The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-10-23
BaOOdiest MAN
I'm All History.
From the Times-Herald.


The methods of warfare employed by
General Weyler. commander OF the Span
ish forces, have been of such extreme and
unusual barbarty that the world has
looked on in horror-stricken amazement.
Doubts have been expressed If his equal
in cold-bloodcd ferocty ever lived. A
search into history. though, finds such
man in the past of the nation that sent
Weyler to Cuba.
Fernando Alvarez de Toledo. Duke of
Alva, was born in 1903. and died in 1882
In barbarous cruelty he was Wcylers
equal His family pridcd Itself on its de-
scent from the Byzantine emperors. one
of the dukes ancestors conquered Toledo
and took its name to his family. He was
reared in arms and at the age of IL fought
at the battle of Fontarabia. lie was
taught to desDise non-belever in the
church of Rome, and his hatred was the
cause of Il thirst for blood that distin-
guished his life. He exempiled the spirit
OF middle age chivalry, and at one time
rode his horse at top speed from Hungary
to Spain for no other cause than hurried
visit to his young bride. To patience and
cunning he united a ferocity and thirst
for blood scarcely human. No such words
as pity or mercy had any place in his vo-
Cabulary. In manner he was cold and
naughty, and more unapproachable than
his imperial master Philip.
The Dutch icOnoclasts having aroused
the ire of Philip H.. this bloody duke was
sent to the Netherlands in 1867 with 10000
trained troops. His name became a ter
ror in the land, and crueltes and barbar-
Gus tortures marked his occupation of the
country. Women and children were not
exempt from the reign of blood and ter
ror, and the indignites to which they
were subjected are too horrible to relate.
He established the Council of Blood"
which had for it's object the investigation
into all cases of suspected heresy, and
thousands Of people were put to torture
and finally death without trial.
SLAUGHTERED 1900 PERSONS.
To defend the country against this
bloody despotism, william of Orange or
ganiZed an army and sought Alva in open
conflict, but the latter, knowing that by a
battle he had nothing to gain and much
to lose, avoided a meeting by a series Of
strategic movements. William, losing the
support of the people and being unable to
pay his troops, was forced to retire from
the country. While Alva defeated the
Dutch patriots in war, he failed to sub
due or pacify them, and disgusted with
this failure and with the intrigues among
his followers he secured his recall to
Spain in 1873. During the six years of his
occupancy of the Netherlands he boasted
that he had put to death more than $1,000
persons, aside from those killed in battle
and dying from cruelties inflicted upon
them. At the sack of Haarlem 800 men
were tied by twos and back to back and
thrown into the lake. At Zutphen 500
more persisted in like manner.
In appearance this inhuman duke was
tall, very slender, with cavernous cheeks,
dark, sparkling eyes, and thin, flowing
beard of silver. AS a wretch VINO would
win victory at any price, whose heart had
no feeling of humanity, and to whom the
sufferingS of his victims appealed not in
the least, he stands unparalleled, un-
mourned hated and despised more than
three centuries after the grave closed
over him.
Before leaving Holland Alva assured the
people that every city would be burned.
save few which were 10 be permanently
garrisoned. His list of murders is beyond
computation. After a single defeat of his
throops he seized and beheaded eighteen
mobiles in revenge; yet did he continually
complain of the peoples ingratitude for
his clemency, and this after his behead-
ing of the Counts Egmont and Horn in
the public square in Brussels after a
mockery of a trial in which no defense
was permitted.
Those are sample acts of the blood
thirsty soldier of Spain in the sixteenth
century. 1t would be well to let it lie In-
remembered were not "a revival of those
bloody scenes being enacted now in Cuba;
We're innocent men not the victims daily
of remorseless autocrat; were babes not