The Savannah morning news., 1902-08-10

/ lean politics, ana POSSIBLY was merely
straight Latin-American acquisitive-
ness, that led certain dark, bare-footed
/ Colombian revolutionists under Gen.
| Herrera to seize or to be accurate, to
steal. or to speak in Herrera's lam
| guage, appropriate. certain thousands
of bags of coffee belonging to the plan
tiers of Chiriqui. It was only an in
cident in the somewhat wearisome
game of revolution that has been drag
ging on for some time in the chaotic
affair that calls itself, between revolu-
tons, the Republic of Colombia
But it was an incident that promises
| to awaken a lively American interest
in the noisy game. For it happens that
most of the appropriated coffee belongs
| to American citizens; and it happens
| that Chiriqui is on the Isthmus of Pan
anna and that the United States has
| long had its eye on the spot as being
| just the thing for coaling station and
! base.
So it may be that, in unravelling the
| tangle, Chiriqui will become a place
with the American flag flying over it,
Central and South American repub-
! lies are only just beginning to awaken
| to the fact that it is not open season
for Americans whenever a Latin
American feels like shooting. A few
| years ago the arrival of an American
warship was so rare in the ports along
the Caribbean Sea that many of the
! night blooming governments did not
know what an American naval officer
looked like. But lately, and especially
in the last few months, the republics
and relationships whose coasts front
on the great tropical ocean have lot
been able to open their mouths real
wide before a rapid fire battery would
peer at them from the deck of a white
cruisr.
A DisOrderIy Republic.
The Republic of Colombia has given
the United States more trouble of late
than any of the other unquiet folk
that follow the pursuits of internecine
war instead of commerce. Twice it
has been necessary to land American
marines and blue jackets. The .last
time was only recently as ev-
erybody will remember The af-
| 1alr before that was in 1885, when
McCalla took Colon and then sent his
men across the isthmus in arnored
cars and scared the reYolutionists and
leglumists alike into stopping it.
whatever it was"
In the last seventy years Colombia
has had more than twenty-five reyo-
lutons that are considered big enough
to record. OF small side shows in the
same line such as local Instructions
IN separate provinces, no full account
ever has been made. If there had been
the history Of the country would read
monotonously ike police blotter.
The bureau of American Republics
once essayed to publish a hand book
on Colombia and the statisticians
charged with the work nearly lost
their minds trying to devise a polite
| way or giving resume of its history
that should be truthful and yet polite
| enough to hurt no ones feelings. The
| republic itself has published such a
handbook and by actual count a
political disturbance" is recorded on
the average in every five lines ofsa
historical sketch covering seven pages.
Inc Americans whose coffee was
taken in Chiriqui are mostly from the
Pacific coast. The nucleus of the col.
ony was formed about seven years ago
Wnen thirty people from Stockton.
oaillornla, cut a trail through the
primeval forests and established their
| plantations on the sides OF the noun.
talns at an elevation of about 5000
rect. Among those whose success was
marked were the families of the Ded
mans and Farnsworths. who settled
there with their wives and children
FOR time the work was hard. owing
TO the difficulty of hiring labor and the
women and children pitched in and
nelpeu. But the tract is fine coffee
| growing territory and soon thew ha5
thousands of coffee trees f1ourishing.
AS the trees do not bear until tbey
are -FOUR years old, many of the Amer
leans went home to wait for them n
| develop and most of them did not re-
turn to Colombia until a year or two
| ago, when they found their trees boar
! ing well.
The Talent of appropriation.
1t was hardly to be expected that
the thrifty Central Americans should
scorn the gifts of Providence thus dis
| played for them, any more tban -
| was to be expected that they shouJ6
| demean themselves by clearing tbair
land with their own lordly hands ana
raising their own coffee. The national
iapor saving device of expropria tiop
Is far more convenient 1t covers
multitude of valuables, from asnhalt
! right to coffee
The persons who clamor aloud that
they are the legitimists, the only real
| things in the government. were 1rey,,
much disappointed about this narticn,
lar appropriation. AS soon as they
heard that the revolutionists had
achleVed 1t. the governor of Panama
! Gen. Salazar, sent two gunboats 10
capture the revolutionists with the
| goods on them. He expected that
they would attempt to ship the coffee
in order to raise money. The good
mans grief, when he found that The
Williams had hidden it away where he
could not get it, is said to have been
| profound.
He then appealed to the American
consul general to send a warship. He
wanted the Philadelphia to go. But
the consul general wouldn't send If
possibly not caring to play the game
that way. However the Ranger finally
was dispatched to the city of David
which is Gen. Herrera's headquarters
In the revolutionary business, to argue
with that strenuous person about those
| bags of coffee.
The city of David is away up a river
IL is a town that is noteworthy chief
~ for its unusual decorations in the
way of shot-holes and cannon bah
punctures. 1t had a stronghold where