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

vas 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
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 ped. Then in his
fright he jumped through a window to
a paved court and broke his leg. The
next day he moved from the Yellow
House. the White House of Venezuela,
TO Mia 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, when
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 Vesuvius 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
fuleS Is a volcano ana AdIdtcS II It's
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 admiEiStra-
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: If 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 goth, that he. Castro. might
have the pleasure Of supervising the
execution. Failing this, the order was
to shoot Acosta on the 18th. wherever
he might be
When came the 18th the prisoner was
still 200 miles by horse from the CAPT
tai; and so Acosta. one of the bright
est inteliects 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 o. this occurrence it is necessary
u state that Feb. 20 was the day on
which Castro called his congress to-
gethef,.- changed the constitution to
suit his own purposes and declared
himself ~ longer dictator, but consti-
tutionaI president. The constitution
forbids canifal punishment AS dicta-
tor. Cairo might shoot Acostas by the
score y, a ~ is-rl right to do so would
only be a mate. of.rispute. But once
he beca, ne fhe cbias executive under
the constitution such an act would De
lhesaI beyond question. anu Nas'ra'