Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-08-19
STORMY SAN DOMINGO......


Santo Domingo and Haiti have long
been held, even by intelligent people, to
be two distinct islands, and until the
Spanish American war brought them into
prominence were as little known as Be
chuanaland. Yet it is probable that no.
where on the earth is there a more beau
tiful spot than that comprising these two
little republics. 1t is quite certain that
no people in the world lave had more
history crowded into the their lives than
the mixed races by courtesy denominated
Haitians and Santo Dominicans, for from
the moment the unfortunate Columbus
discovered the place their lot has been
one of UNMARRIED persecution. Yet the
people of the two nations are today per-
&. haps the happiest on the globe. No land
has greater real prosperity, for mendi-
cancy is unknown, and a good living may
be had almost for the asking.
STATE OF CONTINUAL WAR.
War has never ceased on the island
since the naughty Spaniard first set foot
there. The aborigines soon disappeared
under the sway, as they have from al
most every other place in which he has
power: but slaves imported by Yankee
traders from Africa took their place and
went on mixing the race. Much has been
written of the deeds of blood done on the
island: many real heroes has it produced
AS witness Touissant lOuverture, on
whose dastardly treatment from the
French Whittier wrote one of the best OF
his poems. But the character of the peo-
pie on the whole hav been feroclous, the
prevalence of extreme ignorance, the ell
mate and the treatment they have re-
ceived for centuries contributing to a SAN
culinary temperament. They are today
the ~jolliest, most easy-going people 10 De
found, yet the volcano merely slumbers'
and the revolution now brewing may be
as horrible in it's consumation as any yet
arisen. The last war Of prominence was
waged from 1868 to 1865, when the span
iards, who had been invited into power
by a traitor president, were expelled from
the island by the combined forces OF the
patriotic Santo Dominicans n the Hal
tian government. In this war the blacks,
creoles and even the native whites dld
such deeds as we are accustomed to as
cribe to darkest Africa alone.
REBELLION OF 1889.
The white population Of the island took
advantage of the action of the French
assembly of 1889 to declare themselves,
too, a free and independent people. The
soul-stirring struggle of the American
people had filled the Haitians and Santo
Dominicans alike with the spirit of EMU
lation and although, as in the case of thai
same glorious American revolution Itself,
the "an~ti-slavery' movement fell TAR
short so far as the blacks We're con-
still they dubbed themselves pa
triots, and expelling the despotic gov
ernor who a served under Louis XVI. |
set up a republic of their own. The con-
stituents of this at best provisional gov
rnment although they comprised all
the wealth and culture in the land, We're
still insignificant in numbers. The whites
were about as l to 20 to the total popula-
ton the mulatoes, who construed an APP
proach to a middle class, were about as
one to five. The remainder of the popu-
lation were full blooded negroes. And
these three races waged three several
wars, in each of which the usurping pow
er assumed the ed cockade and arrogated
to themselves the title patriots. The
whites, rebelling against a despotic king
abroad, declared themselves sole rulers
of the island, and that black
and mulattoes might remain in slavery.
Their sway was no sooner on a pain TO
stability than the mulattoes arose, declar-
ing themselves the equals of the whites,
WHOM they manifested might be per-
mitted to join them, and announcing that
the negro would still remain as newer of
wood and drawer of water to them both.
Whereupon, the lack. not to be left be-
hind in the race for independence, rose in
his might and administered to the COM
bined forces of the white and part white
such a drubbing that they fastened to
receive him as a full citizen of the re
public" and secretly congratulated them-
selves on the salvation of their skins ana
bones at any price. In the course OF
which conflicts, extending over a period
of several years, the island was deVas-
80 -,l tD t1,o nthnp n ND yNhlt
little religion and culture Spanish indol-
ence had b. chance instilled was cast to
the winds.
JEANNOT THE TERRIBLE.
Perhaps the most prominent character
of the earlier of these wars, certainly the
most powerful and influential in the
island until Toussaint L'Ouverture arose.
was a certain negro chieftan named
Jeannot. He had been a slave on a plan
tation back in the mountains, where the
insurrection broke out. and, being a man
of great and powerful frame, had soon
arisen to power among a mob whose only
conception of a general We're laid in
physical strength. He made his first hit
by arising one night and Staying his mas
ter and mistress, after performing on
their daughter before their eyes deeds at
which the white today still trembleS.
The ingenuity with which he performed
this first feat n the unbrid!ed saturna-
liza he made haste to proclaim to his kind
soon spread among the blacks of that
province, which was a mountainous one,
like wildfire. Jeannot called a meeting
the night after the murder in the man.
sion of his former Owners When the
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