The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1853-05-05
THE DAILY DISPATCH.
Thursday Morning, May s, 1883.
HUMANITY in SOUTH AMERICA.

HUMANITY IN SOUTH AMERICA.
The Rev. Mr. STEWART, Chaplain to the
Frigate Congress, writes from Montevideo to
the New York Commercial Advertiser, de.
scribing some of the incidents of the civil war
a, Buenos Ayfes. About the beginning Of
March truce of eight days was established
to give time for negotiation under a PROPOSE
ton for mediation from Urquiza. The very
first day, the truce was treacherously broken
by the assassination Of party OF young men
from the city Of Buenos Ayres, who had avail
ed themselves Of the opportunity Of visiting
the country. There were ten of them in num-
Der, and these were Of the most respectable
famies-two of them aids-de.camp. Their
,hroats were cut-lhe heads of some being en-.
| tirely severed from their bodies. A sortc was
made few days afterwards by party from
the city who captured hundred of the outside
party and demanded tine decimation of the
| prisoners as ar expation of the crime Of assas
siuatng the ten q few days before. These
events did not interrupt the negotiations. The
writer gives the following glimpse of the daily
amusenents between the beseiged and the
| beseigers of Buenos Ayres.
Every morning and every evening, Sundays and
week days alike, an hour or two is spent In ski r.
mshes, at various points along the lines by which
the city is cncirced except on the river side, not
In the hope or expectation of bringing hostiities
| an earlier surer end but in mere bravado and
ssvsseness Parties, numbering from FIVE or six to
twenty or thirty each, make their appearance, on
| one side or the other of the respective defences
1 hall % Gukt A.
| on horseback in their savage costume of red pom
clio and cap and red cheripa or breech cloth look.
ing as wild as the Indians Of the prairies or the
Arabs OF the desert, till within toerably safe dis.
tapce CT the barricades then planting the butts Of
| their carbneS upon the thigh, hre at random, and
with taunts and ribaldry dare the insiders to meet
| them. These. sallying forth far as cautious
prudence just6es, fire in return with like latitude
OF aim, retortlng at the same time the cpprob rious
| epthets and scurrility.
The report of the musketry rapidly brings &C.
| cessions to each party; and after an hour two
| spent in the amusement, during which there ia a
great waste of guppowder, the spilling of some
| blood, and the loss OF a few lives on both sides,
each quietly reiires with better appetite tor the
breakfast or the supper, as the case may be- await
| ing them at their quarters
| few evenings before, while some two or three
| hundred citizens, including women and children,
| were quietly seeing the drill, on the same ground
party of the outsiders, through the negligence of
| the picket, secretly made their way through by.
street to corner OF the open square, andire six.
pound cannon directly across it. Providentally
| in place Of dozens of innocent and peaceab!e men
| aud women, as might have been the case, horse
only was killed, and the leg of one poor man car
ried fby the ball.
| The writer describes occasional sorties from
the city by the cav airy in search of food for
their horses, almost every instance (which is
attended with the loss of life-ths outsiders
watching the foragers and giving them hard
chase as they return.
company of foreigners, principally Sardi-
mans, headed by daring Italian revolutionist,
in service of the city, was particularly hated
by the outsiders. An ambuscade was laid for
them; but those who laid it were caught in
their own trap and trightful massacre en-.
sued.
The leader Of this band one day became in,
tercepted and cut off from his men. He was
| hotly pursued-his principal pursuer caught
him by the coat tail, but the cloth gave way
the tail was torn off and the officer reganed
his saddle seat. He then shot his pursuer
with a revolver. AS he made off he was in.
formed that if he had been taken he would have
been served as a countryman of his had been
who was caught few days before. That
countryman was served in the following man.
ner: .---. -...-.-
By laying him, with oatspread limbs, on the
ground-blnding him firmly with thongs of green
hide, by the wrists and ankles to four horses aud
then starting them on the full spring in as many
directions, tearing him alive into quarters
This scene occurred in the middle of the
nineteenth century, in sight of Buenos Ayres, a
christian city of 10000 inhabitants! Mr..
Stewart remarking on these things says "let
the Americans of the North thank God for
what they are and what their country is."