During his late sojourn in Cuba, Valeriano Weyler, the most famous of all Spanish butchers of today, was in the habit of proclaiming, at least once a month, that he intended to invade Florida at the head of a Spanish army of fifty thousand men. After conquering and restoring Florida to the Spanish crown he would seize Washington, where he proposed to dictate all rules of conduct to Uncle Sam for all time to come.

The other day, the butcher made a speech of the same import in the Senate of the Spanish Cortes. He said that if he had been permitted to carry out his policy and prosecute the war in Cuba, the island would have been pacified by April, 1898, whereupon he would have invaded the United States with an army of fifty thousand Spanish veterans.

The first statement was no empty boast, for under his campaign of concentration and systematic starvation, the Cuban people would undoubtedly have been destroyed by this time if an assassin's bullet and a change in the personnel and policy of our government had not sent Weyler home.

But the butcher need not forego his heart's desire of invading the United States. A Spanish army is now massed in the Canaries, which may be used for this purpose. The American people would not object to such an enterprise on the part of the butcher, nor would their fleets and armies obstruct his landing in any manner. On the contrary, nothing would delight the people of the United States so much as to have the real author of the "Maine" crime land on American soil at the head of a Spanish army. In fact, they are so anxious to receive a personal call from the butcher that they probably would be glad to furnish free transportation for himself and an army of such size as will suit his purpose. If he means what he says, all he has to do is to give an order for 3transports and they will be placed at his disposal.

But he would have to provide his own transportation facilities for his return to Spain. However, his friends, the "Americanos", would see to it that he should not be put to any trouble whatever in that respect. Come on, Weyler, we are waiting.