Hero Coachman

Death, clad in an assassin's cloak, sprang last week at Senor Adolfo Diaz whom the U. S. has recognized as President of Nicaragua (TIME. Nov. 29). The President was riding alone in his carriage at 11 p. m. when two men armed with machetes rushed upon it from an alley. Quick-witted, Senor Diaz leaped out of the left-hand door of his carriage as the men wrenched open the right-hand door. A machete hurtled, split the leather of the President's left heel, bit into his flesh. The coachman, faithful, sprang from his box, fell upon the attackers. Maddened, they felled him, slashed off his hands, his nose, gouged out his eyes. . . . As policemen arrived the two attackers fled, unidentified. President Diaz rushed to the coachman who had saved his life, lifted the man into his carriage, climbed onto the box himself, drove furiously to the nearest hospital. Not until the dying coachman had been attended to did President Diaz notice the pain in his heel, discover that he had been wounded. . . . Significance. This barbarous, indefensible attack on President Diaz evinced the hatred which he inspires among Nicaraguan Liberals. They see in him a corrupt Conservative, a puppet set up by the U. S. and elected only under duress by the Nicaraguan Congress. They have mobilized an army to overthrow him and have proclaimed as a rival president, Dr. Juan Sacasa, who has been recognized by Mexico* (TIME, Dec. 20). Last week the duel between Nicaragua's two presidents was enlivened by U. S. intervention (see below).

*On the grounds that, as he was elected Vice President to serve until 1929 under President Carlos Solorzano, he automatically became President when Carlos Solorzano resigned (Jan., 1926), and cannot legally be superseded until he resigns or is impeached.