The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-11-02
GEN. SANTA ANNA IN 1864.
His Clothes and Wooden Leg-Hfs
Wife and Her belongings.

George A Sala, in London Telegraph.
My sojourn in Mexico brought me in con-
tact with large number of celebrated peo-
pie. There was. to begin with, Don Antonio
Lopez de Santa Anna The intercolonial
steamer on board which 1 was a passenger
picked UP the ex-President or the Mexican
Republic at St Thomas, that pleasant
little island with its white houses, with
green verandas and bright red roofs, where
the general had a country house, and sol
aced himself during exile by the diversion
of cock fighting.
fer his services to the Emperor Maximilian
to say nothing of his own personal inter-
ests, in which he had always manifested
the liveliest concern-and was accompanied
by his wife. whose personal impedimenta,
comprising several enormous trunks or The
pattern known 10 the Spaniards as mundos
-worlds-a parrot in a cage, several lap
dogs, and a guitar almost filled the boat
in which her Excellency was conveyed to
Santa Anna himself was. in 1864, hale
old gentleman of SiXty-SiX; he wore a
sembling the historic peruke assumed by
his Majesty King George ", as you behold
him in Sir Thomas Lawrences full-length
portrait of the First Gentleman in Europe
in the full robes of the Garter; nor were
the Mexican warrior and statesmans high
white cravat and stand-up shirt collars al
together unlike those worn, in the portrait
Of which 1 have spoken, by the Fourth
George.
For the rest the General was attired in a
blue body coat, with gilt buttons. for.
midable shirt frill of the "pouter-pigeon"
pattern nanl1een waistcoat and pantaloons,
with a great bunch of seals pendant from
the fob which contained his watch. He had
4 wooden leg; and I think he told me. after
( had been presented to him by my friend,
the Don, who knew him very well, that he
had lost the limb during the bombardment
Of Vera Cruz by the French, in 1893, and
that the surgical department of the Mex
lean army being, at the time, somewhat
defective, his leg had been amputated by
local butcher.
Santa Annals complexion was pink and
r~l,i n1f nrrrrla hn T.-qC
II unmixed Spanish descent. He came OF
m ancient Castilian house. a cadet Of which
had emgrated to New Spain; and his ear
Ter feats Of arms had been in defense or
the Spanish monarchy against the partisans
Of independence But he speedily threw in
his lot with the patriots. and during twenty
years was one OF the most conspicuous
President of the republic and Dictator over
and over again; his tenures Of power alter
mating with long periods of Punishment.
He was full Of anecd0te, and / should say
vas on the whole about crafty an old
fox as could well be imagined.
But the French, when we arrived AT
Vera Cruz, would have naught TO do with
commandment of the garrison, with three
aids-de-camp. all very brave, in white
pugarees floating in the breeze, boarded US
so soon as we were under the guns or the
castle of San Juan de Ulloa. and courte-
otlsly but firmly, communicated to General
Santa Anna the positive orders OF Marshal
Bazaine that he-the ex-Dictator-was not
with the Sonora, his spouse, and her null
tifarious belongings, the eX-Dictator trans
ferred himself to another steamer bound
directly for ST. Thomas.