The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-07-20

SPANS RESURRECTION.

A Fatalism That Makes the Country
Superior to Disaster-Working Out
Her Own Destiny
AS you travel through Spain by the
express which carries you to Madrid,
the belief is forced upon you that not
even a rumor of the war has yet
reached the remoter countryside.
The peasant, a loin cloth girt about
his waist still bestrides his mule in
sublime ignorance of Americas triumph.
News travels slowly in Spain, where the
morning paper is not more necessary
than wine and bread; and it would be
safe to wager that If you encountered
a wayfarer on the Sierras and spoke to
him of battles and alarms his mind
would revert slowly to the half-known
glories of the Peninsula
But the ignorance of the country may
be matched by the apparent indifference
of the towns, and for this indifference
another explanation must be sought
Spain woke up one morning to find
that her colonies had been snatched
from her, that the last link had been
snapped in the chain which once bound
her to the splendid victories of her gol-
covery with an admirable tranquility Of
mind. cuba and the Philippines, alas!
were hers no more. Henceforth she
would lose the responsibility, as well as
the excitement of lingering campaign.
But with that lofty pride which refuses
to realize a humiliation Spain put the
truth away from her, and took up her
occupation once more with rare yet
/ perfect resignation to the inevitable.
Nor was the strange security unex-
pected The Spaniards have always
shown themselves either unconscious OF,
or superior to, disaster There is now,
as there was three centuries ago, a
! touch of Moorish fatalism in their char
acter. Kismet, they murmur az the
! MoCrs did also, who once peopled the
country, and when there Is no help for
disaster they wrap themselves In a
triple cloak Of arrogance. and grimly
smile at facts, as though they only half
believed in them.
Now, this faculty Of proud quietude
separates the Spaniards from the other
Latin peoples. Had France been forced
six months ago to accept an irksome
peace, what would have been her CON
dition to-day? A worse anarchy would
reign than now dlsfgures her ungov-
erned capital Civil war would have
taken the place of patriotic struggle, |
and the free citizens of Paris, glutted
with the enemy's blood, would long
since have been at one another's throats |
For the red terror of revolution is the |
constant camp follower of France, |
stalking on the heels of battle to make
Al ,+1 t,, 4;
When the Frenchman has received a |
blow he must perforce apportion blame !
not to those who dealt it. but to those
who permitted it to be dealt, and the
Commune was a logical conclusion to |
the German victory. Yet how differ
emily has Spain looked upon defeat! In
Madrid there is no speech of revolution,
no fear of boodshed, but merely well |
justified hatred Of peCulation and an |
uneasy feeling that politics will not per
nit the proper punishment of the often
ders.
Nor is Spains loes an unmixed mis-
fortune. When America accepted wider
responsibilities she amply increased the
revenue Of her foe since Cuba and the
Philippines. If they hattered the Span
ish pride at the same time drained the
Spanish pocket. In the fierce desire of
expansion, which to-day has laid hold
Of the more active, restless nations, the
peoples of the South can take no share
The competition is too pressing for their
gay, elothful pleasure loving tempera-
ment. Where life is easy and work is
hard we cannot expect to find a colonial
policy conceived with spirit, and the
Andalusians for instance, will not sac
rifice themselves for islands over
sea, so long as their climate
couneels them TO idlenPss and
their soil yields wine and olives to
a simple scratching. SO it was that for
many years Spain failed either to gov
ern or to profit by her colonies; the war,
conducted by INSCRIPTIONS generals,
was certain guarantee of poverty, and ;
it is significant truth that by shifting
the burden Spain has enriched herself.
1t is a long while since the peseta bore
the value which it bears to-day. {
But though the war is over and ac ,
cepted Loyalty for what 1t achieved the s
Spaniards, in private still nurse pain /
full wound. |
The eternal dislike of strangers, in |
which they rival the ancient Athenians {
is more bitter, more intense than ever
maybe, it finds no express ,
sion, but you will hardly converse with t