The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1910-08-21
The SOLDIER
OF FORTUNE
These are Stirring Days for the Am
orleans Who 90 to Central
America in Order to
Fight.
ABOUT LEE CHRISTMAS
Leroy Cannon Who Was Executed by
zeIaya Was the Best
Known Of Them
All.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 20.-These
are stirring days for the soldier OH
fortune in Central America. Nicara-
qua is in the clutches OF revolution
which bears the same relation to an
ordinary uprising as big league dou
ble-header bears to game OF one
old-cat in the back lot. In addition
the quondam patron Of professional
warriors, former President Manuel
Bonilla, of Honduras, has again dis
turbed the peace of that country 1t 4
appears that his revolution missed
fire and that General Christmas, the
illustrious foreign commandments
Iof Bonilla's forces, is back in Guate-
mala City again. looking for a job,
hut there is always the prospect in
Central America that another fight
will be coming off soon.
The shifting of Central American
politics has always been a favorite
region for young Americans afflicted
with the wanderlust. For many years
American names have been passed
from republic to republic to strike
terror into the hearts of the more
or less valiant native soldiers.
A score of these soldiers of fortune
have come and gone without the Unit
ed States hearing much of them, but
their memory is kept green in the
countries in which they have helped
to keep in ebullition. There have
1 been few Frenchmen who have dis
tinguished themselves and several
Germans. For the most part these
| Europeans have carried on their rev
dictionary activity under cover of a
humdrum occupation and confined
themselves to plotting and conspiring.
The Americans have always gone into
the fight for the love of it-and what
ever the reward in the way of con-
d cession or two there was to be gained
as the fruits of victory.
General Lee Christmas-he is gen
eral in both Guatemala and Honduras
In wartime and locomotive engineer
lin time of peace-is still active as
chief henchman of Manuel Bonilla
twho has never ceased trying to regain
the presidency of Honduras since Re
Ilaya, the bette noir of Central America
put President Davila in his place.
In Guatemala also there is General
EDrummond, better known in the cafes
as One-Eye Drummond. There is
also Johnny Moissant, the youngest
tof the three Moissant brothers. The
, other two are conservative and hard
working business men and Johnny is
a thorn in their sides. There was also
Johnny Poe, the Princeton football
player. whose career was brief and
Spectacular, and Leory Cannon, the
most brilliant of all, WHO was shot by
IZelaya, and Miller, another football
player, who was killed in the corner
of a cemetery at Namasisue.
Drummond, who is general in the
. army of President Estrada Cabrera
Is for the time being a man of peace
, though he is ever on the alert for al
outbreak. Les Christmas just now is
the most notorious. He has flashed
into revolutionary notoriety at ode
, times during the past ten years. His
chief claim to glory, however, is per
, sistence, rather than brilliancy. He
, prepares for and manages Manue
Bonilla's revolutions and is, apparent
i Ely very much interested in his work
despite the countless failures Mos
of these soldiers Of fortune seem tt
| desire activity rather than victory
anyway, and q little setback or two /!
not discouraging but stimulating.
Christmas started southwark from
New Orleans. He showed no military
tendencies and probably had no more
adventurous plan In mind than start
ing little banana plantation ant
sitting under the broad leaves ant
eating and selling the fruit thereof
;. But banana growing is dull and com
, monplace in Central America, and il
not always proftable-not so profit
:. able as a revolution.
!. Christmas is brawnv and doesn'
!, care especially for tea drinking. II,
r entered into the spirit of the sam,
enthusiastically and in due course o
! time came to be chief Of police a
O Tegucigalpa, in which capacity he wa
,. not popular because he took himsel
, too seriously for the comfort of thu
II residents He had few coffee finca
n also. But Bonilla went out and witt
S bin1 Christmas. He decamped TO
e Guatemala, became q general there
4, too. When he was not preparing 70
he is an engineer or any
s. thing else tfaat can be seized upon b
way of earning an honest living dul
G irg the vicissitudes of peace.
e Johnny Moissant. who is still fiji
a ting about in Nicaragua, is an adroi
it irather successful soldier. He ha
d been identified with various exploit
P of and adventurous character but
?. was not until President Zelaya CAV
him a position of trust that he cam