The Republican journal., 1902-09-18

perience, and SO well did he manage his
coa-black troops that he forced both
| Spain and the presidents to acknowl-
edge his government, and became one
OF the recognized sovereigns of the
world. The Haitien blacks are royal
lists, by instinct and PROFESSIONAL heart
/ as much today as ever, preferring the
| show and glitter of courts to the plain
simplicity of republicanism. They like
pomp and ceremony, gold lace and epau-
| lets, cooked hats and feathers, and if
! the opportunity were offered, would
again take to royalty as easily as a
| hen raised duck to water So they
maintained the butfoonery of Henri l.
as enthusiastically as they had that of
! DesSalines, and for nine years Christie
| phe had things pretty much all his own
way at his end of the island He es-
| tablished a royal court and an order of
| knighthood known as the 'knights of
! s. Henri" while dukes and counts and
other sable nobility became plentiful as
blackberries in the lanes of New Eng
land. That was only about eighty years
ago, and degenerate descendants of the
Counts of Lemonade and Dukes of
Mafmalade may still be met in the
nelghbOrhood of Cape IIaitien. They
are usually mounted on bony steeds, a
Ia Don QulXOte, clad III faded regimen
tails, with spurs ON naked feet and
Wooliy heads eclipsed under enormous
cooked hats. Henri | was d wonderful
man. in spite of his baIbarouS cruelty
ana savage instincts The ruined palace
Of sans Souci," beautiful even in de
cay, and the vast fortress of La Fariere
are existing proofs of his genius. The
fortress, GROWING the crest Of noun
tain. about four hours ride from the
point of the Cape, is work that would
command admiration anywhere, though
built with all the resources of modern
civilization at hand. Its massive walls
tower aloft more than hundred feet
surrounded by wide, deep moat, yet
spanned by decaying draw brldges. In
side are interminable galleries, one
above another, in which hundreds of
ancient cannon are still mounted-for
Christophe had made up his mind to
construct stronghold that could defy
the combined navies of the world. 1t
is today a second Gibraltar; but what
sacrifice of life it cost. Its walls were
literally cemented with human blood
Among many similar stories it is relat-
ed that one day the tyrant saw a hun
bred men tolling and sweating in the
burning sun, vainly trying to haul a
heavy cannon up the mountain side.
Seeing the king, the leader of the force
came and Frustrated himself to the
earth before him, begged for more men.
or mules, to perform the task. At this
Henri flew into a violent rage. Beckon-
ing his guard he commanded: Take
this fellow and every second man OF
that lazy gang and shoot them on the
spot 1t was done, and then Christie
phe ordered the remaining fifty men to
perform what the hundred had failed to
do. Naturally, the demorallzed force
could not accomplish the Herculean
task quick enough to suit him, and the
KING, NOW frenZied with rage; ordered
every alternate man of the fifty to be
Shot and the remaining twenty-five to
pull up the cannon. They did it some
how. under the guns Of the guard
though most of them fell dead at the
top. from exhaustion or busting blood
vessels. After his stronghold was com
pleted, ChriStophe moved into it with
all his treasure estimated at thirty mil
hon dollars, and detied the world to
come and take it. one day when
thunder storm was raging III the noun
tains a stray bolt struck the castle. He
responded to the challenge by ordering
his gunners to fire all the cannon III the
galleries, and as the mighty roar belch-
ed forth he shook his fist at the skies
anu DOdSltu, Tie hlllS, Gail
make bigger noise than God himself"
Some of those old guns, so long silent
in the disused galleries, would have
been sold years ago, except for the labor
of getting them back to the coast, for
the modern Haitiens consider it an i'm
possible task to slide down the noun
tain side what their fathers so labori-
ously brought up. Christophe's sub
jects, one and all, knelt before him as
slaves, not daring to look him in the
face Did he want carriage built, or
any article made, he sent for the arti-
ficer, who tremblingly Frustrated him
self at the foot of the throne ''How
long will it take you to make it?'' de-
manded the king. Perhaps the answer
was three months, your majesty"
VERY we'll If it is not here before
me- finished and perfect in every par
ticular in two weeks, you will be thrown
over the precipice.' And in such mat
ters Christophe never broke his word
Having been stricken with partial pa
ralysis, Henri l. shot himself with