pals" "El Tempo" and
lei Heraldo," all of Madrid, have re-
gently declared that European states
men well know that the late Confeder-
Ates Of the South are ready to raise
the standard of revolt and wait only
Tor General Lee to give the word; that
I'VE have but few thousand men in our
army, mostly at the West. ill-fed, ILL
paid unwilling to fight and capable of
being transported to the Atlantic coast
by but one line Of railway which is in
bad order
That the General Lee who will lead
the American revolt is the same who
headed the. arms of rebellion in 1851
and 1885. and,s finally, surrendered to
General Lincoln. that the line of rail-
road over which, all American troops
must cross to reach point opposite
Cuba, passes over Niagara, a cataract
1000 feet high, situated near Labrador.
and that the passage over is dan
gerous one; that the Indians are arising
against the Yankees in Indiana, Illinois
and Ohio, and are burning the farmers
houses and butchering. their families,
and that troops have been petitoned
for from Colorado in the State Of Den
tver. r@
That Buffalo Bill, a noted half breed
has. arisen against the whites. and is
devastating the country near New
York, his birthplace That the climate
of America is execrable, since when it
is not showing the heat is intolerable,
and that avalanches work devastation
yearly to an enormous extent. That as
for the people, the few whites live along
the eastern shores, all the rest of the
country being vast plain inhabited by
Indians called cowboys, and by great
herds of roaming cattle
Finally here comes lei Progresso" Of
Havana, and declares to the readers Of
that progressive sheet in the capital of
Cuba, that Spanish ships have taken
Boston, and the people Of that city
have fed into the interior. That the
New York. That the Yankees are half
starved, meat being so. cents a pound
with us and bread 20 cents loaf. That
1--WE have been repulsed by the noble"
Spanish army and fleets everywhere It
declares that our soldiers are towards
and will not fight, that the threat to
Invade Cuba has been given up and
that our ships have been sunken, Ma
1ila retaken and Deweys feet utterly
destroyed. That Spanish arms are so
dar advanced that it Is safe to say very
soon the glorious Spanish flag wifi once
,more wave over America as it did in
Ahe long ago, and Spain will resume
aher empire over the world as is right
she should do.
II, after all this, there Is an Ameri-
can who does not catch his breath and
gasp for air. let him stand forth. But
'2he misery and pity Of it all is that the
poor deluded Spanish people, below the
ranks of the aristocracy are fed upon
such Cruel as this, and that the masses
of them actually digest it. Compassion
rides upon the wings of justice and
,forbids mirth in the presence Of such
"a pathetic exhibition.