Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-07-19
A Man Who Became King.

The KING OF Acre was Mexican. In the
City of Mexico he earned a precarious liv-
ing as a base ball player. Base ball was
not lucrative in itself, and rumor says that
he was not good ball tosser anyway. So
he looked around for something better.
1t was long look. 1t led him down the
isthmuS and finally into Bolivia. Provi-
dence only knows by what chance of for
tune he happened to hear of the wild dis
trict lying in that mountain-split and river
cut triangle.
At that time Bolivia and Brazil had both
fallen into a temporary state Of restful-
ness over Acre. Latin republics do things
feveriShly when they do them, and when
there was action in Acre or, rather, on the
outermoSt boundaries of 1t, there a
good deal Sometimes 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 tremendous shoot
ings and shoutings and, happily, little
bloodshed, as is the way of fighting south
of us.
But when the ex-base ball player hap
pened to drop in during the course of his
looking there was neutrality. Nobody APP
peared to care who owned Acre or If it
was owned at ALL
Then the man who would be king got his
idea
He pondered 1t for a brief period. Be
fore long he sought comrades and held
conferences with them Birds of feather
were they all-birds from Punta Arenas, in
the southern jumping-of place of the
world; birds from Alaska, birds from Lis
bon and Cadiz and London and Paris And
every man jack of them was down on his
luck and ready to better it by any VEN
ture desperate or otherwise.
Adventures of their stamp rarely have
the gift and still more rarely the lnclina-
ton to tell their deeds. 1t is a great pity.
For If ever one of those men who went
into Acre could tell the world what befell
them in that voyage up unknown rivers and
through unknown country, that would be
story worth the telling.
For these men were penniless or nearly
So Some of them were ragged. They were
poorIy armed and were glad enough to be
eouipped with weapons at all. They had
before them hundreds of miles OF forest,
through many miles of which the way mad
to be tunneled painfully with machetes, so
rank was the tropical foliage, luxurlant
with uncounted centuries of undisturbed
growth Fevers steamed out of the wet
ground night. Ever their way was salut-
ed by crashings of great trees, Tor IN those
woods trees stand till they fall from decay
And where there are millions of trees, as
through all the country of the Amazon and
its tributaries, there are hundreds OF trees
that fall every day.
Sayages beset their way. sickness, nun
ger wild beasts threatened them
But for all that there came the news at
last that the republic Of Acre had been
proclaimed.
The Republic Flourishes.
And it was no mere pirate or filibustering
republic rip-roaring time they mad,
these men, cut off from all the world, car
rying in their own daring hands the law
and its enforcement. But with it all they
tried to build empire as empires are build
ed today, partly, with rifle and sword, but
mostly with barter and ledger. Rubber be-
gan to pour out. carried down the proad
rivers to the coast and reaching the ships.
For a long while none of the more or less
easy-go-lucky governments around them
perceived what was going on. SO II nap
pened that before year was ended Amer
can business men were buying rubber and
woods from these kings Of Ruritania with
out knowing that the money that they paid
for it went to enrich as romantic band as
ever cut it's way to fortune.
Still it is sad commentary on the rough
path that is prepared In this world for the
righteous that the very fact that the Kings
Of Acre sought to increase their substance
by honest trade should have led to their I'M
doing. But so 1t was. Had they been con-
tent to sit in sloth and seize what money
they could by virtue of their dictatorship
they might have been left in practical peace
for years. For revolutions and proclaimed
republics and relationships spring up
throughout South America like mushrooms
But prosperity brought envy down upon
Acre. Settlers began to pour in. Most of
them did not know what kind Of republic
this was, and less cared. One government
is much like another there. 1t is like the
saying about rum. only turned around
There are poor ones and poorer ones but
there ''ain't any good governments"
The intimation that some body was actual
II making money aroused all the national
pride Of Bolivia, Brazil and Peru. Soldiers
began to move. The old boundary disputes
all came up with new light on them.
Now 1t Is not matter of almost a year
to move troops into that country from
many points of its confines, Troops from
Peru and Bolivia had to take ship at the