Evening star., 1901-09-21
Venezuela's Despot President Has a
Bullet Proof Room.
His COUNTRY had ENOUGH OF him
Expecting Banishment He Has
Plenty of Money Hoarded.
GRIM HUMCR


At this moment Cipriano Castro, self
seated president of Venezuela, can say.
with more of truth than Louis XIV of
France said it: II am the state" Castro
is Venezuela. He has seen no part Of the
world outside Of his own country; inside it
he is absolute. The worlds attention has
been attracted to this South American re-
public, not by the possibility of clash of
arms between Venezuela and Colombia, not
by the so-called asphalt war, not by the
"On to Caracas cry of the revolutionists,
but by the man who is the cause of the
noise which his country is making-Castro.
The president, or, to use the only title to
which he yet has legal right. the dictator.
works as silently as servant in rubber
shoes. He moves in the darkness, stealth
lily, as one whose intent may be challenged
He is a bat among the people. His move
ments have been reported to the nations
and hence the world is watching him. Just
row he is preparing for the cry, Haiti his
preparations being made with view to at
last seeing the world beyond Venzuela.
For sooner or later he must follow one or
another of his predecessorS-Guzman Blan-
CO, who died wealthy in Paris; CreSpo, who
was shot in BATTLE Andrade, who is now
working for his living in Trinidad. 1t is
not likely that he will depart did his
immediate predecessor Andrade, who, hav-
ing escaped through the back door of the
palace as Castro and his soldiers crash
ed in at the front, fled to Barbados on
VeneZuela's only gunboat, and then, with
Infinite courtesy, sent the boat back to
Castro with note saying: Il return you
the navy; you may need 1t yourself" Cas-
tro's aspirations lean rather to the Blanco
method of exit and to a golden exile. Trait
ors In his own house tell Of frequent ship
ments Of gold sent abroad by the thrifty
president. So when the people pounce upon
him with a sight draft as it were, de-
manding that he pay the penalty of his
greed, he will not have to stop to look
for his pocket book; his wealth will have
gone before him and he can fly on the in
slant.
Castro rules not with tongue or pen or
sword, but with his thumb. AS he moves
that thumb, to the left, to the right, so is
the law; as Simon said: Thumbs up.
thumbs down." One day last year in the
Prado a man named Lopez fired a pistol
point blank in Castro's face BY miracle
the bullet went astray. When the would
be assassin was brought before Castro the
dictator jerked his thumb toward the door.
and Lopez was thrown into that Black
Hole of Caracas, the Rotunda Recently,
when the Judge Of the superior court in
spected the prison, none of the prison
thorities could remember having seen Lopez
after the first days Of his Incarceration.
Escaped said the governor of the prison,
but offered no proofs. The verdict of Car
acas when the judge told the tale was
Murdered and buried in the jail" Per-
haps Castro had jerked his thumb down.
ward.
The DictatOr's Appearance.
The dictator has the face of a tired man.
eyes Of the ferret, mouth Of cruelty. By
temperament he is nervous, irritable, i'm
patient his excitability finding expression
principally in his thumbs. OF government
he has shown he knows as much as a chief
nf ha " he
Of Mira Flores, which needs explanation.
In the heart of the capital city there is a
palace which has an extension built en-
tirely Of steel. The house Is called Mira
Flores, and was the residence of Crespo
when that fighting general was president.
The steel extension was not built with the
forethought Of fret Is earthquake-proof.
It has two rooms, like compartments in a
safe deposit vault; and In this strong box
Of place the dictator spends most Of his
time Also the Sonora Castro. They come
naturally by their fear of earthquakes.
When the town of Cucuta, years ago, was
shaken from the map as a crumb from a
tablecloth, Sonora Castro was the only
member Of her family to escape the devas-
tation. Castro himself stood on hill out
side the town and saw his abode crumble
like house of cards upon the heads of
those within. Again last October the great
Caracas earthquake, in the dead of night,
threw Castro from his bed. Then In his
fright he jumped through a window to a
paved court and broke his leg. The next
day he moved from the yellow house, the
white house Of Venezuela, to Mira Flores.
And there, In the wing where walls, floor
and ceiling are all of Steel the Castros eat
and sleep. Incidentally the man who pub
lished the verses in which the dictator was
chriStened Clown of Mira Flores one DR..
Pedro Migares, is at this moment anguish
ing in the Rotunda, having been confined
there since last April. when his poem first
appeared-all this without trial and by the
simple mandate Of Castro's thumb.
That the steel house is bull proof is an
ADDED point of merit, in the dictator's eyes,
That which Castro most fears is not earth
quake, not nature, but human kind. Were
he to camp on the summit of Vesuvius the
uncertainty of the prolongation Of his ca
reer could not be greater than 1t is as the
dictator of Venezuela. The country over
which he rules is volcano, and Caracas is
it's crater. And when comes the eruption
the first victim will be Castro. A revolu-
tionary army Is mobilizing in the field Co.
lombian revOlutionists are pouring over the
border to lend a hand to their Venezuelan
brothers. with the understanding that the
attention will be reciprocated when Castro
is overthrown and Colombia becomes the
seat Of war.
Revolutions to Order.
That Venezuela has a revolutionary party
is, of course, not remarkable. The con-
servative element of one administration In
variably becomes the revolutionary element