Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1902-09-13
mn
A KINGDOM FOR MORGAN
He and Associates to Occupy Republic OF Acre

he happened 10 hear OF the wild dis
trict lying In that mountain-spllt and
river-cut triangle
AT that time Bolivia and Brazil had
both fallen into temporary state OF
restfulness over Acre. Latin republics
do things feverishly when they do them,
and when there was action IN Acre. or,
rather, on the outerm0st boundaries
Of It, there was good deal. Some.
times Bolivia would mass her troops
there, sometimes Brazil would police"
the district, and again at times Peru
would remember that she, too, claimed
part OF the country, and then there
would be fierce goings ON with trem-
end0us shoOtngs and shoutings ana,
happily little bloodshed as is the way
of fighting south of US. But when the
ex-baseball player happened 70 drop IN
during the course OF his looking
there was neutrality, Nobody appeared
to care who owned Acre, or II Il was
owned at all
Then the man who would be king
got his idea. Before long he sought
comrades and held conferences with
them, Bids Of feather were they ali
birds from Punta Arenas in the
southern jumping-off place from Lisbon
and Cadiz and London and Paris, And
every man jack of them was down
on his luck and ready 20 better II by
any venture desperate or otherwise,
Adventures OF their stamp rarely
have IN egift, and still more rarely the
inclination, to tell their deeds.
1t is a great pity If every one OF
those men who went into Acre could
tell the world what befel them in that
voyage up unknown rivers and through
unknown country, that would be a
story worth the telling.
For these men were penniliess, or
nearly so. Some OF them We're ragged.
They We're poorly armed and were
glad enough 70 be equipped with weap-
ons at all They had before them hun
dred5 of miles Of forest, through many
miles of which the way had 10 be tun-
neled painfully with machetes, so rank
was the tropical foliage, luXu.iant with
uncounted centuries of undisturbed
growth. Fevers steamed out Of the
wet ground nights, Even their way
was saluted by crashings OF great trees,
Tor IN those woods trees staDd till they
fall from decay. And where there are
millions OF trees, as through all the
country Of the Amazon and It's tribu
taiies there are hundreds of trees that
fall every day. Savages beset their
way Sickness, hunger wild beasts
threatened them.
But for all that, there came the news
at last that the republic Of Acre had
been proclaimed
And It was no mere pirate OF fli-
clustering republic. A rip-roaring time
they had, these men, cut Off from all
the world, carrying in their own dar.
Ing hanlS the law and its enforcement.
But with II all they tried TO build en-
plre as empires builded today, parity
with rifle and sword, but mostly with
barter and ledger Rubber began TO
pour ont. carried down the broad riv-
ers to the coast and reaching the ships
For long while none Of the more
or less easy go-lucy governments
around them perceived what was go-
Ing on Sc It happened that before a
year was ended American business men
were buying rubber and woods from
these kings Of Ruritania without know
ing that the money that they paid foi