HUERTA IN EXTREMIS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1921, 2 December 1913, Page 5

HUERTA IN EXTREMIS.

REBELS CLOSING IN, MESSAGE TO PORFIRIQ DIAZ. SITUATION CRITICAL. By Telegraph--Press AssocUitimi—CoiiyriKlit Mexico City, November 30. ' The situation (if the Huortan Government is believed to In; critical. The rebels are advancing north and south of tho capital, and are likely to cut off t!io northern States completely. Tho situation oil tiro oilfields is critical. Foreigners in the Montery district are leaving. General Huerta lias formally recalled ox-President Porlirio Diaz. The latter has cabled his consent, hut did not state when lie was jikclv to arrive.

PASSENGER TRAIN BOMBARDED. Washington, November 30. Reports received by the .State Department state that rebels arriving at San Lnis Potosi destroyed a passenger train carrying troops. They bombarded the train with machine guns, killed numbers of soldiers, and wounded all the passengers. They then, it is snid, robbed the passengers, simultaneously expressing regret that they had been wounded. FEDERALS BEATEN EVERYWHERE "Times'''—Sydney "Sun" Special Cables. Mexico City, November 30. General Carranza, the Nationalist leader, affirms that ho has beaten tho Federals everywhere, anil is now preparing to take the field even on a larger scr.le.

HUEATA'S RIVAL, Don Vcnusfiano Carranzn, (lie Constitutionalist loader who at tho present moment is Hnerta's most formidable rival for the control of the destinies of his chaotic country, is the subject of an interesting sketch in the Paris "Debat-s." Ho has carried on a great rebellion by the simplo process of bec-oniing the most trusted man in its ranks. For that reason alone Zapata pledged t'arrauxa his support. The swarthy complexion of the rebel leader betrays, it seems, his Latin and Aztec origin. Between fifty and sixty, muscular, with high check bones and a broad nose, the deliberate mode of his speech is Teutonic rather than Spanish. Hp springs, nevertheless, from the race of the conqnistadoir-s, and, ■ if tho family- tree be acceptable oil (his point, his ancestors include a follower of Caries when that soldier was fighting Montezuma. The Aidec bride of the Spanish adventurer belonged to the royal house. The majesty of his deportment on tho Bench—for Don Vcnustiano is a Judge—and the grace of figure he retains to this very day are attributable to his ancestry. To the royalty of his nature must be ascribed likewise the comparative poverty of the Don. His distribiitions of food and occasionally of money among his followers eat up his income and even bis capital. lie owns laud almost by the mile, and his herds are enormous, but he possesses no such wealth as Diaz boasts or the Maderos. When all the mortgages arc paid and all the notes mature, Don Vcnustiano might retire with enough to live on. in dignified case. Br&datrect's would rate him then at perhaps a hundred thou rand dollars or two. This fact, for a man who lias been so many years in public lifs in Mexico, who has been Governor of u State, Mayor of a city. Judge of a High Court, attests a perfect Jioucsfy. Indeed, says tho French paper, tho probity of Vcnustiano Carrnnza is worthy of a Brutus or !i Washington. His domestic life i? patriarchal in a Biblical sense. His household comprises a thousand people at least, over whom his °way is gentle, although absolute. 110 measures his wealth in terms of kine and horses. Tho clothes lie wears have been spun beneath his own roof. He is most.at homo some forty miles from the nearest railroad. Yet his interests have been intellectual. He l\as set up schools on his greatestatc. Ho is a patron of young Mexican poets, lie lias cncournged tho establishment of newspapers. Ho has always professed a lilieraiism that was sip.cer-e. Porfirio Din,! bailed him dangerous. Jfadero made him Governor of a big northern State. Brigandage, rapine, . and mob law are so abhorrent to oiie of Cnrransa's legal training that ho has set himself the task of administering his revolution as if it were an established government. He succeeds in this, according to the French daily, because of his own Instinct for order. Precise, methodical, nunctnal himself, he sals an example of discipline which his followers profit by prodigiously. He rises at daybreak. Lisis of every follower are- gone over bv the chief personally. The roll is called at' sundown.. Kach man must give an account of himself. "When funds run. low, the men of wealth in the northern territory are politely invited to afford themselves tho luxury of parting with cattle, horses, guns, or money. The levy is thoroughly systematic, and a receint exempts the contributor from any further assessment

dnrinsr.a wlsole year. The sense of justice is'so slroui,' in Carranza that, lie keeps in's pledge on this point far better than Mfldcro coild' when Jio fought against Diaz. Those of Cnrranza's followers who do any levying; on their own account are shot.