Page:Civilization and barbarism (1868).djvu/182

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138
LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC.

appears on the national banners, in the dress of the soldiers, and in the cockade which every native Argentine must wear under pain of death. Let us look up the significance of the color red. I have before me a picture of all the national flags of the world. In civilized Europe there is but one in which this color prevails, notwithstanding the barbaric origin of its banners. The red ones are: Algiers, a red flag with skull and cross-bones; Tunis, a red flag; Mongolia, the same; Turkey, a red flag with a crescent; Morocco; Japan, red with the exterminating knife; Siam has the same.

I remember that travellers in the interior of Africa provide themselves with red cloth for the negro princes. "The king of Elve," say the brothers Lander, "wore a Spanish coat of red cloth and pantaloons of the same color."

I remember that the presents sent by the government of Chili to the caciques of Aranco, were red cloaks and coats, because savages liked this color especially.

The royal robes of the barbarian kings of Europe were always red. The royal edict of Genoa declared that the senators must wear a red toga, and especially in pronouncing judgment on criminals, that they might inspire the prisoners with terror.

Until within the last century it was the custom in all the countries of Europe for the executioner to be dressed in red. The armies of Rosas wore a red uniform; his likeness is stamped on a red ribbon.

What remarkable connection is there between these facts? Is it chance that Algiers, Tunis, Japan, Turkey,