Brandied Nose

In Spain the able-bodied child must defend the honor of the infirm parent.

Not precisely infirm, perhaps, but paunchy, soft, and comparatively defenseless is Citizen Miguel Primo de Rivera, onetime Dictator of Spain, now with his daughters sampling the delights of Paris.

If the two sons he left behind in Spain had adequately defended their father's honor last week, their swords would have been dripping with the gore of half the artillery officers in Madrid, for these gentry, who hated Primo de Rivera, seldom refer to him in public today without an oath plus an expectoration.

Son Jose, 27, is a lawyer and has prudently decided to meet oaths and insults with a quiet sneer. But Son Miguel, 26, is a reserve corps lieutenant, and to a Spanish officer the honor of his father must be held dear as Life.

Entering a Madrid cafe one evening last fortnight, Lieutenant Miguel Primo de Rivera bustled up to General Queipo de Llano, recently author of an "insulting" letter to the onetime Dictator. Serene, the General sat at a corner table, elegantly sipping deviled coffee (with brandy), secure in the belief that a mere lieutenant would not dare violently to resent the insult of a general.

Stepping straight up to his tormentor Son Miguel boxed General Queipo de Llano first on his left ear, next on his right, then punched his brandied nose. "C-c-consider yourself under military arrest!" spluttered the General. Next day Spain's new Dictator, General Damaso Berenguer, took a short cut out of an embarrassing situation, ordered Lieu tenant Miguel Primo de Rivera out of the country. Last week a police escort saw him as far as Hendaye, across the Spain-France border. A third son of the fallen Dictator was serving last week with the Spanish air force in Africa, where men are men, insults insults, but of him there was no news.

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