rnmi N. ftWSB., (7 SPAIN IN AMERICA MRS. R L. HILL ^^'PAIN — land of romance and mystery I — land of Castlllan prlda and _ chivalry — land of the struggle with the dusky Moors-^land of the Al- hambra, where on moonlight nights the ghosts of the Past return and weave their haunting spell of fascination. . As we rouse from the spell-cast upon us by Irving's magic pen, aild look at this mysterious land in the cold daylight of historic facts, we sigh again for another of the lost illusions of youth. Spain — the darkest despotism that has ever disgraced History — spread her blight- ing shadow over the New World and four centuries of darkness followed: Spain entered the North American Continent in 1512 when Ponce de Leon landed at the Bay of the Cross, a few miles north of the present city of St. Augustine. Seven years later followed her conquest of Mexico and Peru — one long period of cruelty and treachery. The Innocent natives welcomed the fair- skinned - Spaniards as gods, and In return were butchered— men, women and 'children — for the sake of the gold and jewels that enric^ied their cities. Treasure ships loaded with millions in gold plied back and forth over the Spanish Main between the New World and the Old. The spirit of adventure was at its height and year by year Spain added to her colonies, to her riches, and to her greed for gold. The white gods — the Spaniards — stand- ing under the banner of the Church would summon a tribe of people to accept the religion of the ChurcTi. No word of the long harangue of the priest would the poor people understand; their silence and won- derment would be accepted as refusal, then would follow the branding of men, wonven and chlMren to be sold as slaves, or a wholesale massacre as the easiest way of disposing of these heretics. We look across the seas and there find the secret, hidden source of all this suffer- ing a&d cruelty. In the great Escurial — that gloomy pile of masonry which was built to house the kings of Spain — ^there are miles of corridors leading to various wings and sections of the great palace. One nar- row corridor led to an inner chapel, and walled in solid stone within this chapel was a small cell. No ray of daylight ever penetrated the gloom. In this cell by a long table sat the King of Spain — cruel, crafty Philip II. Around sat his ad- visors, all monks, ^i^hile the flickering candlelight cast added shadows on their cruel 'aces. Here Philip received his agents, who reported to him conditions In the New World and brought to him the countless sacks of gold. Here he planned the tortures which could add even greater terrors to the Inquisition planted In the New World. Forty-two long years the destinies of the New World were governed from that dark and gloomy cell thousands of miles ac^-oss the seas. Philip n at last was called to his account other rulers came and went — years lengthened to decades — decades to centuries — until four centuries had rolled on into eternity, but still never to Spain came the light of reason — the light which might lead her to change her tactic? and dispense with the cruelties of the Dark Ages. The New World, occupying so large a part of the surface of the earth — her coasts washed through countless ages by the two great untraveled seas, her lands peopled by many tribes whose civilization still "baffles the student, this New World sitting so long In darkness, waited for the Light— and when the Light came, lo, it was as a sun red with blood. To Spain had come through this New World the control of the destinies of half the human race. She had had it in her power to build an empire across the seas equal to Roman Gaul or British India, but her greed and cruelty were the sources of her failure. "Gold, gold," was her one cry and to this all the people of the New World were victims. The Spaniards swarmed in Mexico and Peru, then passed over the Rio Grande and settled in various sections In our great Louisiana territory west of the Mississippi, and. out to the Pacific Coast When George Washington was elected President, Spain held part of what is now Alabama and Mississippi and Florida (the great Louisi- ana territory) and her flag floated where now stands the city of Memphis. With Spain ever went the Roman Catholic church, and from the Canadian North under the French came also the banner of that same church. Her priests came with the soldiers," In canoes up the St Lawrence, marched through the wilderness west of the Alle- ghanies, everywhere raising the flag of •France and the cross of the church. All the land was claimed' down to what is now St Louis. Little Protestant England held only the bleak New England hills, while the power and the pomp of the great church of Rome was spread like a network all over this' boundless territory, and the forts of- Prance and Spain seemed destined to hold th'e whole land for Roman Catholicism. But how wonderfully God hath brought low the power of the kingdoms of the earth, in His great purpose kingdoms wax and wane, the power of men is but for a day. This ^reat church, mistress of the civilized world, because unworthy of her trust ^vas shorn of her power — and God's strong right arm wrested the New World from the tyranny of the Old, making her an asylum for the poor and oppressed of all lands. WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH l50 Fifth Avenue, New York 50 or less, 6c. ; per 100, 10c