The Alaska citizen., 1916-07-31

ton will be vital factor of the successful blend of the Gringo and Greaser. The antipodes of English American and Spanish customs will remain the antipodes so long as they are twined about two diverse vehicles of speech. You are liable to act Spanish if you talk Spanish. Mexican habit and Mexican thought and Mexican principle are bound up in the tongue the Mexican has been using Since the American occupa- ton of Porto Rico several energetic attempts have been made by native leaders and movements" to have larger percentage of Spanish in- terpolated Into the public school curriculum. It Is recognized by these Spanish speaking enthusiasts that American customs are adopted by the native through the languag ge of the American.
 Down in the tropics you will hear frequently that Spanish is the Ian guage of love and that English is the tongue of the Goth compared with it. There is a good deal of guitar gabble and twitter in Mexico for fact, and they subscribe strong ly to the love language dictum. Here in, iG arrin fn h1nnd nf the Gringo and the Greaser traced to talk modes For if the language be that of love it will account fer the love customs of the country.
 And these love customs are the very acme of opposites to those of the present United States. You cant imagine the Greater United States a blended and solidified peo- pie with the love making routines and exaggerated court paying meth ods of the Mexican in continuance. If Spanish fosters their survival, then it's language again.
 Chaperonage and duennaism on the scale now in vogue will have to go with Mexican annexation. They will come with it, but they will have to vanish, for they retard the blend proposed by Uncle Sam. North ern ridicule of guitaring under a lattice and of courting a year or more with all of the girls family watching the wooing, will slowly drive the custom out-the same as duelling was driven out
 The annexation of Texas Cali fornia and New Mexico-all of them the scene of Mexican domination and custom-gives an indication of what the Greater United States will be apt to experience before the Gringo and Greaser blend is com pleted. In the case of Texas the tunking of Mexican and American customs and pursuits really began before the Lone Star State entered the Union.
 Strange to say, one of the first clashes came through dispute over the admission of slavery-or rather the continuance of slaVery-in Texas, after semi-barbaric Mexico had de creed it should be abolished This then Mexican State was governed al together in the interest of the Span ish speaking element. President Santa Anna suspended the Consti- tuition one morning. The Mexican element merely grinned The tall Texan of American extraction gave his long barrelled rifle a good clean ing and frowningly gathered with his fellows to resist the outrage, Neighbor Mexican thought him a fool. From his viewpoint consti- tuition was but a crude house in which to reside for a while. To the American-Texan constitution was meant for permanency.
 There you have it-a principle yer sus an expedient. The same thing will come up again and again for generation, no doubt, while the post-anneXation blending of tee Gring and Greaser is going on.
 Santa Anna in 1885 issued a de- cree that Texas should disarm. To take away a Texans gun was like snatching a crutch from a cripple. The American-Texan hurried into revolution, risking his life to prove that the decree was wrong in prin- ciple The Mexican-TeXan did not intend to disarm any more than the American-Texan but he preferred to risk his life for the mere pleasure of disobeying and to gratify the outlaw instinct It should be re- membered that the immortal 1S6 massacred at the Alamo in March, 1886, were not Texans fighting to establish a nation, but Texans fight ing to have the Mexican constitu-