Year: 1874

Since whiting to you last have sue
ceeded, through the influence of Gen.
Martinez, in obtaining an interview with
the old Mexican hero, Santa Anna. /
came to Mexico with the impression that
he was dead The old man lives very
quietly now, and receives little company.
The fact that he is almost universally
despised by his countrymen causes him
to shun them and, for the same reason,
it is much easier for foreigner to OBJ
tain access to his private parlors than
for Mexican. He is living at present
in an old-fashioned Spanish house on
Vergara street, and, although he is said
to be poor he has about him not only
the comforts but many of the luxuries
of life.


Five o'clock in the afternoon was the
hour appointed for our call, and at that
time Colonel Moso, an intimate friend
of the generals, received us in the court
and conducted US up flight of stone
stairs into long, comfortably furnished
room fronting on the street. A piano
stood in one corner, and several pieces
of statuary, and few pictures here and
there about the room, displayed quiet
taste. At one end of the room hung a
magnificent and life sized painting of a
woman in full Spanish costume. 1t was
taken forty years ago, when the subject
was Santa Annals bride. She must have
been very beautiful then, if the picture
is true, for there is wonderful charm
in the dark, sad eyes. We had been
seated but a moment, when side door
opened and Santa Anna himself stepped
into the room.


Instead of the gray old man that we
expected to see, an upright, soldierly fig
ure stood before us, and We noticed that
in spite of his wooden leg he walked
with ease and without the assistance of
cane or crutch. Santa Anna's eye is
still black as a coal, and his hair, al
though thin, has not yet turned gray.
There is kindly expression in his face
that is strangely at variance with the
dark tales that blot his history, and as
he received each one of us with some
pleasant remark and cordial clasp of
his soft, woman's hand. we could hardly
realize that the man before US was the
author of so many bloody scenes.


Be seated, gentlemen he said, after
we had stood for few moments " /
have your chairs drawn up closely to-
gether here SO that / can hear you" He
turned and walked to a sofa beneath the
picture of his wife, and sat down. 1t
was in seating himself that the infrmi-
ties of his age showed themselves more
conspicuously. The false limb troubled
him then, and he was obliged to extend
it out very carefully before him. He
threw his right leg across it, as to con-
ceal it, and sat straight upright. Dur
ing the whole hour that we were with
him he did not lean back or change his
position.


Santa Annals mind is still clear, but
the drift of his conversation shows that
he lives almost altogether in the past.
He loves to talk of his own exploits, and
the accuracy with which he gives dates
and particulars of events which have
been back in history for over half GEN.
tury is remarkable. he asked many
questions about the United States, and
among others the name of our president,
which he had forgotten. He alluded to
the time when be was the guest of Gen.
jackson in the white house, and laughed
az be recalled some little embarrassing
circumstances into which his Inability to
speak English placed him. Some one
inquired after his health. Mexico
never did agree with me" be replied
al am troubled with catarrh, and the