The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-08-20
SPAIN rs EVER CRUEL

Regular size 30 cents and elO0.
| SPAIN is EVER CRUEL
HER PLEASURE IN iNFLICTIkG TOT
TURE ON THE HELPLESS.
| Atrocious Treatment of War Prisoners HI
Away Been =, fatural Characteristic
Deeds ~ Horrible 10 Any Savages Eve
Thought OF.
aside from anything that a wilfu
partisan or rom sntically inclined his
torian may have written, one can say
without fear of contradiction, that O.
all the civilized nations on earth, non.
ever has waged war In a more crue
and fraudulent manner than the Span.
ish," says recent writer. ut is with
(. horror only that the Germans think
of the times of Alva, who devastated
their fatherland by his atrocious &C.
lions, and transformed the industrial
cities and provinces Of the Netherlands
into desert.
mo better than this bloody execu-
toner of King Philip were other Span
ish leaders in the war waged for the
independence OF the Netherlands. The
city OF Maastricnt, for instance, was
plundered for three days, after having
been besieged fos four months by the
Spanish General. Alexander Farnese,
Duke OF Parma. Eight. thousand in
habltants were murdered, among them
l,2o0 women, WHO, after having been
subjected to unspeskable outrages and
tortures, were positively butchered.
The cruelties OF the civil war be-
tween the followers of Philip v and Of
Carlos III can hardly be described, and
they are only surpassed by the brutal
tiles committed during the long war
or the Spaniardh against the French
(lSoS-lSl4). When Napoleon had put
his brother Joseph on the Spanish
throne, and had taken possession of the
country with his army the people be-
came furious, anc the fanatlcism Of the
bigoted masses showed up in revolt
ing manner, as they feared for their re-
ligion from the enlightened French;
the clergy, and especially the monks,
preached that the French were inimi-
cal to the Catholic faith, and that Ma
poleon was 'anh-Christ In person.,
They armed the peasants and started
bloody guerrilla war, and in this sort
81 warfare the diabolic character of
these much-praited chivalrous Castil-
|ians revealed itself with full force.
The spaniards murdered their enc
mics whenever and wherever they
'ould lay their hands on them and in
committed horrible atrocities
:gainst the wounded and prisoners,
'uttlng on their noses and ears, or
ney sawed them In pieces, or cruciaed
IF slowly burned them. The Spanish
women, those noble souls, whose vir-
ues have been sung by exalted ro-
nances, committed acts Of brutality a
leretofore almoft unknown to man. o
the sierra Morrena, for instance, a
ne transports az prisoners were at a
acked by them and they dug out the IL
yes OF these un 'ortunate people with T
ms and scissors, and to enhance the W
,isery OF those who were wounded te
hey cut open the soles Of their feet
III then cohpeiea tnem 10 march. pl
1913, when the French general, Du- th
ont, and his $4,000 men surrendered CT
Baylen, great many Of the pris- bI
aers were tortured and killed in the ar
Dove described manner: Sc
In the island of Malorca, where re
ousands of prisoners had been for
arded, the mob stOrmed the barracks VII
Ia Killed most Of them on the spot. in
An English reporter, who was with 81
army, tells of a peasant m;
no followed a transport of wounded Ca
cnchmen for hours, and begged the as,
lglish escort most imploringly to rel
We him one of the wounded enemies, wo
hen the English soldier asked linn 20,
lat he intended to do with the rer
'unded man, the brute coolly replied, |
by, torture hira.' In the second VOL Ian
lie of his memo rs, the famous French dis
neral, Marriott tells Of dreadful I'm
e performed by him while captain for
the Chasseurs Cheval in 1903. He Sps
rted from Indela, in the Ebro VAL ant
J., with important dispatches from DOS
rshal Lannes for Emperor Napo- r
n, who was stationed at Amanda, a i'm,
age on the road leading from Bur- whit
to Madrid. Marriott had to Tide sci,
ough a lonesome and mountainous
ion, where many bands of gueriJlas e,
we'd. He took two hussars with dim .lf
escort as SOON as he reached Tara. IN =
be was told from there on his ride ",
lid be most perilous one. 1t was the
onlight when the three Frenchuen "y
,hed the mountains. Suddenly they Adm
I'd the well klown whizzing of bull seen
but were unable to discover the in q
my. As they had not been hurt
, moved on aud soon found scores "r
lead soldiers belonging to Noy's trrt,