The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-05-18

when . boy of nineteen, some fif- teen years previous, and had later
 served in Europe as ambassador. at-large to tho various powers.
 Hc had returned home in 1854 with Q beautiful and attractive Irish
 mistress, Eliza Iynch, who Is prOb-
 ably the aAventuresa paR excellence of the Western Hemisphere, and with great dolusions of NapoieOnic, military grandeur. In 1885, prob- ably urged on by his ambitious
 mistress who may well have visual
 ized herself as the crowned em.
 press of . greater Piatine state, no
 declared war upon Brasil, Argen- tina, and Uruguay. To return to
 tho previous analogy it was almost as # Vermont, as Q small and in-
 dependent republic, had suddenly
 declared war upon the United i states, Canada, and. just for good
 measure, Great Britain as well.
 Let 1t be said in defense of
 f.opezs sanity that the odds were
 not 50 uneven as they appear up-
 on paper, for Lopez had been
 quietly preparing for such an
 event for many years. Paraguay
 was we'll supplied with arms and
 munitions, and was equipped with
 modern arsonals and foundries,
 and well planned defensivo fortifi- ations Her soldiers were excellently
 trained and equipped and man for
 man were superior to their oppo-
 nefits. If Lopez had used tho ele-
 mont of surprise in the right way.
 but he bungled thIs important fac- tAR AAA 4hA AtliNA AAAe9nU fARnna
 wero allowed time to organize
 themselves. Then, of course, tho
 Infinitely superior numbers and
 resources of tho Triple Alliance
 gradually forced the Paraguayans back into their own interior lines
 where the latter carried on A do.
 fenslve war for five long years. Desperate Resistance
 The Western Hemisphere has
 never matched the desperate, and
 fanatical resistance made 0y
 these Paragiayans or the frenxlcd
 Retreat, surrender or desertion,
 were unheard of for Lopez prompt.
 iy executed tho immediate family
 or relations of any officer who al- lowed such m occurrence in hls command. The Paraguayans lit- terally fought until they were
 killed, and. when all tho able bod led mon had been killed. their places wero taken by dodderlng Told men and by boys as young as six years of age. When these In turn were killed the gaps were filled by women; and when the women were killed, old women and young girls were thrown In the breach. Famine and disease contributed to tic debacie 50 that by the ultimate defeat and death of Lopez in 1870, well over threc. quarters of the entire population had died. Rarely in tho history of the world has 6 people como so
 near to complete extinction and yet survived.
 The Allies forced certain terri. torial sessions from Paraguay and
 withdrew their armies of occupa-
 ton in 1878. The broken country turned to reconstruction under ter- viflc handicaps. There were but few males left alive and polygamy
 was commonly practiced. while the
 women were forced to perform all the heavy labor of the land. Also
 Paraguay now entered upon a tur- Dulent period or revolutions Wnicn ran true to Latin American form, but eventually the inborn fortitude of the natives achieved compar- ative stability of government which could. at least, bear comparison
 with those of It's ncighbors. Few Pure Whites
 There are but comparatively few
 pure whites in the country today, the great bulk of the population
 being of mixed descent or of pure IGuarani blood; and the Guarani Language Is as commonly spoken as Spanish. These Guarani Indians
 are a light-skinned, genial and
 pleasant race but, of course, in- herit the reputation of being splen- | did fighters when aroused. They differ greatly from the Mongolian
 appearing, stolid, and sullen An. dean Indians who form the bulk of population in Bolivia. It would
 seem q pity if such a lovable and patriotic race as the Paraguayans
 should again be crushed and hu-- inflated, but close observers 0f 1 the struggIe assert that this will
 never happen in the present war;