Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 72, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 May 1899 — NATURAL QUESTION [ARTICLE]

NATURAL QUESTION

Now Is, Do These Stubborn Welsh Talk Spanish ? A very long time ago the British Government ordered that English should be taught in Welsh schools. As a result, In 1065 a polony of persecuted Welsh miners fled from the British tyranny and settled In the deserts of Patagonia. These men were heroes, and with most magnificent courage they dared to live in a desert where not a plant would grow, where the water was brackish and the heat Intolerable. They were surrounded by wild tribes of hostile savages, and made them warm friends; they were ruled by a foreign government and became loyal citizens. Through long years of want and famine they never despaired. They have turned the desert into a beautiful fertile country, have become rich, number 3,000 people, have extended their string of settlements right across South America, own a paying railway, and ship large crops of wheat, wool, ostrich feathers and quanaco skins. They left Wales to escape the tyranny of the English language, and now, rather than talk Welsh, they converse largely of their freedom in excellent Spanish.