The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1906-10-10
THE PASSING OF PALMA.
Cuban Presidents Retirement Closss a
Long Career.

Palma of Cuba is reported to have
replied to friends who urged him to
withdraw his resignation, put aside
his personal pique and disappoint-
! ment and be guided solely by patriot
ism.
Whether spoken justly or unjustly,
it was the pathetic utterance Of a
tired, broken old man, who had seen
the hopes and aspirations Of nearly 35
years, and for comparatively brief
1 time realized, go down in a final
crash.
Palma did not consider it extra
ordinary that he, a country school
master Of New York State, should be
transformed suddenly into President
Of the Republic of Cuba.
In his own mind, he had been the
legal possessor of the high title nearly
thirty years before he was installed
on May 20, 1902. Had not the rev.
olutionists formally elected him their
| leader between skirmishes with
| the Spanish tyrants in the Ten Years
War? To his peaceful neighbors at
Central Valley, n. Y, where he con-
Quoted his school for eighteen years
Of the waiting period, he said little,
but the few who knew his history had
heard how he persisted in claiming
the Office even in the midst of his cap
tivity in a Spanish fortress.
.T am president of the Cuban Re-
public he had said to his guards,
when they demanded his "occupa-
ton in the course Of the census at
the battlemented prison among the
Pyrenees in 1878.
His election, therefore, after the
Spanish-American war is looked upon
merely as restoration Of his rights.
With no special elation, though with
the modesty that has always charac
terized him, he leaped out of enforced
obscurity into the Havana palace
once occupied by the gay-lived cap
tains-general of Spain. AS if he had
been accustomed to the new position
in all the decades Of retirement, he
went about the complex task of run
ming a government with as much ap-
parent confidence as he had shown
when ne had established a private
academy to tide over his banishment.
Whatever may be the weaknesses
of Tomas Estrada Palma there has
been no lack of self-possession in
his makeup. And along with his
quality he has shown skill at organi-
zation and industry. That he COM
bined personal modesty and unfailing
politeness with his mental fitness for
the Office was, no doubt, supplement
tary cause of his success in avoiding |
troubles for so long.
Without Understanding his worth,
it goes without saying that capable
leaders are none too numerous in Gu
ba. Even a man of moderate talents
was bound to take an important |
place in the councils of the new ma
ton at the time when Palma gained |
his foothold. AS he himself once re-
marked to an interviewer: There |
were so few strong men that any one |
who stepped to the front and assumed |
command of a group Of men was
obliged to become at least general
quickly" Yet the career Of the re-
public's president and his personality
are of unusual interest. Few, if any
of his countrymen have passed
through more varied adventures,
served their cause so continuously
and steadfastly or displayed the con-
servatism that has been his distin-
gushing trait; none has met with
such popularity.
President Palma was born in 1885
in the province of Bayamo, where his
father was rich landowner and cat
tle-raiser. The boy had all the ad-
vantages money could give him. He
studied under private teacher at
home and finally was sent 70 Spain to
enter the university at Seville. There
he was graduated in the law; and it
was his intention to become a barr:s-
ter in Cuba. That he was never to
achieve this ambition was due to the
spread Of the revolutionary fury. His
return to the island was followed by
the muttering that preceded the long
fight for liberty. His father died, and
it devolved upon the young man to
manage the estate. The war began.
The Spaniards, besides confscating
his lands, captured his mother and
practically tortured her to death.