Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, August 10, 1902, Page 31

Where United States May Get a Coaling Station )SSIBLY it was devious Latin- American politics, and possibly it was merely straight Latin-Ameri- can acquisitiveness, that led cer- tain dark, bare-footed Colombian revolutionists under General Herrera to seize or to be accurate, to steal, or to speak In Herrera's language, expropriate, certain thousands of bags of Chiriqui. It was only an incident in the somewhat weari- some game of revolution that has been dragging on for some time in the chaotic affair that calls itself, between revolutions, the Republic of Colombia. But it was an incident that promises to awaken a lively American interest in the noisy game. For it happens that most of the expropriated coffee belongs to American citizens, and it happens that Chiriqui is on the Isthmus of Panama and that the United States has long had its eye on the spot as being juct the thing for a coaling sta- tion and base. So it may be that, in unraveling the tangle, Chiriqui will become a place with the American flag flying over it. Central and South American republics are only just beginning to awaken to the fact that it is not open season for Americans whenever a Latin-American feels like shooting. A few years ago the arrival of an American warship was so rare in the ports along the Caribbean sea that many of the night-blooming governments did not know what an American naval officer looked like. But lately, and especially in the last few months, the republics and dictator- ships whose coasts front on the great trop- fcal ocean have not been able to open their mouths real wide before a rapid fire bat- tery would peer at them from the deck of a white cruiser. Disorderly Republic, The Republic of Colombia has given the United States more trouble of late than any of the other unquiet folk that follow the pursuits of internecine war instead of com- merce. Twice it has been necessary to land American marines and blue jackets. The last time was only recently as everybody will remember. The affair before that was In 1885, when McCalla took Colon and then sent his men across the isthmus in armored cars and scared the revolutionists and gitimists alike into “stopping it, what- ever it was.” In the last seventy years Colombia has had more than twenty-five recolutions that are comsidered big enough to record. Of small sideshows in the same line, such as local insurrections in separate provinces, no full account ever has been made. Tf there had been, the history of the country :vould read monotonous'y like a police blot- er. The Bureau of American Republics once essayed to publish a handbook on Colombia and the statisticians charged with the work nearly lost the'r minds trying to devise a polite way of giving a resume of its history that should be truthful and yet polite enough to hurt no one’s feelings. The republic itself has published such a handbook and by actual count a ‘“political disturbance” is recorded on the average 'n every five lines of a historical sketch u_h:erlng seven pages. The Americans whose coffee was taken Chiriqui are mostly from the Pacific 4st. The nucleus of the colony was med about seven years ago, when thirty vle from Stockton, Cal., cut a trall ugh the primeval forests and estab- ¢4 their plantations on the sides of the ilalns at an elevation of about 5,000 Among those whose success was o »Id Wwere the families of the Dedhams “« --l!"flB‘lOl’lhl, who settled there with “““ \‘\-\'el and children. For a time the m”';r w? hard, owing to the dificulty of Ditchs 4bor, and the women and children - "" U and helped. But the tract is a Offee Erowing territory and soon they inds of coffée trees flourishing. ‘rées do not bear until they are o m?;:,: ;’;d, nla:n’y orhlhe Amderlunl a wal or them to develop o4 most of them q1q not return to Colom- n n REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS UNDER bia until a yeax or two ago, when they found their trees bearing well. Talent of Expropriation. It was hardly to be expected that the thrifty Central Americans should scorn the gifts of Providence thus displayed for them any more than it was to be expected that they shculd demean themselves by clearing their land with their own lordly hands and raising their own coffee. The naticnal labor-savirg device of expropria- tion is far mcre convenlent. [t covers a multitude of valuables, from asphalt right to coffee. The persons who clamor aloud that they are the legit'mists, the only real things in the government, were very much disap- pointed about this particular expropriation. As soon as they heard that the revolution- ists had achieved it, the governor of Pan- ama, General Salazar, sent two gunboats to capture the revolutionists with the goods on them. He expected that they would at- tempt to ship the coffee in order to ralse money. The good man’s grief, when he found that the villains had hidden it away where he could not get it, is said to have been profound. He then appealed to the American consul general to send a warship. He wanted Philadelphia to go. But the consul general wouldn't send it, possibly not caring to play the game that way. However, Ranger finally was dispatched to the city of David, which is General Herrera's headquarters in the revolutionary bus'ness, to argue with that strenuous person about those bags of coffee. The city of David is away up a river. ROYAL PALMS NEAR CITY OF DAVID. It is a town that is noteworthy chiefly for its unusual decorations in the way of shot- holes and cannonball punctures. It has a stronghold where most of the fights are “pulled off,” apparently by mutual consent. This is the Quartel. The walls of the tower there have even more cannonbal's sticking in them than has the rest of the town. A really pretty fight was enjoyed there recently, during -the last attempt by the government forces to take the town. A government captain got as far as the tower, but unhappily his troops bad not cared to imperil their health by accompanying him. So he had to fight for "his life, which is rare in Central American revolutious, where the non-combatants usually are the only ones killed as far as both s'des can ar- range it. This captain, however, was a real fighter. He had a huge Colt's navy revolver, which is a weapon that disgusts Colombians, who prefer to battle with the machete. He managed to ensconce himself behind a wall By taking pains and paying strict attention to his work, he managed to shoot cr stab twelve men during his lone stand. The revolutionists themselves ad- mit it. But thirteen was his hoodoo. Ar he swung his machete at the head of the man with the unlucky number, a cannon ball wandered along and took his head off. Savage Chiriqul. Chiriqui has seen the bloodiest scenes in the present revolution. Non-combatants have been slain without mercy, in the city of David alone fifty persons having been TOWER WHERE MOST OF THE FIGHTS HAVE TAKEN PLACB. hacked to death because they did not de- clare for either party. The natives do not like “gun plays,” at least when the other person makes it. What they love passionately is to drive away at each other with machetes. Many e? them can fence wonderfully with these immensely heavy knives. But most of them are stronger in the art of hacking away at their opponents from a distance that is judged with fine perception of danger, so that nothing fatal shall oceur to mar the day's war. They do not ob- ject to death particularly, but their anxiety that it shall be confined to the other fellow makes them cautious. The lagoon of Chiriqui would make an excellent coaling station. The peninsula of Tobolo shuts it in on the east and sev- eral beautiful islands protect it to an ex- tent from the sea. Columbus discovered the lagoon in 1502. He found that the natives had abundance of gold and he re- turned to Spain with glowing reports of the prodigious wealth of the country in minerals and vegetation. And he did not exaggerate. Colombia i{s a country that is wonderful in natural riches. Coffee, cacao, sugar, tobacco, bananas, cotton, vanilla, yuecea, indigo, rice and scores of other foods grow almost wild, The for. ests contain nearly every valuable wood known, and many rare and strange and beautiful kinds that appear to promise vast commercial returns if they could be brought to market. The chains of mountains that cut the country, Yrom Chiriqul province south, offer all sorts of climates and solls and QUARTERS OF DAVID, WITH REVOLUTIONARY TROOPS IN FRONT. other conditions for every form of agri- culture from planting to ralsing cattle, ac- cording to location. But besides being cursed with perpetual revolution, the country is cursed with fever in the lowlands along the coast and in the deep valleys between the mountains. A white man must learn to eat quinine in doses that would be fatal in temperate zones. Living along a greater part of the coast is Impossible for any except Indians and certain acclimated classes of half- breeds and negroes. The sea coast towns are flithy and the heat is steady and kill- ing. In some parts of Colombla it rains for eix months in the year. In some of the valleys the fever-bearing vapors shroud the land day and night. In other parts life is delightful. In the higher altitudes on the mountain sides, one can often se- lect climate to suit one’s self, obtaining every range from sub-tropical to frigid as he ascends or descends. Land of Romance. Colombia is full of romance. A wonder- ful race once dwelled there, a race of wor- ehipers of the sun. They bullt cities and somewhere in the unknown recesses of the land they had great treasure houses that no man has been able to find since their day. Even in what may be called modern times there were such treasure houses that now are lost to man, but that surely will be found some day. Somewhere in South Dar- fen, on the track crossed by the grim Balboa, there once were mines known as the mines of Cana or Espiritu Santo, that produced ore almost pure. Those mines were 8o vastly rich that in the seventeenth century they were called ““Potosi” and be- came a synonym for inexhaustible wealth as the name “El Dorado” is now. When Spain held the Isthmus of Panama, Cana attracted all the adventurous spirits who were hungry for gold. Then began that bloody time of attacks and ralds by the great buccaneers. Again and again Panama was besleged by them. Agaln and again their cruel bands marched on the route over which Balboa had marched and sacked and slew without merecy. At last Spain, wisely designing to save the territory even if she had to give un the gold, decided to clese the mines. and if possible, destroy all knowledge of whers they were. So In 1685 the great treasure house of Cana was worked for the last time. Then its entrances were blown up with gunpowder. The roads leading to 1t were destroyed. The men who knew its secrets were sent to distant parts of ths world, The tropics at once began to weave thelr green mystery over the site of the werld’s desire. Royal palms grew and became great., Creepers and orchids and ferns cov- ered all. And the centuries passed, the buccaneers passed, a new world grew—hut no man has seen Cana, the Place of Gold, dince then. Pointed Paragraphs Chicago News: An office boy who is taken on trial often proves to be one. Some people are about as useful as a third wheel to a bicycle. Distance doesn’'t lend enchantment to one's view of a silver dollar. Every man may have his price, but it isn't every man who has his market. There's alwgys room at the top; people will not live in attics if they can help it. The husband who presents his wife with a pet dog is evidently tired of his job. Self-made men and home-made shirts may be useful, but they are seldom orna- mental. In England gentlemen often ride to hounds; in this country they frequently go to the dogs. If some people did nothing but mind their own business they would soon become rather narrow-minded.