Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/195



A T)AT AT BUENOS AIRES. 165

will be ably assisted by the Vice-president^ citizen Dr. Adolfo Alsina. He must honourably terminate the present state of things, and devote to European immigration the energies and expenditure lavished upon a disastrous war. He must reform his fleet, create an army, and repress the wild Indians, who now ride up within a few leagues of the capital, and who, during the last presidential period, have made some 200 unpunished raids. He must reform ex- penditure â€” without, however, truckling to those economists who would make every servant of the State â€” even the chief magistrate â€” suck mate, eat '^ asado^^ and '^ puchero,^^ and sit upon a horse-skull or the ox- skeleton used by ancients as architectural ornament.

I was afterwards introduced to this distinguished man, who, presenting to me a copy of his book, pleasantly in- scribed it, " Au Capitaine Burton, voyageur en route, D. F. Sarmiento, voyageur en repos,'^ and who allowed me in gratitude for his kindness to address to him these pages. As yet he has gallantly held his own, despite the ridicule of men who, unable to understand his advanced views, honour him with the epithet " el loco Sarmiento,^^ and think to dishonour him by dubbing him " schoolmaster.^"' Soon after his election appeared certain " writings on the wall," abusive and indecent, daubed with nitrate of silver over the white marble steps and slabs of the city. On November 22, 1868, nails were planted between the rails to throw off the train which carried the President to a picnic on board the new steamer America, and but for the care of Mr. Crabtree serious national troubles might have occuiTcd. Here a revolution usually begins by a dozen ruffians or so rushing into the chief magistrate's house and stabbing or shooting him. The principal then appears at the window and screams " Liberty.^' His friends cheer him lustily, his enemies, after firing a few shots, make themselves scarce.