The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-04-16

gave place to coWardice when Stabblng
 in the back had displaced the manly ! combat in the open. There was worse
 to follow, however, for Spain was now oVerrun by the Moors This was about 717 A. D. But little resistance was
 made to the entrance of the Moors, and | they had full possession of Spain for several centuries. Nearly all that is
 rich in architecture, the development | of the gold and silver mines, the mos | ques and temples, the stores of art treasures, the high degree of cultiva- 1 the influence of the semi barbarous | Moors. Yet of those centuries only 40 years were quiet ones. All the rest | were given up to anarchy and blood | shed.
 It was only in July of 1912 that the | Christians rode down on the Moors,
 and in single combat wrested from
 them most of their rich Spanish pos
 sessions. One would imagine that now,
 at least, Spain would rouse from her
 lethargy and display some sign of cour- age and strength. On the contrary, her people continued to plunder and pill | age, to murder and imprison, and her l petty kings put people to death, just l because they could The Spanish in- uisition was established in 14S0, and l for four years the infamy of that and | of the persecution of the Jews over-
 shadows everything else Tn 1493 the
 Jews were finally expelled from Spain, formally, and all those who failed to
 leave were shamefully mistreated.
 | The first gleam of brightness in all
 the miserable centuries recounted in which Spain had been changing the l map of the peninsula came from the | marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella It | seems to have been a love match, and yet both Isabella and Ferdinand, in | whom was united for the first time | most of the lands of Spain, and who | were supposed to be enlightened and | wise, persecuted the Jews, and wan | tonly put thousands of men to death I for political purposes, sending other | thousands of helpless men, women and | children into dreary exile.
 It was in 1S42 that Spain added to
 her territory for the first time through
 the discoveries of Columbus. In the end | there was placed under the Spanish | flag Florida, all of South America ex-
 cept Brazil, the West Indies, including Cuba, Mexico, Texas and all up the Pa
  | fornia, as it Is to-day. A princely do-
 main of incalculable wealth. The man ner of acquiring her possessions in | Peru and Mexico was one of infamous cruelty, exactly such as she had prac- | ticed at home, exactly as she practices everywhere. The story of the inoffen- sive Indians Of Peru, who were slaugh- | tered like pigs by the naughty Cortez | 1N,, ~f l blackest pages in the history of na- | tion that does not seem to have known, or cared to know, what civilized war; fare is. The vicious treatment of Co., lumbus is another dark page.
 Spain was now at the height of all her greatness When Ferdinand died. | he left behind him the memory of vain, penurious tricky, narrow man. | Spain was the greatest power in Flu rope, and in fact, In all the world. Not | because of him, but because of the really great men who came to the front | during his reign. His grandson came | to the throne as Charles of Spain, and little later he came into power in Germany as Charles V of that nation. | Then it was that he said "on my do- minions the sun never sets" Martin | Luther was laundering anathemas at l the church of Rome and 1t was Charles who summoned him to Worms to ex- plain himself. While he was off looking after affairs in Germany an insurrec- | ton arose against him in Spain, the people objecting to be ruled by a "Dutchman," and he had to hustle back to quell that.
 l Just then there occurred one of those | nice international battles over Pavia, l in which the Italians, French, and Ger mans took part, and the Germans won, | taking possession of Pavia for Spain and CharlesV. This is almost the only | conquest that Is noted in history to i that time, for Spain and Pava was | won by the Germans, after all. Charles reigned 30 years, and they were years | of intrigue, infamy, and bloody battles. | He never saw Spain except when he | wanted money to pay his German | troops or debts, and the consequences were, he had war at home most of the | time.
 Tired of it all, he abdiated at last in 1 favor of his son. Philip II, whose | bloody prosecutions of Protestants in- carnadines all his perverted life. He | determined to stamp out all heresy, and to do so re-established the Inquisi- | tfon. The low countries rebelled and a Council of Blood"-so called because | of It's horrible work, sent many hun | dreds of the noblest people of the low | countries to death. They were hanged, burned, beheaded, and incarcerated and I left to starve. Most of them were Prot estants, but many of them were Cath l olics, who were in favor of religious | freedom. William of Orange and the | cruel duke of Ava, the foremost man l of war in all Spain, went to war over | the order of the king, and for five years | they battled. The Netherlanders won, l and they were lost to Spain forever. | The duke of Ava said, as he turned his | face toward Spain, that he was happy | to state that he had caused ,000 Meth | erlanders to be executed in five years. | A writer of that time says: Span | iards were accounted a race apart from l the rest of mankind; not really human, | but diabolical, to be hunted down and ! exterminated like vicious wild beast" l The Spanish won victory at Lepan- | to over the Turks in 1571, and they SUD- pressed a rising among the Moors in | 1567. Everywhere else there was revo- | lution, insurrection, war, riot, and bloodshed. Spain had started on the down hill, and she has never stopped.