Omaha daily bee., 1889-08-21
OLD DOM +, PEpRo.s AssAlbANr.
The wouldrbe Assassin Wine-
Rcated Repubitcnn Youth.

New YORK, August CO., Especial Telegram
to THE BEE. "A letter from Rio Janeiro,
Brazil, referring to the attempt to assassi-
nate Dom Pedro on the 18th OF July, says the
utmost indignation prevails. II seems
strange thing that the man who has tacitly
abolished the penalty of death in his empire
(for Pedro always refused TO sign death
warranty should have been condemned even
by malcontents TO q violent death. The gen.
eral feeling isso one OF genuine indignation
and sorrow. Apparently the mad deed was
done in a moment of drunken bravado, and
this is Dom Pedro's belief. Dom Pedro, sur
rounded by his family was just leaving the
theater, where he had spent the evening,
when at the general outlet a young man de-
liberately, face to face with the
emperor, raised the seditious cry: "Long
live the repulic." Immediately ans
wering the cry "Long live the
emperor" came laundering from every
side Of the house.. The confusion that fol-
lowed can well be imagined. AT that mo-
ment the young man raised his pistol and
fired. Dom Pedro, without the least altera.
tion in voice or feature quoted his wife and
daughter, and forbdding his body guard TO
draw their swords, stepped INTO his carriage
after his family. Putting his horses at full
speed, the imperial coachman drove down
the crowded city plaza to the palace without
auOOyunCc, Inc III bU6
neighborhood of the house whence the shot
was fired was terrible. People rushed here
and there In wild but fruitless search for the
would-be assassin Favored by the general
rush and confusion, he had escaped, but two
hours afterward he was captured. He is a
young fellow. almost o lad, u clerk in big
business establishment, and is a Portuguese
by birth. He is evidently laboring
under some great alteration Of
mind. Undoubtedly the outrage Is
in n ms IN iuyanila IN 10 a m,
provoked by the republican festivities in hon
or of the centennial of the French revolution.
Dom Pedro has no. taken any notice what
ever OF the affair and continues to come and
go from the city without observing any extra
precautions. The repu ubican party in Brazil
has thus given proof of its existence, and q
few words about its growth and development
will not be amiss. The government Of Brazil
of the empire, but the republican party here
has always been negative rather than
positive quantity. Lately, however, it has
taken another course, and strange to say, the
republican eruption has been brought about
by deer ee that has given freedom to ,000,
600 slaves. The disappointed Shareholders
have to a man declared themselves republi-
cans. refusing allegiance to the dynasty that
has withdrawn from their hands the power of
| disposing of the persons and lives of their
fellow creatures The youth of the higher
| schools are now participating in general
movement and compose perhaps the only
| party of pure minded republicans in the en-
| pire. AT any moment crisis may be ex-
| Dected. Yet Dom Pedro is popular. He is
| loved and respected as man and IS admired
| as a sovereign by men of all political creeds,
| and il has been generally accepted dogma
| in the republican fraternity that no violence
whatever shall be offered the old monarch,
who in his fifty years reign has not commit
| ted one single action to disparage him rs u
| gentleman or shame him as king.
All the republican propaganda is addressed
| against the future empress, the princess Isa-
bella, who was never popular She has, of
course, strong party, composed of liber-
| ated slaves and their friends, but her re-
| llgious intolerance may in time ALLEVIATE from
her this affection. Her husband, Comte
| d. Eu, prince of the house of Orleans, is
| positively disliked by the masses. 1t will be
| an i'll day for Brazil when Dom Pedro ceases
| to be at the head Of the patton. The popu-
| lace is not educated for a republic The
leaders of the new party are violent and
| passionate men, and the first thing that may
| be expected is a civil war of disastrous con-
| sequences, in which perhaps the fittest will
| not be the survivors,