Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1891-07-22
President Dia<.


We stepped across the threshold and
found ourselves in large, well-lighted
and plainly furnished room, in which two
men we're standing One of these rec
ognized as Senor Ignacio Mariscal, the
Secretary of State and the other was
straight, dignified man Of medium height,
dressed in citizens clothes This was
President Diaz He looks more like n
practical business man than the average
Mexican, but his face and figure is a
striking one, and without ostentation or
selfassumption, he impresses YOU at once
as a man of great strength Of character
and of extraordinary ability. his looks
do not belle him. He is, by all odds, the
greatest man in Mexico to-day, and his
work shows him to be one of the great
est statesmen and greatest executives
of the world. He took Mexico in state
of revolution, and he has brought it into
state of peace. He grasped the coun-
try when it was in anarchy, and he has
brought order and good government out
of the confusion. He has started the era
of railroads, and he has pushed manulac-
turing and modern development to such
an extent that Mexico has its feet now
fairly planted on the road Of progress.
He has made the interior Of the country
as safe as the interior of the United
States has abolished brigandage, and
has turned banditti into soldiers. Every
step he takes is in the march of progress,
and, as the country is at present constitu-
ted, he is the best ruler that Mexico could
have. He is very popular among the
people, and both the property holders
and the army love him. He knows
Mexico like book, and he is enlinently
fitted by birth and character for his po-
sition. He is a son of the people. Born
a poor boy in the backwoods State of
Oaxaca, he fitted himself for the law, but
when the Mexican war broke out between
Mexico and the United States he enter
ed the army and fought for his country.
After the war was over, he remained in
the army for some time and studied mill
tary science. He then went back to the
law, but returned to the army in the rev.
olution of 30, and from that time on was
mixed up in nearly every revolution up
to the time of his election as President
in 1877.
His whole life reads like a romance,
and he has had many narrow escapes.
One time he was obliged to flee to New
Orleans, and in coming back he took
passage under an assumed name and
stayed in his room, pretending he was
sea-sick. There was number of Mexi-
can officers on board, and he thought
that they had discovered him. He knew
that his arrest meant death, and he Jump
ed overheard and tried to swim to the
shore, which was about ten miles distance
from the ship. He was seen and rescued,
and the Captain thought he was lunatic.
He handed him over to the purser, and
this man, though he knew he could make
$4,000 as a reward by turning him over
to the soldiers, refused to do so. He pro-
tected him while on board, and smuggled
him ashore as a al-heayer, from whence
he soon got to his native State and to
his army. Diaz has proved himself an
able General, and no one can doubt his
courage. He is now sixty years old, but
he does not look to be over forty, and his
black eyes are as bright and his step as
firm as when he did his first fighting in
the Mexican War. He impresses me by
his ease of manner and by his gentle
manly bearing. He is, am told, refn-
ed and cultured, and he understands how
to put his visitors at their ease He has
much of the practical magnetism Of
James G. Blaine, and | heard it said in
Mexico that if Blaine had the backbone
of Diaz, his administration Of the State
Department would be the greatest Of any
Secretary of State in the world. Presi-
dent Diaz has a wife who stands in Mex
leo much like Mrs. Cleveland does in the
United States. She is a beauty Of the
brunette type, finely educated and very
charming in manners. She is simple
and unostentatious, and is always doing
kind things for the people. She is the
daughter Of the Honorable Romero Ru-
bio, and she presides with much grace
over the Presidents palace in Mexico
City, and over his grand rooms in the
castle of Chapultepec.
Poultney Bigelow, who was schoolmate
of the German Emperor, will contribute an
article to the Midsummer August Number
- r II 81