Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-07-22
SPANS Resurrection

Madrid correspondence of London Mail:
AS you travel through Spain by the eX-
press which carries you to Madrid, the
belief is forced upon you that not even
q rumor of war has yet reached the re-
moter countryside.
The peasant. a loin cloth girt about his
waist, still bes.lides his mule IN sublime
ignorance Of Americas triumph. News
travels slowly IN Spain, where the MORN
ing paper is not more necessary tina
wine and bread; and it would be safe to
wager that if you encountered a way
farer on the siefTas and spoke to him OF
battles and alarms his mind would re-
vert slowly to the half-known giOries of
the Peninsular.
But the ignorance of the country ma
be matched by the apparent Indifference
of the towns, and for this Indifference an
other explanation must he sought.
Spain woke UP one morning to ind that
her colonies had been snatched from her,
that the last link had been snapped IN the
chain which once bound her TO the splen-
did victories of her golden century. And
she accepted the discovery with an ad-
mirable tranquility of mind. Cuba Il
the Philippines, alas! We're hers 40 more.
Fenceforth she would lose the RESPONSE
billtY, as Well as the excitement, Of a
lingering campaign. But with that lofty
pride Which refuses to reallZe A huIllIIa-
ton Spain put the truth away from her,
anu IoPN tP Nv o't- Et CAHA-a o'4Nt 49,
with a rare yet perfect resignation to the
inevitable.
Nor was the strange security une1-
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. kisnet, they rnurmur, as the
Moors 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 grinlly smile at
facts as though they only half believed
in them.
Nov this faculty Of proud quietude
separates the Spaniards from the other
Latin peoples. Had France been forced
SIX n1otnhs ago to accept an trksonne
peace. what would have been her cond.-
ton today? a worse anarchy would reign
than d~isigures her ~ungovernei capital.
Civil war would have taken the place of
a patriotic struggle, and the free citizens
of Paris. glutted with the enenay's blood,
would long since have been at one an
others throats. For the red terror Of
revolution IS the constant camp follower
of France, stalking on the heels Of battle
to make disaster ten times more disas-
trous. When the Frenchnlan has receiv-
ed a blow he must perfOrce appOrtiOn
blame not to those who dealt ii, but TO
those who permitted it to be dealt. and
the was a logical conclusion to
the German victory. Yet how differently
has Spain looked upon defeat. In Madrid
there is no speech Of revolution, no fear
Of blodshed. but merely a we'll justified
hatred of peculatlon, and an uneasy feel
ing that politics will not permit the
proper punishment of the offenders.
Nor is Spans loss an unmixed mis-
fortune. When America accepted wider
responsibilities she amply increased the
revenue of her foe. since Cuba and the
Philippines, if they fattered the Spanish
pride, at the same time drained the Span
lsh pocket. In the fierce desire Of expan-
sion, which today has laid hold Of the
more active, restless nations, the peoples
of the south can take no share. The COM
petition is too pressing for their gay.
slothful, pleasure loving temperament.
Where life is easy and work IS hard We
cannot expect TO find a colonial policy
conceived with spirit, and the Andalu-
slams, for instance, will not sacrifice
themselves for islands over sea, so long
as their climate counsAs them to idle
ness and their soil yields wine and olives
to a simple scratching. So It was that
for many years Spain failed either to
govern or to profit by her colonies; the
war, conducted by INSCRIPTIONS gener-
ais, was a certain guarantee of poverty,
and it is a significant truth that by shift
ing the burden Spain has enriched her.
self. 1t IS a long while since the peseta
bore the value which it bears today.
But though the war is over and ac-
cepted Loyalty for what it achieved, the
Spaniards, IN private, still nurse a pain
full wound.
The eternal dislike of strangers, in
which they rival the ancient Athenians,
is more bitter, more intense thar ever.
Collectively, maybe, it finds no express
sion, but you Will hardly nverse with
a solitary Spaniard without discovering
Tho sizing of a Two raCarfroant \n.t-
this resentment IS cherished mildly
against the Americans. who nave tri-
urnphed in war, but more s~trenuously
against the English, whose sympathy,
says Spain, was too loudly and violently
expressed. But this resentment will soon
be merged into the unwilling liberation
which Spain extends to all foreigners,
and then the war Will have left little
trace, save in a rest from colonial war
fare and IN a handsomely replenished ex-
chepuer.
And what Of the future Will Spain,
now she is confined forever within her
own borders, win back something Of her
old wealth and prosperity? Will she es-
tablIsh the peace and tranquility which
are best suited to her character? No
disturbance is likely to come from with
out, since France, though she has just
demanded, with a threat, that the Span
ish debt be paid in full, is too busy clean
ing her W house to covet the house of
her ~nelghbor. Besides, the Pyrenees have
always proved an efficient rampant, and,
ever if they were not, Europe would not
be likely to witness the encroachment OF
France.
In truth. Spain will now be left to work
out her W destiny, and there is no rea-
son why she should not face the new CEN
fury with hope and confidence. The fact
that she has passed through the crisis OF
defeat with the merest threat of revolu-
ton Is proof enough that her varied prov
lnces are al standing loyalty by the
throne. and that there ic littIo oLnsaA e