Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-10-07

constituents into drilling for fun-and then
drilling them for business enough to cap
ture the capital of the state when a usurper
held it: a guerrilla chief in the wasting wars
of the Reforma, when stolid. stubborn.
sound but tactleSs JuareZ was trying to put
the church between fences and keep it
there; the Sheridan ard Grant in one
through that unequal war in which Mexico
protested against the usurpation Of the lit
tie Napoleon; political opponent at last, of
his friend and patron the great Indian pres
ident; and for nineteen years himself presi
dent of the country he first gave fair title
to call itself a republic; field officer as
dashing as our Funston. and of as phenom-
email exploits, but in half hundred battles.
a comma nding general whose grasp of a
whole campaign has never been surpassed
on this side of the world; a man as self
made as our rail-splitter, and fortuned to
Wreak far more vital change In his native
land than even the extingushment of slavery
was in ours-here is certainly enough ma
terial for hero. And deeply believe that
IL there is such a thing at all, if mankind
has call to be proud of any special flower
of manhood, for its own sake and not for
racial vanity. Porfirio DiaZ is entitled to
whatever love and esteem manhood can
give to manhood. And from whatever point
of view.
Man Among Men.
With a good deal of the Napoleonfc in
sight and inevitableness there is no suspi-
cion of the selfishness, the GOODNESS, or that
certain atrophy of humanity which marked
the greatest soldier of all time DfaZ Is
always human always of that untranslat-
able quality his people call s1mpatlco, Tor
which we have no nearer approach tnan
winning and magnetic A cool ego1st
might have whipped the armies OF Max
milan but he never could have fused Mex
leo into the nation 1t Is today-and 1t is
doubtful if he could even have made the
same record in war 1t Is always TO De re-
membered as sheer historic truth that no
man ever before on any considerable scale
conquered disciplined armies with so small
and so unlocked an array of poems. Lex
ington is not parallel, nor any other battle
where in the raw recruits were our Ameri-
can yeomen. DiaZ won his campaigns with
material at which the most sangu1ne OF our
frontier campaigners would simply gasp.
do not despise the Mexican pelado; only
would not like to have to fight battle
with him for backing. And while the Mex
lean rural is fighter Of serious accounta-
bility, there were no rurales I'LL Dlaz mace
them, out of next to nothing. A man Is
Judged in war and statecraft by the ma
terial with which he has to work as well as
by the gross result. In relatively modern
history the only synonyms of Diaz' mill
tary career Gas of the class where the ranks
show for numbers indeed; but the leader
is really the army are CorteZ and Plzarro.
Our own history has no fair parallel, even
among the Marions and Clusters and RooSe-
velts; for the very palpable reason that
none of these. our lions, were leaders OF
sheep. No men have ever led a charge
better, but some as Wlld heroes nave peeH
worse followed.
Superb Physical Courage.
This IS not the side of DiaZ I care to
dwell on. Splendid as personal heroism Is
it is also luckily for humanity not I'M
common. 1t is significant here particularly
because without it and the direct hero
worship it aroused Diaz very certainly
could not have done his larger work. The
man who led so many forlorn hopes against
superior numbers, discipline and arms;
who was brevetted with so many scars;
who could not only plan a complicated
campaign, but win 1T inch by inch at the
head of his tatterdemalions; who spiked the
enemy's battery with his own hands in the
heat of the melee; who served his own
guns when the last gunner had fallen or
run away; who dazZled his men and his
people as well by his personal mitigating
by the endless ingenuity and almost
devilsh inspirations by which he befooled
or shattered the enemy-that sort of man.
among any sort of men who love red blood
and a steady hand can get listeners after
liens, telling them of national righteous
ness. mercy and judgment to come
What He Has Done for Mexico.
No one would be more grateful for sci
entific demonstration that somewhere else
in human history so radical a change has
come over the political, SOCIAL and CONNER
cial circumstance of nation in short
time as has befallan Mexico since Daz
wound the reins round his hands I have
not been able to find it for myself. with a
fairly intimate knowledge of what Mexico
was and is, and considerable attempt to
learn sometheing of other history. :,
Fifteen years ago Mexico was a byword
among the nations; unsettled by revolu-
lions, moth-eaten with brigandage. Tweed
ian in local politics, remote, uneasy, ignor
ant. inaccessible, unsafe and heggared. To-