On May 25, 1911, Porfirio Diaz resigned the Presidency of Mexico, under
the compulsion of a revolution headed by Francisco Madero. This act
ended an era, the Diaz era, in Mexican history. Diaz had been President
for over thirty years. He had found Mexico an impoverished barbarism;
he raised it to be a wealthy and at least outwardly civilized state.
Some able critics, even among Europeans, had declared that Diaz, "the
grand old man," was the greatest leader of the past century. All
Mexicans honored him. But unfortunately for his fame he grew too old:
he outlived his wisdom and his power.
Of the downfall of such a man there must naturally be conflicting
views. We give here the story from the pathetic Diaz side by a
well-known English writer upon Mexico, Mrs. Tweedie. Then we give the
warm picture of Madero's heroic struggle against tyranny, as it
appeared to Dolores Butterfield, a young lady brought up in Mexico, but
driven thence by the more recent revolution which resulted in Madero's
death.