ANTI-MILITARISM


I am an anti-militarist by inheritance. The Basques have never been good
soldiers in the regular army. My great-grandfather Nessi probably fled
from Italy as a deserter. I have always loathed barracks, messes, and
officers profoundly.

One day, when I was studying therapeutics with Don Benito Hernando, my
brother opened the door of the class-room and motioned for me to come
out.

I did so, at the cost, by the way, of a furious scene with Don Benito,
who shattered several test tubes in his wrath.

The cause of my brother's appearance was to advise me that the Alcaldia
del Centro, or Town Council of the Central District, had given notice to
the effect that if I did not present myself for the draft, I was to be
declared in default. As I had already laid before the Board a copy of a
royal decree in which my name was set down as exempt from the draft
because my father had served as a Liberal Volunteer in the late war, and
because, in addition, I was born in the Basque provinces, I had supposed
that the matter had been disposed of. One of those ill-natured,
dictatorial officials who held sway in the offices of the Board, took it
upon himself to rule that the exemption held good only in the Basque
provinces, but not in Madrid, and so, in fact, for the time it proved to
be. In spite of my furious protests, I was compelled to report and
submit to have my measurements taken, and was well nigh upon the point