"Exterminate!"

General Juan Vicente Gomez, for 20 years dictator of Venezuela, who recently refused to serve as President for another term, but moved by the earnest pleadings of the entire Venezuelan Congress, accepted the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Venezuelan Army, last week found active use for his new title.

Foolhardy General Jose Rafael Gabaldon raised the flag of revolt against blue-spectacled General Gomez in the distant provinces of Lara, Trujillo, and Portuguesa with an army variously estimated at 50 and 500 men. Venezuela's old Commander-in-Chief moved quickly. Against the 50 (or 500) rash rebels he sent the troops of General Eustoquio Gomez, of General Pedro Maria Cardenas, of General Leon Jurado Felix Galavis and of General Juan Fernandez. To Acting President Juan Bautista Perez he sent the following telegram:

"Five generals with a force large enough to exterminate a number of unpatriotic countrymen who have uprisen in the states of Lara, Trujillo and Portuguesa, left yesterday for those districts. Exterminate this nest of rebels from the very roots in order to free those unfortunate districts of evil doers who should be exterminated radically by material force of the government."

The five loyal generals, with ten (or 100) rebels apiece to exterminate, marched their troops bravely to the extermination.