The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1912-02-04
GEN. REYES IS
TO ESCAPE ALL
PUNISHMENT
COMMITTEE IS URGING GENERAL
AMNESTY TO ALL POLITICAL
OFFENDERS AND MADERo
GIVES HIS APPROVAL.
az AssocIated Press.

Mexico City, Feb. Sit appears
probable that General Bernardo Reyes.
the old soldier who wandered for days
in the mountains of northern Mex
ice in search of an army of rebels that
did not exist, will not be punished at
ali by the government he had planned
to overthrow.
A committee representing the Anti
reelectionist party has petitioned Con-
gress to grant general amnesty to all
political offenders, and no good au-
thority it is reported that President
Madero will supplement- this petition
with one of his own before Congress
convenesj on April l. It is not i'm
probable that the permanent commits
sion of Congress may be asked to
take earlier action on the matter. thus
enabling Mexico to wipe from her
slate the records of instructions be-
fore that date.
The measure for amnesty proposed,
and which it is believed the President
will submit, specifies political Of
lenses" 1t is not intended that the
Zapatistas shall be afforded immunity,
for the government classes their raids
as the work of bandits.
General Reyes has never shown an
inclination to deny that he intended to
head rebellion, nor has he attempted
to load others with responsibility for
his acts. His has been an attitude OF
frank admission of guilt, thus leaving
little for the government to do but de-
eide upon the character of his punish
ment. How to dispose Of him, never
iSh him too severely might cause him
to be regarded as a martyr, To give
him light sentence would make it
inconvenient to load political offenders
of less Importance with heavier penal
ties. To exile him might be dangerous,
and to single him out from scores of
others for pardon would be regarded
as inconsistent. And so it is probable
that tie government viii open the
prison doors for all held for political
crimes and invite all those at large to
surrender and be forgiven
desire to prove its magnaaimity
doubtless will be the reason given by
the government in granting a general
amnesty, but those who know the old
General well declase that he will suffer
quite as keenly as If he were given a
sentence to some military prison. To
be told to leave the Santiago prison,
where he has been confined since he
was brought here from Linares, and
to walk out into the streets of the
capital and to go where he pleases,
that his movements do not concern
the government, will. say his friends,
be a great humiliation, for it will car
regards him as a powerless old man,
not worth watching
Carlos Rincon Gallardo MARQUIS de
Guadalupe, the president of the polo
club, has arranged for a team to go
from here to California to play several
OF the polo teams of the United States,
including the Coronado team which
won from England. The team will be
made up of Maurice Raoul Duval. cap
tain and back: Ignacio Algara, three;
Eduardo Iturbide, two, and Manuel
Campero, one,
Washington's birthday will be OBJ
served here by the unwilling of the
Washington monument, the centennial
gift from the American colony to the
Mexican government. The corner
stone of the base was laid in the Pla-
zuela de Dinamarca a year ago last
September, during the month when all
Mexico was celebrating the hundredth
anniversary of her independence from
Spain.
An awkward predicament came 10
an end this month, when nine officers,
four captains and five lieutenants were
declared by court-matial not guilty
OF the crime of desertion, They were
officers in the garrison at Torrean, de-
feated by Revolutionary troops during
the revolution. They fed and reported
at army headquarters in the capital.
Since then they have been held at the
military prison on the charge of de-
sertion. Although the revolutionists
won, army discipline had to be main
tanned so the trial of the men was
ordered. The defense established the
fact that before leaving the post. prac-
tically all of the men under the ac-
cused officers had fled, joined the reb-
els or had been captured, and that
they themselves expected death.
Confusion of two Spanish words
''lniedo," meaning fear, and medals,
Spanish for stoclSings-created an un-
expected diversion at a dinner given
by Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson
during the time when he was minister
to Chile, according to a story told by
the diplomat himself. Mrs. Wilson
had replied in Spanish to a question
OF one of her guests, all South Ameri-
cans.
"Ah, you speak SPANISH said the
one addressed.
Mrs. Wilson laughingly deprecated
any great knowledge of the language
but her husband, also attempting to
speak in Spanish, declared that she
could speak the language better if she
had no "medias.
The government has discovered that
some reforms are expensive. The
present government" said Minister
Abraham Gonzalez, of the department
CT interior, in a published interview
has thought of waging war without
quarter against all forms of gambling
| including the lotteries. The President
has considered the suppression of the
| brings into the national treasury each
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