The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1899-08-18
THE HUMBLED DONS.
WILL 1T BE SPAIN'S RESURREC-
TON?
Or Is She Taking Her Defeat Too
serenely?-Tranquillity of the Van
pushed Has Been Iberia's Strong
Card-Wm She Revive?

ySo ~
The belief is forced upon you tha not
even a rumor of the war has yet reach
ed the remoter countryside. The peas
ant, a loin-cloth girt about his waist,
stlll bestrides his mule in sublime ig-
norance 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 ig-
norance of the country may be matched
by the apparent Indifference of the
towns, and for this Indifference anoth-
er 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 golden CEN
fury. And she accepted the discovery
with an admirable tranquility of mind.
Cuba and the Philippines, alas! were
hers no more. Henceforth she would
lose the responsibility, as we'll as the
excitement, of a lingering campaign.
But with that lofty pride which refuses
to realize a humiliation, Spain put the
truth away from her, and took up her
occupations once more with a 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
character. Kismet, they mulmur, as
the Moors did also, who nee 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. But though the war
is over and accepted loyalty for what it
achieved, the Spaniards, in private, still
nurse a painful wound. The eternal
dislike of strangers, in which they
rival the ancient Athenians, is more
bitter, more intense than ever. Col
lectively, maybe, it finds no express
sion; but you will hardly converse with
4 solitary Spaniard without discover
ing the signs of a private resentment.
Now, this resentment is cherished
mildly against the Americans, who
have triumphetl in war; more siren
uously against the English, whose SYM
pathy, says Spain, was too loudly and
violently expressed. But this resent
ment will soon be merged in the I'M
willing federation which Spain extends
to all foreigners, and then the war will
have left little trace, save in a rest
from colonial warfare and in a hand
somely replenished exchequer. And
what of the future? Will Spain, o
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
without, since France, though she has
just demanded, with a threat, that the
Spanish debt should be paid in full, is
too busy cleaning her own house to
covet the house of her neighbor. Be-
sides, the Pyrenees have always proved
an efficient rampant, and, even 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 own destiny, and there is no
reason why she should not face the
new century with hope and confidence.
The fact that she has passed through
the crisis of defeat with the merest
threat Of revolution is proof enough
that her varied provinces are all
standing Loyalty by the throne, and
that there is little chance of imme-
date dissension. Indeed, all over Eu-
rope pretenders are under a cloud, and
legitimism is wisely held an exploded
doctrine. The Carlists in Spain have
no better prospects than the royalists
or B%onapartists in France, since our
practical age has recognized clearly
that every country exists for the gov
erned, not for the governments; and
not even Spain, docile though she be
to historical tradition, will ever again
accept the theory of divine right.
a Whfte EJan1ant in T1arfa .