Arizona republican., 1904-06-05
ONE SMALL DETAIL
Revolutionary Generals Plan Was
 Dramatic.

lltLt - llO use ldAhillSr DldIlh Ntl4 N- ridges are a whole lot deadly down yon- der in the lower Amer icas," sad a man who was for many years Un.tel States consul in Central Amer.ca, in speaking the other day about tho soldiers who were killed 'Inadver ,ent- ly" by bullets during a sham battle of the Cuban army recently. I'd ratSer take a chance with honest-injun bullets up this way than with a lot of blank cartridges that know and have heard tell about down in the low attitudes of of this hemisphere.
 Something quite neat of tke b'a~k cartridge kind came off, fo- instance, while Antonio Ezeta was fixing up and putting over one revolution sf CT an- other down in Salvador, with his head quarters in La LibeI tad. Anto 10 was the most ingenious boy of the whole FZeta family, and that's saying It, for the bunch of Ezetas made it a business and a pasttime for years to cook up revolutions all the way from Panama to Patagonia.
 Ut was simply a plain business prop osition. revolutionizir g. with those live ly T,zeta boys. As soon as an EZ Ze:a would succeed in bundiing up a package of loot amounting to five millions or ten millions, away he'd skip to Paris, and he'd be dead of absinthe and things in side of a couple of years. Tony was the only one of the boys, if I remember correctly, who didn't do that, for the reason that, ingenious as Tony was at upsetung governments, something al ways happened to shut him out of tke dough al the critical moment.
 Well. anyway, while Anton'o WIS the boss of La Libertad. Salvador, his vidottes brought in a prisoner one day. The prisoner was the secrtary of war, or secretary of state, or some ltle thing like that, Of the still existent but under cover, regular government O. the republic of Salvador.
 This chap had been in secret Co.r- munication with Antonio Ezeta, ard had permitted himself to be captured He had swiped some $-O0,O0G god for his bit, and figuring that Antonio was going to win GU. he had made u h mind to attach himself 10 the Ezetl cause and divide his portion of the poodle with Tony rather than remain with the almost defunct government and have the whole package removed from him by the disb tndiag | m nts of the losing side.
 ''So they brought him in with hi 5 ! leather trunk stuffed with god di k. ! Antonio pretended to receive him with gloomy VOW, and in loud tone ordered that he be instantly shot
 Irony wlnked the othel eye, however. ] and the cx-oHicial of the defurct cab ! inet felt pretty good He begged for private word with Antonio, and the two got together in Tonys office and 1 embraced affectionate.y.
 You understand, of course, my cherished brother, the situation here, said Antonio. The troops hate you. l must stand you up to be shot at. But shall see that nothing but blank cartridges are used. When the officer offers to blinGfcld you, wave him aside and proclaim your desire to die with your eyes upon your ass3ssins. This ! will. arouse the enthusiasm or my brave
 boys, don't ycu see? They will prob ably, in their enthusiasm, beg me to spare your life. If so, well and good. You are 10 be spared in any event. But il they do not beg for your life in their enthusiasm, they shall fire at you only with blank cartridges, you under stand. You are to fall as if dead, when they will be marched away, and l shall see that you are put on board | the Panama steamer going up tonight
 Is it not well, my brother?' wound up Antonio affectionately.
 'Tony's idea looked pretty neat ttO ! the captured ex-official. especially as Antonio told him that his trunkful of money-with q little subtractio to be contributed to the Ezeta cause-would be placed on board the steamer with him.
 '"The trunk was placed in Antonio's keeping, and a short time later the
 captured man was led out tC-as he
 thought-his phony shooting party. The
 poor devil was exceedingly effective ia his dramatically announced determina-
 ton to die with his eyes upon his slaughterers, and when the eighteen men comprising the firing squad sot
 their guns in readiness to fire, he
 threw his shoulders back magnificent ly.
 "They hadn't begged for his life but were not their guns loaded only with blanks? He made a fine picture. in consequence, with that confidence
 raighteninS him, and when the brave lieutenant of the squad uttered the
 command to fire he gave a very real
 stic jump into the air and fell for
 ward on his face.
 There wasn't any reason why ii
 shouldn't have been a realistic jump
 either considering that he had just IS
 Lee Martini bullets in his system. An
 tonic had forgotten to give that order
 about the blanks, you kncw-amazing- ly absentminded individual, that Ezeta
 boy. as befitted a great man and an
 indomitable revolutionist. He looked
 sad and all cut up about il. Tony dId.
 when he found out about it. but il was
 too late then, of course, and the only
 thing for Tony to do was to prize his
 dead friends trunk as something sa-
 cred