The age-herald., 1898-02-25
SOMETHING OF SPAIN
 AND THE SPANISH


 would say at a guess that Spain's popu- lation was s5,OOOOOO or 10000. .OO0 But it Is, in reality, not 1S0O0. .0OO Spain has an area or ly7 ,6l0 square miles. The area of France IS only few thousand square miles great CT, and yet France has a population of very nearly 40OOO,000. Texas has an area or H4,S56 square miles Spain could be laid out on Texas and Texas would have 166S6 square miles over. The states of Pennsylvania, New York. Illinois and Ala pama have more population together than mas spain, and are immensely more wealthy. These states could borrow enough money, with their whole field of commodities, men, and capital behind tho loan to pay off at one coup the whole na- tional debt of Spain. They could raise. pay and maintain a bigger army than Spain could. Their natural resources could outlast Spain ten to one. Their steam power is infinitely greater, and as man power can always be gauged by steam power, you can imagine the difference. These four states could exist if they se- questrated from all the rest of the world Spain could hardly live day.
 
 Spain was once the greatest nation on the race of the globe. Say, rather she was and science under the Saracenic rule. when the city of cordova had mile of gas-lit streets ana fountains. of quicksilver played Tn the palace yard of the caliph. Second when sne was the greatest military power Tn europe. If you look at the names of countries, cities and places in the western hemisphere you will realize what a grand empire Spain once was and what A power she wielded over men. But Spain could l, not stand the march of modern invention. She has steadily shrunk and shriveled and Iost her possessions, until now all she has ieft worth speaking of is Cuba, The Phil ippines are insignificant possessions.
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 theorist who holds that education is the cause Of progress will point you the answer in the statistics concerning Spain's iliiteracy. Only one nation in Ea,rope ia lower in enlightenment than Spain. That is Italy. Of all the population of Spain only S per cent cam read and write per cent can read only and 6S per cent can neither read nor write. When you come to think of it this fact staggers the mind. Here is a nation in the heart of civiliza- uon, and S6 per cent. of its people have no conception whatever of the marvels of the printing press or of the letters that Cadmus brought to Europe. But let us go a lbttle deeper into this matter of illiteracy oo not desire to talk about causes; the sociologists can do that. But were one in the mind to do it a sociological study of Spain would be worth the writing Spain, as l have said, has a population of Less than 1S,000.O00 and 6S per cent. of her people cannot read or write. The United States has a population of, let us say, 70O0O00O. Of the native white population in this coun- try only per cent. cannot read or write. Of the foreign whites only 13 per cent. can not read or write, and cf the colored popu- lation 66 per cent. cannot read or write. But accounting for the foreigners and the negroes in the compute tion, there is but 13 per cent. of the population in this country that cannot read or write. Think of it! Out of nearly 100000 native white Americans only per cent. cannot read write anI SDain'S percentage Is 6S!
 Let us see how Spain compares in illt- eracy with her neighbors. It is not pre- cisely just to Spladn to compare her with such wonderfully fortunate people as we are. In England Q4ondon) 3 per cent. of men and per cent. of women make their marks on the marriage register Eng fish iEiteracy reaches little higher per centage in some of the counties. Sweden has hardly any ililteracy at all. Only oil per cent. of the recruits cannot read or write. Of the French conscripts only GA per cent. cannot read or write. Of the recruits in the German army only ono quarter of per cent. cannot read or write. In Austria S6 per cent of the children of school age are at school. In the Russian army recruiting it was found that only 20 per cent. of the men wehe ignorant of let ters. Russians at large may be as illterate as are Spaniards, but the statistics availa- ble do not go to show that such Is the case. The statistics in the Stateman's Year Book show Italy to be considerably more flliter- ate than Spain, but outside of Italy Spains ignoarnce is monstrous In Europe. Spains banking power, Nike her steam power is practically nil. She has in all not quite 1000 miles of railroad. It is fashionable to laugh at China with her seventy y-etgho miles of steam railroads and her back wardress in point of civilization. But 1t must be admitted however, much we dis like to do so, that, making allowances for her environment and her advantages Spain is worse than China.
 Who are the Spanish? What is their blood, their ethnography, their race? We have no end of history about Spain. Phi- ology tells us they are Latin. Their lan- guage was once vulgar Latin, such as the Romans spoke. But 1t was corrupted by invaders from the north and grew to be what 1t now is. There are traces in the language of ancient dialects which the Spanish got from the Greeks. the Car thageniaus and the Phoenicians. The Coths took the vulgar Latin which the Romans had left and made the language of Espana. In remote antiquity there were certain Celts who mixed with the Iberians (original inhabitants Of Spain) Then came the Phoenicians and the Car thagenians and later the Romans, and last the Goths and the Visigoths. And there you have the story of Spanish blood and race. The Vandals conquered part or Spain, and their section of 1t was calied Vandalusia (whence the modern Andalu- sa). I do not think we can say the Span ish have had any worse origin than the rest of us. We have the same ancestors, but the other Mediterranean races have left Spain almost as far behind as they have left the Mongols. The Basques are not of the same blood as other Spaniards Prof Mueller in his great work, An thropology," says the Basques are the remnant of a distinct race, and Prof. Ern- est Haeckel says the Basaues are de- scendants from a totally different ape-lfke man than that which was the father Of the Indo-Germanic tribes.
 Before the age of steam engines ana teie- eraphs. when Europe was semi-civilized, Spain was a great nation. She was a strone savage among savages. But this Is inc age not of cruelty (and how cruel Spain has been and is). It is the age when amity, not enmity. rules or Is max inc to rule For the sake of romance would like to see Spain die. She IS so Iui of color, so anomalous, so alone in Europe,