A SPANISH SMUGGLER.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 155, 28 June 1878, Page 4

A SPANISH SMUGGLER.

fFrom the "New York Times."] Here is another of those occasions which cause the conscientious journalist to wish that he had never been born. The cold world little thinks of the terrible cost at which it is sometimes furnished with the news of tbe day. There are events of which the public must be apprised, but which cannot be told without lacerating the feelings of the earnest and sensitive narrator. An event of this nature has just happened in Madrid. It would be cowardly and ; dishonest to suppress it. Moreover the etory comes directly from the State department at Washington, and it is by no means certain that its suppression would not be an act of rebellion. Let us then go forward boldly, and discharge a painful duty without murmuring. The Spaniard is not usually thought to possess inventive genius. Among all the important inventions which have been made since the .union of Castile and Arragon, the art of " walking Spanish " is the only one which has been attributed to the Spanishintellect. But there hss at last appeared a Spaniard who is clearly entitled to be ranked as one of the ablest of living inventors, and it is the history of his invention that must now belaid before the public. The city of Madrid is, as every one knows, & walled city. It is hot, however, generally known that nearly all merchandise which is brought into the city has to pay a special duty> no matter if it , is an imported article which has already been taxed at a Spanish custom-house. This is the case witb petroleum. It is heavily taxed when „_ it. enters Spanish territory, and is again taxed .still more heavily when it enters ;Madrid. Hence a great temptation to smuggle is offered, to those who supply petroleum to the inhabitants of Madrid, and were the Spaniards on ingenious people, r they would devote so much attention to smuggling. that the would have no time left to celebrate their annual revolutions. In the outskirts of Madrid, Don Jose de Anliquedsd y Vuelta - Abajo possesses a charming villa with extensiv'egrouhds and numerous outbuildings. He has long been known, as an extremely benevolent ' man, • always ready .to approye of any act of j charity,' and eager to point out fields of philanthropic usefulness to other people. About six months ago he announced that the condition of the babies bf -Madrid filled him with grief, and ithat he was determined to alleviate their sufferings. {In Jthe course of an elaborate essay, which he published in pamphlet form, he demonstrated that infants could not be reared , without artificial aid' in a crowded city. He claimed that no matter how excellent might be the intentions of ithe mothers of Madrid they could not furnish their infants with desirable board because their systems were affected in a deleterious • manner by the unwbolsale atmosphere of the city. Ab for the auxiliary bottle, he condemned it witb much fierceness. Never with my consent," said this excellent man, "shall the youth of Madrid undergo the humiliation of. the unsympathetic and unsatisfactory bottle." The true solution ■of the problem how to feed the babies of Madrid wae, however, a simple one in his estimation. He announced i that he *? ould keep constantly on hand a large supply of unexceptionable nurses on his suburban estate. There , is some difficulty in translating bis exact descriptive phrase into English, but perhaps it will suffice to say that his nurses were warranted to be able to supply the wantß of thelMadrid infants without the 'aid of bottles. In short, they were to be self-acting, perennial and inexhaustible, and with their assistance Don* Jose de Antiquedad y "Vuelta-Abajo undertook to supply Madrid with . pure Naranjos Cpnnty — well I at at all events the Madrid infants were to be fed. A few weeks later and Don Jose advertised that his establishment was in complete order, and that his nurses would enter the city daily to wait upon their customers. Apparently, he bad a great many patrons, for a few days later a procession of at least a dozen extremely plump Spanish womeD, whoße very appearance was sufficient to awaken tbe hunger of the most dainty infant, made their appearance at the city gate. The Custom-hGuse officers gazed at them with respect and admiration, and warmly congratulated the Madrid infants upon their good fortune. The praises of the benevolent Don Jose were in every mouth. The local presß published frequent leading editorials asserting that tbe local infants were thriving to an extent hitherto unknown and hinting that the grand regalia of the Order of St Intriuidad had been given to many men who deserved it less tban did the beneficent Don Jose. For three months the procession of nurses entered the city at morning, noon and night, and grew in numbers, until it was no unusual thing for 60 women to present themselves at the gate at one and the same time. On the 4th day of March last, it happened that a new Custom-house officer, Lieutenant Colorado Maduro, was on duty at the Zarzuela gate when the noon procession of nurses made its appearance. He was a thoughtful, intelligent man, but he was not popular -with the small boys of Madrid. Just as the leading nurse entered the city a stone^chrQWi at tbe officer, missed it's mark Wd^smbte the nurse in thd region - oft&fPiuhg& *To the officer's great

astonishment, the blow produced a hollow metallic sound which :at once awakened his suspicions, Without a moment _s delay, Lieutenant Maduro called oufc a file of soldiers, and arresting every nurse, sent for two female searchers and ordered them to do their duty. Twenty minutes later 60 exceptionally thin and sad looking women were marched to the city prison, and 120 tin cans, of a curious hemispheric shape, filled with petroleum, were lying heaped together where the female searchers had thrown them.

Don Jose de Antiquedad y VuelfcaAbajo was thus discovered to be an iraposter. He had not furnished a single Madrid infant with pure Naranjos County— well, food. He was nofc a pbilantropist, and he cared neither for nurses nor children. He waß, however, an audacious, and ingenious smuggler, and the long success of his artifices has so overthrown Spanish faith in woman, that none but the thinnest and most level of the sex can pass a; Spanish Custom-house without undergoing the most rigid scrutiny.