The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1898-09-10
THE OBSTINATE sPANIARD.
He Has a Way Of Making Mere Facts
Fit In with Ills Theory Of
the World.

friends, the Spanish, Will DeBln 10 De-
lieye they really did get the hot end OF
IL at Santiago" said n Long Island
suburbanite TO another.
"Oh, no." said the man, who lived
in Spain before he settled in FlRtbush.
"Not at ALL"
WHAT"
II say not at all. You don't under
stand the Spanish people. l don't I'M
derstand them, for that matter, but !
have picked up one or two points in the
course Of a long experience. Let me
tell you a story in illustration. One
SUMMER evening, when l was at school
In England, not in Spain, four or five
OF us boys were watching the sunset.
Presently q young Spaniard who had
only recently arrived-and he happened
10 be from Havana, too-came and
Joined us. We had just been wondering
why the sun seemed To get so fiat as II
got neal to the horizon. We all noticed
that the sun did seem to flatten. and we
all had different ways of accounting
for the phenomenon. By way of be
ing civil to this foreigner, who under
stood hardly six words of English at
that time, one of us told him in French
what we were talking about. He nod
ded and smiled, just to show that he
understood, but he was standing with
his back to the sun and didn't turn
around 10 look at it.
"The acting interpreter was instruct
ed TO ask the Spanish gentleman If he
could tell US why the sun seemed to be
swelling out right and left like that.
But the Spanish gentleman only smiled
affably, still keeping his back TO the
sun. Then we suggested TO him all our
different explanations, N after an
other. but he dismissed every n Of
them with a grave, courteous smile and
o shake of his head. At last, when our
interpreter once more demanded Of him
the Havana theory Of the thing, he
vouchsafed 10 say In French:
at does not look so because II can
not. The sun is round And all that
we could do could not make that Span
lard turn round and look at the sun
for himself"
"H'm," said the untraveled American,
"he must have been particularly null
ish."
"Not particularly" said the other, III
itcomes TO being mulish | can give other
instances just as strong. Do you know
how they drive mules in the Pyreneesi
No, they don't light fires under them;
that would make them go too fast
/ mean on those mountain roads. Tn,
driver gets together n lot Of stones OF
the box beside him, and every now
and then, when the mules get too slow
he Just fires q rock at the leaders head
At least that was what my driver did
and 1t interested me very much, fol
IL was when / first went to Spain, am
everything interested me. So l askeC
my driver why he didn't use q whip
He looked at me very seriously ant
said that a Spanish mule didn't nee
G whip. l thought he was making ful
of me, so I climbed out on the seat be
side him and poked at the wheeler witt
an alpenstock I had strapped up witt
my waterproof and things Well, l ha,
TO stop II and apologize or get out AM
fight the driver on that narrow, lionel.
| roadside"
why? Didn't your plan work a
wellas the bombarding?"
ut made the mules go all right, bu
! the driver said It didn't He said the
3 were notcommon mules, but Pyreneea.
mules of blue blood, and that II l di
e II again they would be insulted an
die right there rather than haul us
. step further. He himself was yer
angry and swore between his teeth, an
5 he fred a fresh broadside Of rocks Jus
when the mules were really doing III
S usually well.
: But about the coolest piece of pr
b lite obstinacy l ever met in Spain wa
at a little country railroad station.
8 was so inconsiderate as to ask the ST.
{ ton master II he thought my trai
would be on time. l ought to hay
known that Spanish trains never al
t on time, as we understand the tern
The answer l got was enough TO wi
g me. The station master smiled MAJ
unanimously, and bowed and said: Isl
n embargo, senior ('Wlthout doubt, sir
But the schedule time came and 4
train. l couldn't say any more to n
It station master on that subject, but !
y saw me look at the clock once or twic
It As 1t turned out, the train was unusua
ly punctual-only 40 minutes late. II
d station master gave me another low DO
as / got IN board, and then | saw hii
deliberately climb on the back of
II bench and set the hands OF the cloC
book 40 mlnutes."-N. Y. Sun.
u