The San Antonio light. (San Antonio, Tex.) 1883-1886, 1883-12-20
ny the City Editor of the LIGHT

McAlCO, - one VI INC many JSt mo-
distinctly recognized demigods of very
recent history. Few outside Of his
own fair land can associate him in
memory with the great deeds he ac-
cornplished, while even in Mexico, to
redeem which he heroically underwent
torture and final fuisllade, his name is
not unlike some piece of odd, antique,
bric-a-brac that has found its way into
the cabinet Of some purse-proud,
unappreciating parvenu, who knows
neither its origin, history nor any Of
the stirring events which perhaps at
tend its period.
OF Hidalgo, no complete biography
commensurate with his worth has ever
been written, and to the shame Of his
own countrymen be it registered that
only one weak effort was ever made to
collect his complete history; and this
was the work of a Spaniard Rod
riguez), so partial and recreant to the
truth in most of its details, that it were
better for the fame Of the old padre
had it never been written. Still, glar-
ingly partisan as this work is, it is no
unmixed evil, since it has in some de.
gree tended to encourage a spirit of
inquiry into the real life of this Illus
trious warrior, Notwithstanding its data
are, in the main, colated from the Of
fetal report of LafeAdeAfes or Of those
truculent mndacious Viceroys Of New
Spain. whose most remarkable trait,
next to their cruelty. seems to have
been that of cultivating detraction of
Mexican character as 4 fine art. Oc-
casionally fragment concerning Hid
algo's hfe.work or a few chapters
based upon the stirring scenes of the
patriot priests eventful career are
found in some ofihe Mexican journals.
But these are just aggravatingly suffice
lent to whet the appetite for further in
formation regarding bin
HIS EARLY LIFE.
OF Hidalgo's BIRTH place his chron-
iclers are in dispute, some claiming
him TO be a half-breed ChOla, or noun
taineer of Ecuador, others that he was
a native of Guatemala, while the pre-
ponderance of testimony ls evidently
with those who maintain that the state
of Michoacan, Mexico, can proudly
call him her own. Yet, leaving aside
these conflicts of authorities, it is now
usually accepted that he was native
of the hot lands of Mexico, a half-breed
Indian, and was born about the year
1851. We find Padre Miguel Hidalgo
in the spring Of 1910 living in the little
Indian village of Dolores, near the
town of San Miguel Ell Grande, in the
province of Guanajuato, Mexico. AT
Dolores he was simply village priest,
who said his daily mass and recited his
nightly rosary, who baptized and mar
ried, shrived and anointed his swarthy,
docile, but enslaved Pensioners. For
these ghostly services of a varying
character he was content TO receive
so many reals in silver, so many faNe-
gas Of corn or measures of beans, to be
occasionally supplemented with van
pushed fowl from the Sundays cock.
fight or a much priced bottle Of
"Xeres' scorched vine" which had
found its costly way from the home Of
his oppressor. That he was a close
student, the variety of his well-thumbed
library convinced his plundering foes
that he was scholar and no mean
statesman also, the admiration and
grudging testimony Of the authorities
who shot him to death at chihuahua
are convincing enough. He loved his
Indian charge and their love was sweet
to him. Not only devoted to theiI
spiritual welfare, he also aided them in
augmenting their material resources
for he was the first to successfully in.
troduce the culture ofthe silk.worm in
the surrounding region, while from the
planting of vineyards under his care
and guidance, and the general thrift
therefrom accruing, he fell under the
ban of the vice royal spies of Spain.
SPANS NARROW POLICY.
1t was the narrow policy Of the
mother country not only to discourage
but to destroy all productions interior.
ing with their own import revenues.
IIy.-. r. C-.-..L x,..&.ua maze ,,,1