It is the effort of a low intelligence to place others of his kind in authority rather than see such authority in the hands of those fitted to use it. It is his pleasure, too, when he has sacked a town, to give its best houses to the poor.
In due course, General Victoriano Huerta became Provisional President. He made an effort to restore public order, and was recognised by all the powers except the United States, Huerta as
President. which from the first steadily refused to countenance him. That their view was the correct one was speedily proved, for Huerta quickly showed that he was working entirely for his own personal ends. In August, 1913, the American Ambassador was withdrawn, and the United States demanded early and free Presidential elections, and an undertaking that Huerta himself should not be a candidate. New elections were arranged for 26th October, and Huerta announced that the terms of the Constitution would prevent him from offering himself as a candidate. But before the elections transpired, Congress was arbitrarily dissolved, and many of its members cast into prison. The elections duly took place, and Huerta, although not a candidate for the Presidency, received the largest number of votes. The United States refused its recognition of the election, and once more called upon Huerta to resign, which he most unwillingly did.
Francisco Carvajal became Provisional President until Venustiano Carranza could reach Mexico city from his exile in the United States. Carranza was a trusted politician of wide Liberal sympathies Carranza. and, although over the allotted span in years, was still able and willing to serve his country. Carvajal was a drawing-room soldier, and gracefully allowed matters to slide. But when Carranza entered the capital, he was to find himself handicapped by the opposition of a remarkable and desperate man—a man who before had practically been one of his henchmen. This was the famous bandit-soldier Villa, a native of Guerrero, in whose mountains he had been
