Arizona republican., 1904-02-11
A TROPICAL BIT OF HOLLAND.
Dutch Ways Followed in the Colony ot
 Curacoa.

C lr7coa is known to most Americans only as 6 n me of an after dinner c0r- | dial. but to the travelled man it has a different meaning. It brings to mind out from the mother country and | dumped down in the blue waters of
 the Caribbean. off the coast of Venc- zuela
 Nowhere else in the world is there a | colony so much like a miniature of it's mother country. When Englishmen. Americans, and other white men go to ! the tropics they adapt their mode of | living to the climate.
 Not so the Dutchman who goes to live in the West Indian colony of Cur acoa. When he lands at Willemstad he is delighted to find himself in a small replica of old Amsterdam.
 Blue tiles. yellow dormer wm1ows, old fashioned gables, tiny flatroofed shops and massive, gloomy warehouses are to be seen on every hand, just as they would be in a Dutch city. The people in the streets wear blue smocks, wooden shoes and other characters- tic garments of old Holland.
 They drink gin, though it is very bad for the in a tropical climate, and the smoke long Dutch pipes, while everybody else in the West Indies smoke cigars. They are slow and con- servative in their business affairs, con- ducting large commercial transactions according to the methods of the bur ghers of Leyden in the days of Will jam the Silent.
 They have no use for such new fang led things as the typewriter, the stem agrapher and the telephone. But they are scrupulously honest and upright, and so shrewd that the most up-to- date drummAr fails to get to the weather side of them.
 One of the industries of this tight little island is the matching of revolu- tions. It is a convenient jumping off place for the exiled sons of Colombia and Venezuela who yearn to liberate their respective countries.
 Nearly every Venezuela revolution during the past century has been matched either in Curacoa or in the neighboring British Island of Trini- dad. Those islands were the favorite resorts of Bolivar, Miranda, and other South American patriots before Col ombia and Venezuela broke the bar of Spain"
 To-day Willemstad is full of exiles who are out of favor with the ruling powers of Bogota, and with the sup porters of Andrade and Mates, who failed in their recent effort to over throw President Castro of Venezuela.
 When a Venezuelan statesman is ut of a job said w. L. Scruggs, late ly United States Minister to Colombia Nanaztralo 10 tn INiIlar,1 taI to mature his plans before deciding whether his country needs his per sonal services, so that the hotels and boarding houses of that place are us- ually more or less crowded with gen. erals out of commission and doctors out of patients, all anxious to serve their country.
 The shrewd Dutch merchants will often do a good stroke of business with these revolutionists. selling them arms ammunition, schooners, and boats and sometimes even going the length of arranging a little flibustering expedi- ton on their behalf. But the Dutch men always insist on payment in ad- vance.
 Some of them have made consider abel fortunes in the is unorthodoX line of business. The Dutch officials wink at it; they are more concerned about bringing money into the colony than in strictly enforcing the neutral ity laws.
 When Guzman Blanco ruled Vene- zuela he set the fashion of establish ing spies in Willemstad to watch the revolutionists and detect their plans. He had lived their himself as refugee and matched his plots, so he knew the ropes.
 Ever since then every Venezuelan dictator has followed the example. When Guzman Blanco fell from power he went back to Willemstad to live, and he soon found that he was dog ged by spies wherever he went.
 One day he turned around and seiz- ed a sneaking, hang dog fellow.
 Why you rascal" he exclaimed. T know your face. Where have I seen you before? Why do you follow me about everywhere?'
 Your Excellecy saw me at the Yel- low house in Curacoa three years ago, the man replied. You sent me here to watch Dr. Rojas Paul. When he be- came president in your place, Dr. Ro- jas Paul told me to stay here and watch you"
 President Castro at present main tains several spies in Willemstad to watch the movement of the Mates and Andrade parties. Andrade was pres ident of Venezuela, and wants to get back; Mates is the man who desires to be president, but still more keenly wishes for vengeance on Castro for