Page:Civilization and barbarism (1868).djvu/210

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166
LIFE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC.

an ardor which ten years have not abated, and which has furnished many victims for the vengeance of the Mazorqueros.

Paz brought with him an interpreter who should explain his ideas and objects to the common people—Barcala, the negro colonel, who had so gloriously distinguished himself in Brazil, and was on an equality with the chief officers of the army: Barcala the freed-man, who had devoted himself to the task of interesting the working classes in a revolution which regarded neither color nor class in rewarding true merit. This Barcala was, as far as possible, to make the change of ideas and aims popular among the citizens; and he succeeded beyond the most sanguine expectations. The middle classes of Cordova were from that time in favor of civil order and progressive civilization.

The young men of Cordova were distinguished in the war for their disinterested devotion to the cause; many fell on the field of battle, or under the knife of the assassin, and still more were condemned to the pains of exile. In the battles of San Juan, the bodies of Cordovian "doctors" lay piled in the streets, obstructing the artillery that they were carrying against the enemy.

On the other hand, the clergy, who had encouraged the opposition to Congress and the constitution, had had time to measure the abyss to which civilization would be brought by such defenders of the faith as Facundo, Lopez, etc., and did not hesitate to declare in favor of General Paz.

Thus the "doctors" and young men, the clergy as well as the masses, were now of one opinion, and ready