Arizona republican., 1898-09-19
SAGASTA.

Sagasta, the preseEt Spanish prime minister, is a stifi1y built, frOg-faced man, with strong jaw, a wide, insin cere smile, and black, flmy eyes, as of an Arab CT gypsy. He has the glib wC;d, the expansive manner and the e1uberant gesture Of the south. There is one charge which his most embit
 tered erenly dare nc1 bring against ninl-tnat Of cow9Edice. His cOnyic- tions may be centered upon himself, bu. most elnphatically he has the cour- age of them. Oyer and above his vast s4stUtopesS Of thought hs is . man Of action. If for many years he has proved himself as supple as q serpent,
 his earliel. his.1ry showed him to b2 as brave as lion. He fought against ODcnrell in the strestS Of Madrid in 1858 at the head Of g regiment Of mi iitia.
 Before that, as . lad Of IS, when 8 student at the College of Engineers at LngrCnc, his native place, he hesitated 10: to withstand the behasts oi the draad NeryaeZ. Whenever the time came for fighting he was ready to take his share. yet, without inpeaching that undeniabie physical pluck O which he has given many proofs, u is not sur prising to find that he made t his first duty as soldier to prevent himself from being unnecessarily killed. Hence in the summer Of 1866, while many Of his colleagues stuck to their barricades in the streets Of Madrid and were mas
 sacred, Sagasta underwent the much
 more convenient fate cf b5ing con- demned to the uncomfortable death Of the garrote-in his absence.
 Thenceforward. for two years Lon don. Paris and Ostend were tho centers
 Of his activity, and if walls could speak
 a certain restaurant of Bishopssate
 street could tell some strange stories. iIc engineered the revolution Of 1S56
 and drove Isabella II from the throne, and this time fortune favCred him. When TCrpe.e and the fiect had been
 won over and most Of the army was
 squared the signal was given. Sagasta
 and ZcTilla (as pure 8 patriot as ever
 lived, but too honest and consistent to
 he ] successful modern Spanish polite
 i21), with Priu as 2 servant in livery, sailed under assumed names in the
 steamer Delta from ilonGcn to GibTai-
 lar carly in the September Of thirty years eso. i cannot I1o surprised . GIT AnieTi- ! EJL-sA1IS AgdtAs4z4S --1c is1424G O-
 sasasta with ,ie keenest G hatred
 second C2ly t0 that which they have fer General Weyler. l. was because e
 his direct action in 1878 that tke infa-
 nous General Burrili shot eight Amer
 jeans in one day. and four days after ward shot Captain Fry, Gsneral Ryan, and fif.y-eisht more. Indeed, Of all prime ministers that Spain has ever had Sagasta has been the most merci- i jess and unreliable. He is a Talley-
 and-Bismarck, with a strong flavor Uf i iTorquemada.
 Even now the old mans astounding good luck may be depended upon to bring him to the surface again. al- though he has just exceeded mans a. lotted span. But there is q more pa tiert and dogged enemy than the pal
 try politicians who are in opposition i to Sagasta This is no less 9 person than General Wsyier himself. The two i men have clashed for years, and when
 Sagasta dismissed lis enemy and put Blanco in his place as captain general
 Of Cuba he made 2 most unwi5e move
 fer his odn in,erest and for the peace
 cf his closing years. Weyier has too
 much cf the slow-moying Dutch blood
 of his fathsr to act without discretion.
 So he watches and waits.-London Sun.