The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1915-07-06

ASN&S0 ~
a vice president and congress. The
congress is composed Of two houses.
a senate and a chamber of deputies.
The vice president is the president OF
the senate. The president gets less
than 500 600 a year. n each mem
Der of receives about $1,000.
The army and navy are small. The
army has a total of abou 100 officers
and $500 men, and the navy con-
sists of a flotilla Of small merchant
vessels armed with modern guns. 1t
is intended to act only as a sort OF
police for the country. The military
has been trained by German officers.
and German instructors have been
brought in for the military schools.
1t is now planned to increase the
size of the army and navy, and new
headquarters Of war n marine have
been established in Asuncion with
supplies to equip 10000 men. There
is here a company Of Boy Scouts.
and just now there is a general desire
| for an increase in the size of the
army. The country has a national
guard to which all citizens of the re-
public between twenty-five and thirty
FIVE years Of age belong, and all are
liable to military service. Paraguay
is somewhat i X Switzerland in that
its safety depends largely upon the
jealousy Of the other republics about
it, but it's people remember the great
war of the past when Argentina, Uru-
quay and Brazil combined against
Paraguay and carried on thel Ong war
against Lopez which practically ruin
ed the country.
The war which little Paraguay
fought with the three great countries
about it is interesting now in view of
the terrible fighting going on in Rus
STA, Belgium and france. When 1t
r,ox hoa1y in I OAK OF ohn11f
the close of our civil war, Paraguay
had something like 500, 600 people. It
lasted five years, and at the close the
population was less than SOC, 900.
Nearly all the men and boys were
killed, and for a generation thereafter
five to one. 1t is said there were only
$4,000 men left in h country when
peace was declared, and of the re-
mainder something like 100000 were
women over fifteen years of age, the
rest were children. 1t is a curious
number Of births Of boys have e x
ceeded those of the girls by a large
percentage. 1t is as though nature
was trying to eQualize the differences
brought about by the war.
The Paraguay war was caused by
the ambition Of one Of the most no.
III OuN 1914
history. His name was francisco
Solando Lopez, and ne was the son Of
Carlos Antonio Lopez. His father wa:
President Of Paraguay as far back a!
: 1874, in the days Of President Tyler
|. He made himself dictator, and rulet
. death. The elder Lopez was in con
, slant quarrel with foreign nations. H
had a fuss with Uncle Sam, and IL
1859 the United States sent a squad
ron to the Rio de Ia Plata to enforce
demands against him. This man wa
) sorts Of ingenious tortures for hi
enemies, one of which was havin,
I them sewed up tightly in green cow
: skin and then set out in the sun. A
Z the skin dried it shrunk and squeezed
: the man to death.
Francisco Lopez was, in the phrase
Ology of ROuse's version of the Psalm
of David, Another Of the same" Hi
;, cruelty bordered on insanity. At on
. time he had several hundred native
and foreigners arrested, tortured an
executed on an improved charge o
r conspiracy. These people include
generals, ministers, judges. bishop:
own brothers. Two members Of GU
: legation were tortured, and tn
American minister, Mr.. WashburI
: was saved only by the timely arriva
= Of a United States gunboat.
8 Francisco Lopez assumed the gov
eminent on the death Of his father
He had been in France, and he ha
n an ambition to be the Napoleon c
4 South America. While there he fell i
with a woman named Nine Lynch
and brought her ack with him t
- Paraguay as his mistress. Nm
! Lynch was an Irish woman h wa
a devil, and she is said to have bee
- the cql1SQ of he fortunes and of tn
- revolution. Stimulated by her, h
- made war on the Argentines, quarre
- ed with Brazil, and tried to take Ma
!, to Crosse. AS the population wa
- decimated by battle, boys of twely
~ were forced into the army and flogge
y when they fell from exhaustion. I'll
Ia men who would not fight wel
executed. and officers were ofte