Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-09-12
From The Stars TRAVELLING Commissioners.

C0NcEPcf0S, CHILL, August IL, 1891.
A TLEAST FIVE WEEKS MUST ELAPSE
"A before these written words can reach the
United States and appear in print-even il
they do not find q watery grave in the bay at
lquique. At first the rebels used to open all
letters that fell into their hands, and destroy
those that contained information not entirely
in their favor, but that soon grew to be too
much trouble, and for some time past the mis-
sives Of friends and foes alike that come up
from the loyal provinces via Iquique are
dumped into the ocean. For many weeks
Americans have been sending their homo letters
with the consular budget whenever practicable,
protected by the United States seal, or in the
private pocket Of some northward-boun sea
captain.
1t is considered certain that within the next
two or three weeks the final battle will be
fought which must decide the Gillian contro-
versy. Should such an important event occur
the cable and telegraph lines will have brought
you news of it long before the facts could be
communicated by letter. In the full expecta-
ton that such will be the case-though l am
neither prophet nor the son of aprophet-I
want to forewarn my readers on few points.
GILLIAN ATROCITIES.
In the first place you ought to get down on
your knees and thank God that it is none Of
your Funeral" and that you live in land
peopled by a race who are not given to mutilat-
ing the bodies of their countrymen slain in
battle. nor going out of their way to wantonly
apply the torch to the private property of in
dividuals who are politically opposed to them.
So far as you and personally are concerned,
the outcome of all this fuss is Of no consequence
whatever, and sympathy" for either party is
pretty much wasted. The fact of being on one
side or the other Of question does not change
Gillian nature, and when it comes to battle
atrocities will be committed by both factions
of which the world will never hear.
When the decisive conflict takes place don't
accept for law and gospel the first news you
hear. No matter which side wins, the United
States papers will immediately team with glow
ing accounts of patriot achievements, mean
ing the doings of the rebels, from the facile
pens Of emiSsaries III the north, who are being
well paid for precisely that kind Of service.
Numbers OF these extraordinary ENJOYS, sta-
toned at q safe distance from government
bullets-in Washington, New York, San Fran
cisco and interior cities-are exerting them
selves to the utmost to win sympathy for their
faction, with a sublime ignoring of truth that
would be amusing under less serious circum-
stances.
DISTRACTED COUNTRY.
You know there is nothing in the world SO
successful success; and if the rebels attain it
a good many United States journals will at once
espouse cause of which they can know little,
being SO remote, except on the word of these
same interested partisans In the event of
rebel victory the latter will Immediately tele-
graph far and wide that "peace and order have
been restored to Chilli" but don't you believe
it. The stern facts will be that all loyal gov
eminent officers, if captured. will be shot with
out mercy; riots, incendiarism, secret assassi-
nation and open murder will prevail, and dis
banded armies, excited by a taste OF blood, will
make Chill less desirable place Of residence
than the heart Of Zululand for a long time to
come.
On the other hand. should the government
troops come off victorious there will be lot
of rebels to be executed unless they keep well
out of the country.
THE TWO SIDES TO THE QUESTION.
While thanking your stars that this bloody
business, from first to last, is no concern of
Uncle Samuers ! want you to remember that
every question has two sides, and that the
government side Of this has scarcely been rep
resented at all in the United States papers
Few Of the presidents supporters can write
English, and if they could it is doubtful il they
would condescend to work" foreign Journals
as their enemies have so inoustriOusly been
doing. To come down to the bottom of things
this war has resolved itself into little more
than one Of
FOREIGNERS AGAINST NATIVE cErL1ASs,
the congressional faction being led Differed
and upheld almost exclusively by Americans
and Englishmen. Mr.. George Montt the active
head of the rebel junta Cby the way, please
pronounce the latter word as if spelled boon
tah), is Pennsylvania by birth, and of late
years only Gillian senator by profession
His brother, Mr.. Peter Montt, is chief of the
rebel ENJOYS in the United States and in the
event of triumph on their side both will be
given important positions under the new gov
eminent. MIR. Edwards very wealthy citizen
Nnlnaralan WhORa oapfi oll
English, having made his fortune selling
Gillian nitrate in Great Britain-gave large
sums of money at the outset to sustain the
cause. until the seizure Of the nitrate beds rem
dered the rebels independent of private finan-
cial support. Should the insurgents win Mr.
Edwards will doubtless be chosen their first
president, and, with true British thrift, he
will not fail to realize an hundred-fold on the
funds invested.
NOT ALL PATRIOTS.
Don't lose sight OF the fact that all men who
claim to be patriots are not the genuine
article any more than all professed Christians
are worthy of the name. The greater part of
these alleged patriots of Chill have been living
in clover, so to speak, for several months past
safely located 700 miles from the seat of the
government against which they revolted, with a
stretch OF impossible country between. Re-
ceiving little more than $4,000, 600 a month
from the nitrate sales they have been enjoying
muc1 more ready cash than most OF them ever
had the privilege of handling before in their
lives. and one of the ludicrous features of the
case is the way in which these virtuous rebels-
az infinitesimal minority Of Chili's population
having forcibly appropriated the country's
source OF revenue and while spending it for
their own purposes-denounce President Bal
naceda as a thief OF the deepest dye, because,
driven to the last extremity by the exigencies
OF war; he has taken from the public treasury
money enough to buy war vessel in the hope
ofrecovering the stolen nitrate beds.
FRED MAY AS PATRIOT.
A large majority Of the commanding officers
in the rebel army are adventurous young
Americans, many Of whom were exiled from
their own country for the country's good, and
jolly Englishmen, some of the wild younger
sons of wealthy families, who were sent to
this far-off land ostensibly to oversee some
business or other, but in reality to get them
out of the way Of more respectable relatives.
These fellows go into the fight from sheer love
OF excitement, with due regard to the loaves
and fishes in event Of success and in case of
defeat having nothing to lose. A good deal
better than the average patriot is Mr.. Fred
May, late a New York society swell and now a
prominent officer in the rebel army. 1t Will
be remembered that he figured rather unpleas-
antly at home u few years ago in an alteration
with Mr.. James Gordon Bennett, after which he
came down here in the role Of a commercial
traveller. With all proper respect for this gen.
tleman, is any one going to believe for q mo-