The Irish standard., 1910-04-16
Not So Ignorant as They Are
Represented to be by
Protestants.
They are Hospitable, Brave,
Generous, Chaste, Sober
and Intelligent.
There Are Fewer Suicides in
Spain Than in Any Other
Civilized Country.

A self-styled christian" journal as
serts that out of Spains II millions
of adult inhabitants there are no
fewer than IL millions who cannot
read and write. The elementary
schools are small, dark and dirty and
the teachers are wretchedly paid" and
nence to be expected from critics too
ignorant to be aware of means Of ac-
quiring knowledge and culture other
than the three RS"
Rome has had her own way in
Spain for centuries. But it has been
a bad way" We are always being told
nation, ETC., and in view of such asser-
tions 1t is trif1e unreasonable of our
Protestant critics to expect her to pro-
vide palatial schools and highly-sal-
aried teachers, such as delight the rate
payers heart in wealthy, prosperous,
progressing Britain, says the Glasgow
to-Catholics writer in the Glasgow
Herald" last week reminds us of an
other reason for small salaries in Spain
for teachers-or rather no salaries at
all in certain cases. He points out that
a religious order "owes nothing to it's
members but their pittance Of food
nd nd hot he Oh,
religious orders educate large num-
bers of poor children of both sexes"
In other words, in the Catholic church
alone are to be found men and women
who devote themselves to the cause of
Christ and education for no earthly
reward.
university students compared with pop
ulation is much greater in Spain and
Belgium than in other European coun-
tries," and in the U. S. commissioners
report for 1859 the number of pupils
in the English universities is given
as s,sO2, and in Spain at the same
ant country" as an erudite Scot recent
ly said, his acquaintance with the
land of the Don being limited to an oc-
casional purchase of Spanish onions. AS
a modern writer points out, her lit
erature excels that of Protestant coun-
tries in it's moral riches, it's depth, it's
aesthetic splendor; her painters and
architects are in the first rank; she
possesses buildings which are poems in
stone. Her people, even If a high per-
centage be statistically reported as
"illiterate," are distinguished for per-
feet manners, for nobility of character,
for the cultivated taste for the fine
arts. They are lospitable, brave, gen.
erous, chaste, sober, honest.
The Carlist leader, General Elio, told
Mr.. Thieblin, correspondent for the
New York Herald, that "the good
health of the people is the result of
their morality. You are surprised at
the strength and courage of our young
volunteers; it is the result of their
pure lives, and the absence of the
sources of ruin to the young men of
other countries" .....
The percentage of professional vice
is lower in. Spain than in any other
country in Europe. when you como
to know Spanish women" writes THE
blin, "you~ will not only admire them,
you will actually experience the con-
tagion of their virtue" Drunkenness
is practically unknown in Spain: in
Mulhall's table Of Deaths from Drunk
enness per 1000 Deaths" there is no
report of deaths from that shameful
cause for either Spain or Portugal.
There are fewer suicides in Spain than
in any other country in the world.
Not a great while since Maxim, of
Maxim gun fame, made public the re-
suits of his observations during tour
in Spain. He has an English factory
near London, Spanish one in the
Basque country And in the heart of
that entirely Catholic country, such
thing as lock was unnecessary;
the doors Of the factory and of every