Evening star., 1899-03-02

cause 1 desired to keep a few things on my
list of eatables. and am confident that a
visit to the bakery would cause this bread
to be cut from the list. There is a great
opening for good, clean American restau-
rants, and the field is almost entirely
occupied.
From Moral Standpoint.
Spanish morals are of a high grade. Tn
like the young ladies of America, Porto
Rican girls do not grow to maturity in alb
solute ignorance of the wickedness and
immortality around them. but they have
been educated to live entirely free and sep
aratc from II.
In Spanish countries no lady will dare
to appear on the streets or elsewhere alone,
and young ladies are constantly under
their mothers watchful eye. While IT is
not considered improper for any lady to
speak to any woman, however fallen or
notorious. still no Spanish lady will allow
such woman TO even meet her alone. nor
Will any Spanish lady place herself in
position other than such where her conduct
can he vouched for at any and all times
by witnesses.
There seems to be an unaccountahle diff
ference between the Spanish government
official and the Spanish gentleman. The
government official is usually pompous
swaegerer. thoroughly corrupt and unre-
liable fun of promises profusely made but
always deferred for execution until manana
tomorrow, and manana with the Spaniard
has the same Signification as that which
the celebrated Samuel Patrick is credited
with giving to the term tomorrow in
his Hibernian reptile story-neVnr. Many
Spanish government officials are nothing
more nor less than duly licensed highway
men, who present their duly accredited
credentials to rob and plunder the gov
erned. To say that there is any such thing
as Spanish law is to mislead Americans,
because in America law governs and con-
trolls officials as well as the masses. but in
Spain the government official is controlled
by no law, and he knows no restraint other
than that imposed in person by his i'm
mediate superiors Such a thing as prece-
dent is entirely unknown. and judges
never deliver opinions or recite facts. They
merely issue orders. Their entire legal lit
erature consists of the codigo civil and the
codlgo penal with the commentaries of
about a dozen different authors. who have
written iE the elementary style of our
blackstone or Kent. The Spanish governor
general had the right to construe white to
mean black There was no appeal from
him, and in practice he made his arbitrary
rulings answer his own purposes and gen.
orally his own pocket. Seldom, if ever,
was the law construed twice alike. and
there is record kept of the manner
of its construction, consequently there is
no record to hamper subsequent officials
nor to expose the official subsequently.
Under this caprcious method of constru
ing and enforcing laws. business is para
lyzed and industry crushed. Capital will
not invest where laws are not as fixed in
their construction in their enactment,
ana no one cares TO leave MS entlre pos
session to the arbitrary caprice OF the man
who may happen to have the power for
the time being. Constitutional and fixed
government is unknown in Spain. 1t is
altogether a government of the man of
the hour. Their political campaigns
entirely personal and not partisan or based
upon platform of any kind Such thing
as the question of the day or the issue be-
tween the parties is unknown, and is al
most beyond the comprehension of a Span
ish subject. A Spanish election always de-
cides which man shall do the robbng for
the ensuing term and nothing more. This
condition is true of all Spanish-America
and is the explanation of the eternal revo-
luton in Spanish-American countries. In
no instance in SpaniSh-speaking countries
do the voters pass upon question of poll
icy or craftsmanship, but always merely
on the question of who shall govern.
After the election is over and the newly
elected official has been duly installed, he
proceeds to treat the matter as a personal
victory and decides that the commonwealth
is his to divide among his faithful friends
and to aid him in crushing his personal enc
mics. Each man who opposed his election
dared to compete with him, Is hunted
down, and upon one excuse or another IS
jailed, perhaps poisoned. and thus all OF
the others who were lukewarm are made
to understand that they are the ones VINO
will have to increase the personal wealth
of the victor by paying well for any and
all official action. Herein Is the origin OF
the Spaniards desire to indefinitely post
pone action. A man who is expected 10
pay but has not paid learns. by lavish at
tention on the part of under secretaries,
that the government will do as he wishes,
but not today-manana-and each day he
hears that it will be done manana, until
he finally realizes that ne can have the
matter attended to, but il will cost him
considerable in the way of easing the itch
ing palm of "a. friend of the efficial' who
is TO act. The money paid, he finds he
has present action instead of promised fu-
ture action
Form of Government.
Government as understood by the Anglo
Saxon is an unknown, Utopian dream to