The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-10-06

was shaken from the map as a crumb
from a tableclOth, Sonora Castro was
the only member of her family to es-
cape the devastation. Castro himself
stood on a hill outside the town and
1 saw his abode crumble like house of
cards upon the heads of those within.
Again last October the great Caracas
earthquake in the dead of night threw
Castro from his bed. Then IN his
fright he jumped thrOHgn n window 10
a paved court and broke his leg. The
next day he moved from the Yellow
House. the White House of Venezuela,
to Mira Flores. And there. in the wing
where walls. floors and ceiling are all
of steel. the CastrOs eat and sleep.
Incidentally. the man who published
the verses in which the dictator was
named Clown of Mira Flores, one Dr.
Pedro Migares is at this moment Ian
gushing in the Rotunda. having been
confined there since last April Wnen
his poem first appeared-all this with
out trial and by the simple mandate
of Castro's thumb.
That the steel house is bullet proof
is an added point of merit in the die
tatOr's eyes. That which Castro most
fears is not earthquake. but human
kind. Were he to camp on the summit
| of NesUvius the uncertainty Of the pro-
lOngatiOn Of his career could not be
greater than it is as the dictator of
Venezuela. The country over which he
rules is a volcano and Caracas is its
crater And when comes the eruption
the first victim will be Castro.
A revolutionary army is mobilizing
in the field. Colombian revOlutionists
are pouring over the border to lend a
hand to their Venezuelan brothers. with
the understanding that when Castro is
overthrown the attention will be re-
ciprocated and Colombia becomes the
seat of war.
/ That Venezuela has a revolutionary
party is. of course, not remarkable. The
conservative element Of one adn3iEistra-
ton invariably becomes the revolution
airy element Of the next administration.
But the particularly discontinued party
which is now in the field has a special
grudge against Castro. The dictator
shot the revOlutiOnist leader. General
Acosta. Now in that country where
such leaders are as thick as are tramps
along "A railroad, never before has one
been punished by death. But Castro
said: IL ever my soldiers capture
Acosta he shall be shot" So last Feb
ruary. when the revolutionist was
taken. the dictator sent an order for
his captOrs to get Acosta into Caracas
before the 20th. that he. Castro. might
have the pleasure of supervising the
execution. Failing this, the order was
to shoot Acosta on the 18Th. wherever
.
When came the 18th the prisoner was
still 200 miles by horse from the CAPT
tai; and so Acosta. one of the bright
est intellects and bravest soldiers in
Venezuela. was made to kneel in the
middle Of the road with his back to
the firing squad. and thus was carried
out another sentence pronounced by
Castro's thumb.
To appreciate the Importance of the
date OF this occurrence it is necessary
10 state that Feb. 20 was the day on
which Castro called his congress to-
getheIs.t changed the constitution to
suit hisN own purposes and declared
himself mo- longer dictator, but consti-
tutional president. The constitution
forbids capirsl punishment AS dicta-
tor, Castro might shoot Acostas by the
score and MS legsRsright TO do so would
only be a matter of~SsisDute. But once
he became the chief Nexecutive under
the constitution such az act would be
Illegal beyond question, tand Castro.