The Savannah morning news., 1902-07-20

up unknown rivers and through I'M
known country, that would be a story
worth the telling.
FOR these men were penniless, or
nearly so. Some of them were rag
ged. They were poorly armed and
were glad enough to be equipped with
weapons at all. They had before them
nunoreds of miles of forest. through
many miles of which the way had TO
be tunneled painfully with ma
chetes, so rank was the tropical
foliage, luxuriant with uncount-
cd centuries of undisturbed growth.
FeVers steamed out of the wet
ground nights. Ever their way was sa-
luted by crashings of great trees, for
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 it's tribu-
tarles, 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.
The. Republic FIourishes.
And it was no mere pirate or filihus-
terfng republic. A rip-roaring time
SAsCS 4oAs tlACSS iICtl, cut from ali
the world, carrying in their own dar-
ing hands the law and its enforcement.
But with it all they tried to build en-
pire as empires are builded to-day,
partly with rife and sword, but mostly
with barter and ledger. Rubber began
TO pour out, carried down the broad
rivers to the coast and reaching the
ships. For a long while none of the
more or less easy-go-lucky govern
ments around them perceived what
was going on. So 1t happened that be-
fore year was ended American bus
mess men were buying rubber and
woods from these Kings of Ruritania
without knowing that the money that
they paid for it went to enrich as ro-
mantle band as ever cut it's way to
fortune.
Still 1t 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 the undoing.
But so it was. Had they been content
to sit in sloth and seize what money
they could by virtue of their dictator
ship they might have been left in prac-
t1cal peace for years. For revolutions
and proclaimed republics and dictator
ships spring up throughout South
America like mushrooms. But prosper
ity brought envy down upon Acre. Set
tiers began to pour in. Most of them
did not know what kind of a republic
this was, and less cared. One govern
ment is much like another there. It is
like the saying about rum, only turned
around, There are poor ones and poor
er ones, but there "ain't any good gov
ernments."
The intimation that somebody was
actually making money aroused all tbs
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 a 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 Pacific coast, go north
to the Isthmus of Panama, cross It.
take ship again and go south, and then
nnally make their way up the Amazon
country. That required much time.
Inc kings of Acre sat tight and has,
tened only in their amassing of honest
wealth. They knew that when the
troops arrived the game of empire
would be finished. ~
Catalogue of Revolutions.
What happened after those troops did
come-after months and more months
OF weary marching and swimming and
canoeing and climbing-reads dispirit-
1ngly and tediousIy like a catalogue
Some of the Kings of Acre .lit out {"
Inc ex-baseball players departure was
sudden. He had reasons. He had
more than 100000 banked safely in
civilized banks. Many of his comrades
DOUBTLESS are tramps to-day, as they
began. 1t is the way of Ruritanians.
Some of the Kings elected to stay
and hight. Several of them found II
fatal. Others went to prison. Still
others have kept it up ever since, and
they change from dictators and presi
dents to fugitives and back again so
often and so suddenly that it would be
quite impossible to trace their careers.
For instance, one dictator, the Ital-
ian Parravicini. fed before the Boliy-
ian troops. While they were chasing
him another body of Bolivian soIdiery
entered Puerto Acre and established
headquarters there. While they were
in the act of settling down for a rest
a Brazilian engineer, Gentil Norberto,
proclaimed new republic right under
their noses. He imprisoned the b.
livian officers and went on to spread
the glad news. While he was away the
two officers so worked on the mercu-
rial population with manifestoes "a
favorite Latin method of warfare) that
Norberto had to return and release
them. Later the Bolivians abandoned
Puerto Acre ION account of the cli-