The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-03-12
BROWARD, GOVERNOR AND
 LEADER OF PUBLISHERS
Picturesque Personality of Florida's Executive. His Adventurous
 Career.
By WILL r. SIBERIAN.

| | Napoleon Bonaparte Broward. 1t is not the name as Galllc as It is in It's sig nificanee but the man. which makes 1 one think of D'Nrtagnan grown prop erously to Middle Age. In truth the | life of Napoleon Bonaparte Rroward, Governor of Florida by right of q strong. forceful personality, and a ro- mantle, useful career which appealed to his people, Is a story that Dumas should have written.
 Of good birth and blood. the war cost him his heritage, and his life was life of privations, ~pf adventure and of success. orphan. in log cabin, the head of a family of twelve, and deriving a thin and hungry existence from small farm, farm hand and wood chopper steamboat hand, com mon sailor. contractor, sheriff. an ad- venturer and filibust-- of world wide fame, a fighting. aggressive candidate for Governor against an enthroEed po- litical machine, he can today in the Executive office at Tallahassee. look with contentment over stormy ad- yenturous career, which won him not only the off1ce of Chief Executive, but a place in the esteem and confidence of his people.
 DArtagnan in 'Twen.y Years After" had little at hand but his sword, his honor. his friendships and the conz soling reflection of many q good deed well done. The world had been kind to him in his friendships, his adven- tures and his good deeds. There wasn't anything else
 But perhaps the Musket CT lacked the force and native intellect of his Twentieth Century prototype. The mod ern D,Artag gIfau, better equipped and as we'll fitted for his time, conquered a cold and repellant fortune and, wFested from her resisting hands the l. |. fsxr A If a q n ar of old he played his part in each ad- venture, gracefully and courageousiy but he had the strength and intellect to get the fruits or those adventures when they were oyer.
 The ssrhree Friends. E had the story of the Three Friends straight from his own lips. We were in two of the big leather covered chairs scattered among the palms in the marble corridor of the Bienville Ho- tel at Mobile. Governor Broward was on Alabama soil to further cherished project of his administration, the re- clamation of the vast territory of the Everglades from it's grass and water to profitable cultivation. He was there to address the Interstate Cane Grow CTS Convention.
 The Federal Government as far back as 1850 had given the State of Flor ida 20. 0O0 900 acres of land in the Ev- HT2laQeS. 10 nelp tuC buiAul3S CA ShS railroads and for one purpose or an- other some 12,000,000 acres of this land had been deeded 10 Florida rail- roads, when Napoleon B. Broward an- ,nounced himself as a candidate for Governor He adGpolitical acumen enough to see in this situation a splen- did campaign issue.~4To deplore the gift of the F 100000 acres, to secure the retention of the remaining S,000,OO0 acres was an issue. that appealed di- rectly to the people of the State. Yet he first Saw it, dug it up out of the records of the State, shaped 1t and put it fairly before the people of the State. Closer State regulation of freight | rates and a general primary law were other issues in the campaign and on beth of them his record was clean and straight. He took the three issues and carried them into every corner of Florida.
 An enthroned and powerful machine was up against him. It had been and still was in control of the political af- fairs of Florida. When Broward came out and unfolded his issues there was probably not a man in Florida who be- lieved that he had chance of being elected Governor. He had two oppon- ents, Congressman Robert w. Davis and Bennett II. Mays, both popular men and with a record of several years
 political service and public life,
 Yet Napoleon B. Broward, starting as the almost frivolous leader of po- litical forlorn hope took his new and
 untried issue about and out of sheer force and merit stirred the State to such a pitch of enthusiasm that the forlorn hope became an overwhelming victory.
 The strong Force. I began to appreciate the strongest
 force that brought this victory about, the physical and mental personality of
 the man. as he ran over with me In the hotel lobby the adventurous career of the Three Friends" of which he was builder. part owner and captain. The modern D'Artagnan, the Four teenth Century leader of soldiers CT fortunes is now arrived at his 18th | year He is stall, six feet, in fact,
 broad and strong. He is dark and
 strong jawed little gray Is sifted through his black hair. His eyes are
 dark and flashing. black moustache
 partially covers firm mouth and forms
 a crescent above a firm and rounded l chin.
 Tho picturesqueness of the ex-filibus- ! ter leader Is not to be hidden by a
 conventional frock coat. The whole personality is that of a man who lived | the unusual and the adventurous in his !
 part in the years of his manhood l He is Scotch and French and before | tho war his family living along the ] St Johns river Was wealthy and prom
 inent On the Broward farm at Cedar l Creek on the St, Johns river. the Fed 1 erals shelled each other and houses, l fences and farms were destroyed.
 When the family returned in 1867 at
 ter the fighting nothing remained of | inc DIace hut the land and it was oVer-
 grown with underbrush and saplngs. Napoleon. the oldest of the children,
 was only fifteen years old. \ one
 room cabin was built and this was the ! new family home.
 1 Before he was fifteen his mother and father were both dead and he and | his brother, two years younger, were ] in charge of the farm and tryng to 1 make a living out of it with indifferent 1 success He managed to snatch few
 months schooling from these adverse | circumstances but his school days