Books: Historic Slaughter

WOMAN ON HORSEBACK—William E. Barrett—Stokes ($3).

The population of Paraguay in 1862, when Francisco Solano Lopez became dictator, was more than a million. When he was killed eight years later, after six years of war with Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, the male population added up to about 29,000. On the strength of this record Lopez has usually been considered a strong candidate for first place in the ranks of the world's worst rulers. Last week William Barrett made a valiant attempt to restore Lopez' tarnished laurels with a romantic, fictionized biography that paid a...