The age-herald., 1898-08-31
LEST WE FORGET.
Sagasta, the Infamous, Who Ordered the
 Virginius Massacre.

From the London Sun.
 Sagasta, the present Spanish prime min ister, is a stifhy built, frog-faced man, with a strong jaw, wide, insincere smile, and black, filmy eyes, as of an Arab or gypsy. He has the glib word, the expan- sive manner, and the exuberant gesture of the south. There is one charge which his most embittered enemies dare not bring against him-that of cowardice. His con victions may be centered upon himself, but most emphatically he has the courage of them. Over and above his vast astuteness of thought, he is man of action. If for many years he has proved himself as sup pie as a serpent his earlier history showed him to be as brave as a lion. He fought against O'Donnel1 in the streets of Madrid in 1856 at the head of a regiment of militia.
 Before that, as a lad of Is, when stu dent at the College of Engineers at Logrono, his native place, he hesitated not to withstand the behests of the dreaded Nervaez. Whenever the time came for fighting he ready to take his share, yet, without impeaching that uRdeniable physical pluck of which he has given many proofs, it is not surprising to find that he made it his first duty as a soldier to pre- vent himself from being unnecessarily killed. Hence in the summer of 1866, while many of his colleagues stuck to their bar ricades in the streets of Madrid and were massacred, Sagasta underwent, the much more convenient fate of being condemned to the uncomfortable death of the garrote-- in his absence.
 Thenceforward for two years, London, Paris and Ostend, were the centers of his activity, and if walls could speak a certain restaurant of Bishopgate street could tell some strange stories. He engineered the revolution of 1866 and drove Isabella II. from the throne, and this time fortune fa- vored him. When Torpete and the fleet had been won over and most of the army was squared the signal was given. Sagasta and Gorilla Gas pure patriot as ever lived, but too honest and consistent to be sue cessful modern Spanish politician), with Prm as servent in livery, sailed under assumed names in the steamer Delta, from London to Gibraltar, early in the Septem- Der of thirty years ago.
 I cannot be surprised at American cousins loathing the very name of Sagasta with the keenest of hatred-second only to that which they have for General Weyler It was because of his direct action in 1873 that the infamous General Burrill shot eight Americans in one day, and four days afterward shot Captain Frye, General Ryan, and fifty-eight more. Indeed, of all prime ministers that Spain has ever had, SaSaSta haS been Ino IloSt iueTcieSS anu unreliable. He is Talleyrand-Bismarck, with a strong flavor of Torquemada.
 Even now the old mans astounding good luck may be depended upon to bring him to the surface again, although he has just exceeded mans allotted span. But there is a more patient and dogged enemy than the paltry opticians who are in opposition to Sagasta- This is no less a person than 2 General Weyler himself. The two men have clashed for lears and when Sagasta dismissed his enemy and put Blanco in his place as captain-general of Cuba he made a most unwise move for his own interests and for the peace of his closing years. weyler has too much of the slow-moving Dutch blood of his father to act without discretion So he watches and waits