The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-03-25
PRESIDENT DIAZ.
\ Man Whose LabOrs Have Developed
His Strong Character.

Charles +. Lummis. in Harper's Magazine.
A man of five feet eight, erect as the
Indian he is disproportionately COMPOUNDED
with. quick as the lberian he far more
nearly is. a fine agreement of unusual ply
steal strength and still more unusual grace,
with the true Indian trunk and the mus
cular European limbs. Diaz is physically
one man in twenty thousand. The single
infusion of aboriginal blood (apd that at
the beginning OF this century, is an inner
itance much more visible In his figure than
There are young old men everywhere.
but this is the freshest veteran in my
knowledge. By tee 1.-THE step. the fine
ruddy skin whose capillaries have not yet
learned to clog or knot. by the keen. full
eye. or the round. flexible voice. it seems
a palpable absurdity to pretend that this
man has counted not only sixty-seven
years, but years of supreme stress. If in
forty of them he ever knew a comforting
not by sight: for from boyhood TO middle
life his face was always against over
whelming odds.
1t might be rash TO lug into any COM
parison the Iron Chancellor. but of actual
rulers. republican or dyrastic, there GER
tainly is not another-if there may have
been one-so posted" as the man of Mex
leo. Off-hand. without hesitation and with
accuracy (as | have often been at pains to
verify. he gives whatsoever detail is de-
sired of whatsoever granch of government.
He is more ready than the contractors
themselves as TO the men and money using
i'm some great work. The commanders of
llt ZOIlt Adil ltll WI vi TT It-t
wordsl as much each of his own scope as
Diaz can tell you of the entire field. The
superintendent of education in a district
may be as Informative 0f you give him
time) about the schools in his charge as the
creator of the Mexican public school sys-
tenn is about the districts en- masse. II is
IN open secret in the capital that the
President frequently worsts his ministers
in their own fields. And-a genuine test of
breadth-he is not afraid to say. II do not
know He ventures no opinion in Things
he has not measured.
When once we had spoken of the school
system he has created for MeXico-the
theme which more than any other seemed
to kindle him-and when ne had given in
five minutes an astonishing bird seye view
of a huge field. he added Gt seemed 10 me
with q fine mingling or dignity and pathos):
And the English is compulsory. So when
we the old are gone Mexico Will have two
idioms."
Steps up which. one by one. he has handed
Mexico from intermittent anarchy TO sure
peace, he said gravely and with that same
ferseness: 1T needed something of the
strong hand ia mano dura-) But every
year ii could relax. Now. though there are
some who do not love .Porhrio.' all love
peace. So the fist is wide open. There is
full liberty-free schools. free ballot. free
press. They may do what they will so they
do not fire a gun at me- Here Is the key
note of modern Mexico-a dictatorship
which has spent ungrudgingly its blood and
its care for the country's progress.
II is this man.. whose eyes and voice and
step belle the half his years, that has
wrought the Mexican miracle. And If he
has put n new face on his country IL is
not a whit more remarkable than the trans
formation he has wrought upon his own
shoulders. This has been a TRANSPORTATION
of which / know no parallel. Making due
allowance for the change of fashion. I'm
facial landscape gardening. Porfirio Diaz
was not from the start visibly frontispieced
by fate for all that he has become. Within a
youths memory he wore the mere features
of a soldier. Even in the seventies ne might
have been q chief of ruraleS. But TO-DAY
his face is unmistakable and a proverb for
the handsomest man i'm Mexico" BY sheer
features this Is not true; but by the col
lective impression IL Is. In "A generation
he has given himself a new face and even
made over the shape of his head. In all
the breadth of a regenerated republic there
il no more striking monument TO the
thought IL has needed to turn the Mexico
I'm which JuareZ died into the Mexico OF to-
dav than the very head of the man who
did il.