The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 24, 1898, Page 19

18 THE SAN FRA NCISCO ‘C , SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 1898. gB general destre in or some exact in just no at the librari about Spe svidenced the large citie been so pestere plic that they elating to shelves W out for themselV of the pul the books T ’’oon can pick them The kingdom what might be arm of Burdpe, of sides by the We an, the Bay of Ocean, jand to raltar, southern eX the entran France. mands nean. risoned by Spain is a monarchy founded by the Aragon and Cas- century. has been ruled intermittently by the union of the houses of A tile during the fifteent s of Aragon, Bourbon, »sburg for 400 years, when Joseph Bonaparte 4 by th where it S -thern Africa. d almost touche: northern A a and joined e sol of its cut from-the £ tremity, ce to th 1t is, however Great Britain. this coun- knowledge w is clearly es of all s. The 1ibraries g e demands have placed all “our friends. here the Spain constitt called the gouthw reach on three a wide mecx at fort of Gib- comple’ com- e Mediterra~ .r, owned and gar- SN o ) 72 = IpVAS WASHINGTON WYOMENG ;,{//"-.‘4 {DAHO Wwas proclaim- <ing by his brother, the Emperor olepn, and once when the country a public, during 1873 and 1874. The house of Bourbon are in power at present, although its supremacy is op- : e T Q) o the Carlists, who claim a ter interferes with the purity scent. The present King is posed bar si and whese mother, Maria the regent of the country. nt constitution of Spain was proclaimed in 1876. It proclaims the government to be a constitutional mon- archy, the executive resting in the King, the power to make laws “in the cortes of the King.” The cortes are IOW Couyrr “ 7 @4563?8”@5 ARKANSAS COLORADO OWA KANSAS = IOUISIARA %W AMNNESOTA iz AISSOUR) * NEBRASKA % ) sen®Camer?, nE o ©0' tnree are o oY el “‘}\.“a\\-“‘? \ yo arst, = el ayy, «s/_fi‘ ndl¥ 4 ord e \ ec 5 Z’m\.\'\\ ¢ tne S PORTUGAL /0N INDIAN wmt TERRITORY RALTAR 1709) ! 1640, 71y and Yins 5 "\‘\'\'m&w“ oo -\ corPlinal “me B WGy each of which could be relied upon for support in {‘me of war. Any Spaniard above the age of 19 is liable to be called upon to serve in the permanent army for three years. From this part of the army the soldier passes to the active reserve for three years' service, and from thence to the sedentary re- serve for six years’ service. By paying 1500 pesetas any one may escape serv- ice. The colonial army requires every able-bodied subject to serve eight years in the various reserves. Thus most of the King's subjec ., are militiamen, and it is estimated that in time of need Spain could easily mobiliz> an efficient army of 1,083,505 men. The standing arm, numbers about 70,000 men, al- though recent levies make thi: num- ber nearer 100,000. Spain’s navy is like- wise capable. Most of these - essels have a normal speed of 20 knots and several, notably the Viscaya and the Maria Teresa, ex- ceed this rate. Spain also has a num- erous fleet of torpedo-boats and tor- pedo-boa: destroyers. Her fighting navy is 2 offl C marines a 1000 mecha. This is i navy which will protec Spanish cities which ve known less change since the days of the Moors than almost any other in Europe. Spain is not, after all, a modernized nation in the sense that other nations are modernized. Her people are governed by the s irit of Quixotism that caused Isabella to pledge her jewels so that Columbus might start w: caused Ferdinand and his consort to move their throne chairs rp to the very walls of the Moorish strongholds that the example might incite t"e chivalrous bravery of their followers; that caused the houses of Ur~na and De Leon to pledge their estates that the Moors might be driven “rom the Alhambra. the beautiful THIS IS THE “HOODOO CENTURY” IN SPANISH HISTORY; DURING IT SHE HAS LOST NEARLY ALL HER VAST POSSESSIONS IN NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA AND THE END IS NOT YET HE present century has been the most disastrous in Spanish history, when the loss of the most precious Jewels in her crown, her territorial possessions, are considered. The chances are that the year 1900 will see her stripped of all her land outside ~of her ancient homestead lying between the Pyrenees and the seas, and which she recovered from the Moors after such a hard struggle before Columbus discovered America in 1492. That dis- covery gave to her aimost the whole of South America and much of North and Central America. Every island of the West Indies group of any importance floated her flag. For cen- turies she drained these coumvries of every bit of revenue, just as of late vears she has drained Cuba. In the days of her might and glory she ruled over some of the widest and richest possessions in history. Then gradually these possessions began to fall away from her, just as Cuba and the Phil- jppine 1slands are breaknz away to- day. Mostly these possessions were lost by successful revolutions. The present nineteenth century has been the most disastrous in Spain’s eventful career, and in all the long string of one hundred unlucky years the decade between 1820 and 1830 was the most unlucky to her. The year 1800 dawned for her with the loss of prac- tically the whole of the Mississippi val- ley. This great slice in North America cut from the crown was followed by the loss of smaller.strips of territory in South America. Between 182§ and 1830 revolutions sputtered and exploded all along the Pacific slope of the Andes and with every explosion ; 1tes like Bolivia, Venezuela, Paraguay, Colom- bia, Uruguay. Argentina, Chile, Peiu, Guatemala and Mexico dropped off into independent existence. Some of them went by purchase, but most of them by force of arms; either case Spain found weak to hold on. The sixteenth century saw Spain the richest, the most pgwerful and most magnificent nation on the face of the earth., The twentieth century is likely to see her among the lowliest, in herself too