Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-01-05
TREATMENT OF CONQUERED
Our Dealings With Spain Contrasted With
Those of Germany With France.
No Ground for the Assertion That We
Are Grasping and
AvariciOus.
To the Editor of The Evening Star:

To the Editor Of The Evening Star:
! 1 have just returned from Europe, where
business obliged me to spend the summer,
and much impressed with the intensely
| bitter feeling against Americans that mani
tested itself throughout France, Italy and
| Spain. 1t is quite conceivable that Spain
| should feel sorely, but why France or
| Italy?
1t is as unexpected as 1t is childish en-
| the part of France, this sudden angry We
hemence and sarcastic animosity against a
people who have always been friendly and
| appreciative.
My experience is that although thay like
very we'll to pocket American dollars they
| do not at all relish American success. They
| say we have shown in our treatment of
! the Spaniards our true natures and having
| cast off the mask of hypocrisy, now appear
not as the champions of humanity and the
! cause of liherty-but as hard, unmerciful
| and rapacious ''grabbers of territory" They
| iken US to their pet and hereditary enc
! miles, the English, "grasping and perfdious
! Albion"
They claim that our mercenary and shop
| keeping spirit thrusts itself to the fore
| now that there is question of booty, the
stronger expressing the weak and delight
| ing to kick a fallen foe; loud are their la
| mentations and cries of pity over poor
| SPAIN, the land of chivalry and honor,
now being ruthessly despoiled by the
rough Americans.
| Let us stop moment and examine our
| conduct in the light of history; let us see
now Germany treated France in the war
| OF 1870 IL. Not only did the Germans
| Wrest' two cultivated and fertile provinces
| rom france, Alsace and Lorraine. but they
| eXacted most ruinous and eXorbitant war
! debt, five Thousand millions of francs. or
| or one thousand millions Of dollars
Are we doing anything of the kind?
| We take some distant semi barbaric is
lands, Tor which we agree to pay our fallen
| zoe twenty millions of dollars, or one hun
ofed millions of francs; instead of exacting
| we pay them money, and now there is a
| great hue and cry, because We will not as
| sumo their ante-bellum debtsI We are
| called unmerciful and cruel because we
| refuse TO burden ourselves with the debts
they contracted while UNFOLDING their ty-
rannous rule in revolving islands
| The Germans captured Metz with 173 DOC
| men, and marching through France this
| iron army left behind it a blackened stretch
| o: country, where before fertile fields and
thriving towns had been. Quartering them.
| selves at Versailles, that stronghold of an
| cient French royalty, they bvouacked in
| It's parks. made themselves obnoxious and
| officers, billeted On the refined and aristo-
| cratic families of this town, We're so lack
| ing in courtesy and kindness that the mem
| DRY of them is fresh and poignant to this
| day.
| What | am about to relate NAV seem
| exaggerated and false, but as | lived for
some time in Versailles a few years after
| the German occupation 1 shall simply mar
| rate the experience of my friends. These
| German officers, taking possession of the
! best rooms in the house, lived at the ex-
| pense of the inmates, ordering all sorts of
| Injuries and delicacies. and even going so
lar as to demand champagne with the
meals. which the unfortunate and unwill-
| ing hosts were obliged to provide
| In many cases these French ladies were
| greatly pressed for money themselves
| their husbands, fathers and brothers being
| away, either prisoners with the rem
nants of the exhausted French army these
| unhappy women had to submit providing
| delicious food for the conquerors, while
they subsisted on nourishment Of the poor
| est kind.
| The victorious Teutons made themselves
| quite at home in the beautiful old salons of
| this aristocratic town; lounging about on
the Louis XIV sofas. knocking the ashes
| from their pipes over the priceless bro
| cades of the chairs and often putting their
| heavy beer mugs and equally heavy feet
| on the delicate maruueterie tai HES and con-
! soils.
In the palace at Versailles that building
! that for centuries has stood in the eyes of
| the world as the symbol of all that was
| famous in military glory and monarchical
| grandeur in France-in the Sale de Glaze
| as a last insult to the French the Prussian
| KING was crowned emperor There, where
| the great Conde and the triumphant Tu-
| renne came to lay the fruit of their victo-
| ries at the feet of Louis XIV and to re-
! ceive his grateful thanks, the Germans saw
| tit to celebrate their successes
| Later, when famine-stricken Paris was
| forced to capitulate, they made a triumphal
| entry, marching through the Arc de Tri-
| omphe and down the Champs Elysees as
| conquerors.
Have we done anything like this? Have
| we made the bitterness of defeat doubly
| bitter by sending a powerful fleet to bonn
! bard the coast of Spain or by appearing as
| conquerors in the streets of Madrid? II
! would not have been such a difficult thing
| to do.
| Let any fair-minded man read the above
| facts and compare them with our treatment
| of the Spanish; let him recall the courtesy,
| kindness and generosity shown our prison
| ers at Annapolis and Portsmouth, and I
| think he will have to admit that we ire
| not grasping and avaricious," nor do we
| take an unwonted JOY in kicking a man
| who is down. CONSTANT READE,t3
December % 1898