The Savannah morning news., 1903-12-30

much more protraeted search than it
is necessary to make here, a more
varied assortment of characters than
are embraced within the list of those
who had to do with bringing the Re-
public of Panama into existence.
panama is land of the most remark
able complexities in human nature, the
population being thoroughly monde
script; and while among the original
secessionists, their counsellors and ac-
tive aides pronounced types are COM
mon, the complex phases characters
tic of the general populace are dis
coverable in more or less certain meas
ures.
Foremost in the list of the indie
pendence conspirators stands DR..
Manuel Amador.. Because of his re-
cent stay in the United States, DR..
Amador's personality must have be-
come familiar to the newspaper-read-
ing public: but the Panama view of
him is not without current interest.
DR.. Amador is a practicing physician,
the leader of his profession on the
isthmus, and a man of decided opin-
ions and sterling character. His ac-
Quaintance among the Isthmians is
very large, and being regarded as a
man of exceptional learning, he is
looked up to and esteemed as a natural
born leader. All Panama references
his name, and so great is the popular
affection for him that while certain
individuals, chiefly found among what
may be designated as "the Panama
Railroad crowd" would like to see
Jose Augustin Arrange made presi-
dent of the new republic, that distinc-
ton will surely go to DR.. Amador.
Quiet and reserved in manner, he
lives unostentatiously on the second
and third floors of a building which
fronts the Cathedral Plaza. The first
floor of this building is occupied by
a firm of bankers, and while DR.. ANA
dor is man of ample means, his
disposition is such that he has never
endeaVored to isolate himself from his
fellow Panamanians by maintaining a
domicile no part of which is devoted
to commercial purposes.
In his political proclivities. DR..
Amador has always been a Liberal.
He is a Catholic communicate: but he
has ever held-an his views are of the
advanced type-that the church and the
state should be Independent of each
other. He has, therefore, always been
active in furthering the revolution
airy cause on the isthmus. his labOrS
to overthrow the conservative party
having been so open and so strenuous
that upon one occasion, not many years
ego, he was forced by the dictates of
representation to have himself pack
ed in a lard barrel and shipped across
the isthmus IN order to escape his
enemies. DR.. Amador had played the
revolutionary game so boldly and de-
family that the government, then in
the hands of the Conservatives, would
gladly have eXacted his life as a warn
ing to less conspicuous Isthmians.
Being warned of the designs against
him, and having no time to spare, the
venerable doctor did not hesitate to
accept the avenue of escape offered by
the lard barrel. 1t was empty; but
had never been cleaned. Into it
climbed the father of Panamanian in
dependence. 1t was headed UP. carted
TO the railroad station. loaded on
freight car and sent across the 18TH
mus to Colon, where DR.. Amador
found refuge among his Liberal friends.
The ruse worked most successfully.
The experience was not a pleasant one
to a man of DR.. Amador's years: but
the incident goes to show that the
man who fostered the scheme for an
independent nation on the isthmus mas
long labored most zealously in the
cause he was finally permitted to lead
to victory.
VIII Make n Good President.
The people of Panama know DR.:
Amador's record in this respect, ana
him a claim upon the regard OF the
Panamanians stronger than that held
by any other individual. 1t has never
been said of him that he is strong IN
initiative, or that he has any natural
aptitude for the handling OF any ad-
ministrative problems. Panama does
not, however, stop to weigh these
things. The people look upon Or.
Amador as a patriarch; they kno"
that he is an educated thinker; that
he is conservative and safe in his
views; that he is connected. by birth
or marriage with all of the Leading
families of the isthmus; that he risk
ed, as a man of considerable wealth.
probably more than did any other IN
dividual in forcing the revolution, ana
most insistently do they hold that his
motives were more unselfish and more
truly patriotic than were those or any
other member of the original band OF
secessionists. 1t is for these reasons,
and because they deem themselves in
debted to him for their independence
that the Panamanians propose 10
make him the first President OF the re-
public.
In that Office DR.. Amador, while by
no means a statesman, will almost
certainly serve the new nation well.
He can be most determined when oc-
cason requires determination; but he
is free from that arrogance, aVarlce
and bumptiousness that prove the I'M
doing of so many of those raised to be
chief magistrates of Latin American
republics. The surest guarantee that
he will make a good president Tor
Panama lies in the fact that he IS
ever and always willing TO accept ad-
vice. He is ready and eager TO 40
whatever promises improvement in the
conditions surrounding his people, put
he seldom trusts to his own judgment.
On the morning of Nov. 3,
when it was learned in Panama
that the Colombian gunboat Carriage
ma had landed 450 men at Colon, DR..
Amador did not hesitate. Every other
man of the company of original con-
spirators disappeared as mysteriously
and as completely as though the
earth had swallowed them up; nor
were some of them found until late in
the day. DR.. Amador sought advice
of one MANI. G. Prescott, assistant
SUPERINTENDENT of the Panama Rail-
road-and decided that the coup d'etat |