Los Angeles herald., 1906-09-07
PRESIDENT PALMA'S
AMERICAN CUSTOMS
Head Of Cuban Republic Lived
Eighteen Years on a Farm
In New York state
From the New York Evening Post.
From the New York EvenIne Post.


There was one man who did not re-
gard it extraordinary that Tomas
Estrada Palma, country schoolnaster
or New York state, should be trans
formed suddenly into president OF the
republic of Cuba. That man was Pal
ma himself In his own mind he had
been the legal possessor of the title
nearly thirty years before he was in
stalled May 20, 1902. Had not the
revolutiOnlsts formally elected him
their leader between skrnishes with
the Spanish tyrants In the Ten Years
War? To his peaceful neighbors at
central Valley New York, where he
conducted 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 captiv-
ity In a Spanish fortress
Il am president of the Cuban repub-
lic," he had said to his guards, when
they demanded his occupation" in the
| course of a census at the battemented
prison among the pyrenees In 1873.
His election, therefore, after the
Spanish American war, he looked upon
merely as restoration of his rights
With no special elation, though with
the modesty that has always chara er-
lied him, he leaped out of enforced OBJ
scurity into the Havana palace once
occupied by the gay-lived captains
general of Spain AS IL he had been
accustomed to the new position in all
the decades of retirement, he went
about the complex task of running a
government with as much apparent
confidence as he had shown when he
established a private academy to tide
over his Punishment.
Whafavor Aa 1A
Tomas Estrada Palma. there Is no lack
of self-possession in his makeup And
along with this quality he has skill at
organization and Industry. That he has
combined PERSONAL modesty and un-
failing polteness with his mental fit
ness for the office has been, no doubt,
O supplementary cause of his success
in avoiding troubles for so long.
Without Understanding his worth.
1t goes without saying that capable
leaders are none too numerous in
Cuba. Even a man of moderate tai
ents was bound to take an important
place in the councils of the new ma
tion 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 OBJ
liged to become at least a 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 stheir
cause so continuously and steadfasty,
or displayed the conservatism that has
been his distinguishing trait none has
met with such success or won such
popularity.
Now Seventy-one Years Old
President Palma was born in 1885 III
the province of Bayamo, where his
father was a rich landowner and cattle
raiser. The boy had all the advantages
money could give him. He studied un
der 81 private teacher at home, and
finally was sent to Spain to enter the
University Of Saville. There he was
graduated In the law. and it, was his
intention to become barrister 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 NUT
| telings that preceded the long fight
| for liberty. His father died. and it
devolved upon the young man to man
age the estate. The war began. The
Spaniards, besides confiscating his
lands, captured his mother and prac-
tiCally tortured her to death.
"They tortured her in an effort to
extort from her information she did
not possess," he said, in describing his
bereavement years afterward. land
then they left her half dead in the
woods, where, after wandering for
days. she was rescued too late to save
| her life"
Casting his lot with the revolution
lists. giving them what ready money
| he could raise, and fighting with them
! whenever the chance came, he quickly
L., i. III nl,A dny,
| uty, and finally became president of
| the provisional government This gov
| ernment was a migratory establish
! mont, moving it's headquarters as often
| as the enemy made it necessary; but
! it was recognized by the natives, none
| the less, ana Cuba Libre continued to
| look upon Palma as its chief with
| General MaXiIno Gomez as his sec
! retary of war.
| While on a march with few troops,
! Palma was captured by the Spanish
! CAPTAIN, Mozo Viejo. Having spent a
! few days in MORO castle Havana, he
was sent to Spain, where he spent ten
months in various prisons, his last
stop being in the fortress of F'igueras
in the foothills of the Pyrenees. 1t
was there that he again proclaimed
himself president of the republic. When
| they let him go free. in 1873. the ten
| years war was over and Spain had
frightened her grip on the island to-
such an extent that it was useless for
him to return. He sailed for New
| York.
First Visit to America
His first stay here was brief, and,
after finding that there was nothing
he could do with his scant knowledge
of the English language and his few
friends he went to Honduras, at the
invitation of Gomez who had fed
thither some months previously. Sym
pathy and aid were plentiful there.
Palma married the daughter of Pres-
dent Guardiola and became postmaster
general of the republic, remaining until
1888, and incidentally acquiring the
English speech that was to be so neces-
sary to him in years to come.
The second visit to America ended
successfully With his wife and Oldest
child, the. Cuban refugee settled in
Central Valley, ten miles over the hills
from Newburg, in a region celebrated
historically as the camping ground of
George Washington. and noted for its
pcturesqueness. There he founded
with David Cornell the Institute of
Estrada Palma for Cuban boys living
in the United States, Henceforth he