Elizabeth daily monitor. [volume] (Elizabeth, N.J.) 1868-1880, 1868-12-15
4 CHARACTER IN SPAIN.
EscALANTE AND HIS OPERATIONS.

The new Spanish government has
much trouble with Don Amable Es-
calante, the young Lieutenant Colonel
of the Spanish army, who was iberat-
ed on the Doth of September from the
prison into which he had been thrown
by Marshal Concha twenty-four hours
before. He was promoted on the spot
Iby his deliyerers to the rank of a gen
eral, and at their head took possession
of the Palacio de la Gobernacion at the
Puerto del Sol thence issuing orders
lby which the Royal Arsenal was lihed
of about fifty Thousand stand of arms,
and citizen force, bearing the name
of Tolsuam'ios de la Libertod, was let
loose upon the terrified capital. 1t is
said that when Prim, on landing at
Barcelona, heard the news of the for
nation of this wild militia, he was UNI
able to control his veXation, and en-
claimed tina Escalante had put back
the realization of his scheme for more
than a month.
Mr. Russell writes to the London
Times from Madrid
'"Ihis Escalante is II character. He
is not more than thirty years of age a
small man, of a very gentle outward
appearance ;; he talks calmly and quiet
ly, has courteous, atfable, cordial adj
dress never INDUCES in Dragging,
boisterous, menacing tone He is the
Tribune par excellence, a haunter of
Gates and other popular resorts. He
knows the chords of the popular heart
on which he can best play /; he
breathes into his hearers hearts a
courage which he is said not to have ;
a resolution of which those who
pretend to know him best deem him
incapable. He drinks deep, am told;
lime desOaIe ,janaiS, is the charge Of his
enemies. He lives on rum, they add,
eats little, and sleeps almost not at all.
Very late in the night, at two or three
after midnight, he drops in at the
Casino del Principe, the whist club in
Carrera Geronimo. There OCCASION
ally his long pent-up feelings gush
forth crowd of old fogies, drowsily
standing up from their last rubber,
shuttle up to him. That club is a re-
sort of variety of persons, half-pay
officers, political quidnances, pretend
tents and ceSanteS, ms and outs without
number, mobiles, men of middling
classes, bankers, second rate diploma
lists, journalists, with sprinkling of
foreigners, and variety of other mon
descript idlers.
''Ihere, in the midst of circle Of
persons known or unknown to him,
upon little or no provocation, out of
his full heart, the great agitator holds
forth. The words fall glibly Ii ON his
mouth the biggest words in the
smoothest and blandest tone. He
talks of finging a man out of the win
dow as he would of tossing off thin
bleful of his favorite rum. Some of
the listeners take his words to the
letter, and shake in their shoes. 9th
ers laugh in their sleeves. They look
upon all threats as mere yaporing, and
protest that Escalante is much better
boy than he paints himself. Some of
the most ill-natured aver that he could
and ought to be bribed into better be-
havior, and these censure the govern
ment which has not yet found out his
price.
''There seems to be no doubt that
Escalante has hitherto shown less OBJ
stinacy than was laid to his charge.
No doubt that at one time and for
for more than week he was
tie master of the situation here, and
that he has yielded up his positions
one by one without a struggle, though
not, perhaps, with the best grace. [
do not think he ever had, or ever can
have, sttled plan in his mind. He is
By nature Il fault finder. The day will
never come, perhaps, in which things
nay proceed to his own satisfaction
bit neither will the day ever come in
which he seriously attempts to mend
item, or even suggests the principle
on which they should be mended by
others. -
An Ex-Governor relates IL good story
]