Rock Island Argus., 1897-08-04
AN ANCIENT MEXICAN CITY.

tCurious Legend-some Relics Of Emperor
Msximilian.
Queretaro was q town befane the
Spanish conquest and was mnoc d city
in 1865. A legend Of Queretaru is that
an Otonite chief, Fernando de Tapia
by name, undertook to convert the city
to Christianity in a way that seems
novel to rs, but was common enough to
his day. He came from Tula with
challenge to the people of Queretaro to
a fair stand up fight If he won, the
people surviving were to be baptized.
The challenge was accepted, but while
the fight was in progress a dark cloud
came up and the blessed Santiago was
seen i'll the heavens with q fiery cross,
whereupon the people of Queretare gave
up and were baptized. They set up
stone cross to commemorate the event
ON the site of the present church of
Santa Cruz. There is scarcely church
in Mexico which has not a legend of
this kind attached to it. The town is
identified with the history of Mexico.
Here the treaty of peace between the
United States and Mexico was ratified
in 1S4S, and here Maximilian made his
last stand in 1867. was obliged to sur
render and was shot. Everybody is in
terested in Maximilian mainly on &C.
count Of poor Carlotta. Maximilian was
executed on the Cerro de las Campanas
and with him Generals Miramih and
Media. The place is rs,rked BY three
little crosses of stone. The two gen.
erals were killed at the first volley, but
Maximiliap, who had requested that.he
be shot through the body that his
mother might look upon his face, was
only wounded, and a second firing was
required to kill him.
The emperor had been led to believe
that Carlotta was dead. She became in
sane from grief and was kept in an aSy-
luln for many years, but she still lives
and still mourns for her dead husband
and the loss of her throne. The United
States government protested against the
execution of Macmillan, but in vain.
Juarez refusing to spare him.
There are all kinds of relics of Maxi
milan in Mexico-the Yturbide thea
ter, where he was tried and condemned,
tLo tdUic Oh WhlCu INC uedtH NdIIdut
was signed, the wooden stools ON which
the prisoners sat during the trial and
the coffin of Maximilian, whose remains
were subsequently sent to Austria and
buried at Miramar. l confess I do not
share in any sentiment of pity for Max
imilian, who was an adventurer with
out shadow of right in Mexico and
took the chances of war. He was, it is
true, a victim of Napoleon and of his
own ambition and was very scufylly
treated by those who had induced him
to set up his throne in Mexico, but to
have released him would have been to
establish claimant for the Mexican
throne. 1t was better that this man
should die than that thousands should
be sacrificed in the wars he would sure
ly have fomented if he had been allowed
to live. Ledger
Dumas.
Alexandra Dumas, or Dumas pere.
lived from 1903 to 1870. His literary
life began with the play "Henry ILL.,"
in 1929, and his labors continued to his
death, a period of Al years. The number
of novels, plays, poems and literary
works of all descriptions produced dur
ing this time was enormous, few writ
ers of any country exceeding IN quantity
the amount credited to this remarkable
man.