Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1898-11-10
How zalezzo Ended The War.

Zalezzo was good and tired of 1t. He
had defended the republic until his
patriotism had begun to have callouscs
upon 1t. He had marched around with
bayonet stuck in his belt, being mar
tlal for at least a dozen dictators, two
or three pretenders and seven presi-
dents, and afar in the mist of the past
he remembered that he had upheld
The throne of Spain. 1t seemed to him
lthat about every time he got a good
Job cutting bananas for the cantract-
ing fruit shippers of New Orleans some
dark-complexioned man with fierce
Spanish discourse would come out up
ON the plantation and inform him that
1t was time for him to get his machete
and come along and defend the coun-
try against the invader. Privately
Zalezzo much preferred using his ma
chete In cutting banana suckers, and
thereby earning the money Of the
Northern dealers, but being a true
Nicaraguan he must perforce leave
congeniel employment and go out and
buster around in ragged attire and
wearing his gunless bayonet and with
his empty cartrldge-belt cnched
around him.
So far as he knew Zalezzo had never
killed q man In the many campaigns
In which he figured. OF course, you
can argue out that that was most nat
urai, for he had never carried gun;
and an empty cartrldge-belt, even
though augmented by dull bayonet,
is not effective upon an enemy which
keeps the width of the sthmus away.
His conscience, therefore, was easy,
but his mind was not. He had been
waiting for five years to get together
enough money to pay the high pre-
MUM on a marriage license, so that
he might fetch Kisti into his house
with propriety and establish himself
as the head of a Nicaraguan family.
Zalezzo was soldier Of the Govern
ment, and he felt that the right thing
to do was to do things right and get
married with a certificate of permis-
sion printed in three colors and bear
ing the triangular design of the seal
of Nicaragua. Several times he had
been within a sol or two of the price
of this documentary magnificence, but
on every occasion, just as he was
reaching out for it, some kind of war
was sure to break 0ut-a revolution,
revolt, an insurrection, an assault upon
the Government-and call would
come to him to take up the bayonet
and the empty cartrdge-belt and go
struttinc about for the intimidation of
the miserable wretches of the opposi-
tion.
AS have said, Zalezzo was getting
tired of it. He had, indeed, been tlrede
of 1t for some time. The last time the
conscripting colonel summoned him 1t
had been a tight footrace between the
commissioned officer and the private
soldier through three hundred acres of
banana plantation, and not until some
tropical Hessians had introduced trip
ping ropes into the quest had ZalezzC
been overcome and hauled away II
triumph. He fought through three
months of warfare, which amounted t,
nothing more than the loss of his jol
In the banana plantation, and returned
n scarless veteran, without even th'
comfort Of having anything brave t.
Ae about.
The banana-cutter had been work
ing but three weeks when his lns
summons came to him-three weeks 0
earnest hoping against revolutions
three weeks Of aspiration in the mat
ter Of Kisti and the Government Il
cense to wed. Then came the colont