The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-03-12

were few and far between. In turn, before he was twenty, he was a farm hand a wood chopper. steamboat cook, and deck hand. .a sailor before the I mast on a Cape Cod fishing boat. bar pilot on the St. Johns river steamboat and finally in 1889 sheriff of DuVai l county He was appointed to that oface by Governor Fleming in that year and retained It through various elec- tions until 1900. Such In brief is the arduous life the Captain of the Three Friends" led---a life of hardships, but
 the severity of which prepared him for l the work he was to do and the ad- ventures he was to undertake.
 IN The Science of Humanity.
 William II. Taft in a recent address to. tho graduates and undergraduates l of Yale declared that the prime duty l of the college bred man, duty which l he has been prone to overlook, was to | 20 among, associate with and study l the sso-cafied common masses or the l people The education of the trained college man, he contended, was not complete until he had learned human- | Ity, until he had stood shoulder to I shoulder and understood the man who l had not been so fortunate. It is pretty thought and wise one-that l the true post graduate study of col | Iege trained man is the study of hu- | manity.
 In this study Napoleon B. Broward, | has the degree of M. A., and Pm. D. He has gone the full course and has | taken all of its honors By force of circumstances the proper study of man. kind was won and his studies were | of the arduous schoo of experiment. A pale faced underfed farmer lad, a | steamboat rousta1out. sailor before I the mast confident and conscientious sheriff, a fearless filibuster carrying hope and help to few half starved revolutionists fighting for liberty all of this only fitted him in force. in ability and in knowledge of human na- ture for his coming struggle for the 1 Florida Governorship, In every sort of politics the man who has sunk the plumb line deep into human is a dan gerous man to encounter
 ! The price and knowledge that the 1 life he has led has given Napoleon E. l Broward is no less apparent to those 1 that meet him than the evidences of the hardships of his early life. He has made himself and the job has been a good one, and thorough one. and in l accomplishing the task he had neither the time nor the opportunity to put on | the superficial polish that would have come of early wealth and college | training.
 The Cigar Factory Company. l To. this man fearless, cool and re- sourceful, sheriff of Duval County, the l Cubans being in America, cigar makers and all other expatriates turned to help | them, help the struggling and almost hopeless revolutionists who were wag- 1 ing a perennial war with the tyranni- cal but decaying power of ancient Spain l The expatriated Cubans had the money and the means. The ragged soldiers in the Cuban fields and swamps had neither the arms nor the ammuni- ton to make their fight for liberty. | The Americans -Cubans could buy the arms, but the question was how could | they be gotten to the men in the field. | How could they be carried over and | how could the expatriated Cubans who wanted to fight, be carried over, with | the power of the United States no less watchful to prevent breach of the neutrality laws, than the power of Spain was to prevent the landing of men and arms to fight her dominion in Cuba? More than thirty years ago the captain, crew and patriots aboard the | "Virginius" were captured on a filibus- | tering expeditions and stood with their backs against dead wall while a firing squad did its deadly work. A second expedition nine months later was overtaken by Spanish troops be- l initiated. It was dangerous work, this | fIibustering.
 In the month of FebEuary, in 1896, an | important conference was held in the l cigar factory of J. A. Huou, a Cuban | American. The conference was parti- 1 cipated in by two Cuban patriots and l their American friend, c. B. Barnard, on | the one hand, and by J. M. Bars. an attorney, MT. Huou and Napoleon B. l Haas Ofh A U I . | signed, and the signing of that contract made more history than the making of many an international treaty which l attracted the attention of the world. l Tho contract was simply that Captain l Broward and the two other owners of the Three Friends" should carry over | to Cuba a company of patriots under command of General Enrique Colass
 and as the same time tow over the steamer Stephel R.Mallarey, laden with arms and ammunitions.
 The Three Friends was then lying at the ways in Jacksonville. under the suspicion of the Washington govern
 ment and the spies of Spain. She was | simply a sea-going tug built for speed and able. as small and insignificant as
 she was. to hold her own with the i sWiftest revenue cutter Tn the service
 of the United States.
 It was generally known, when she
 was building, that her work was to
 be the dangerous and adventurous
 work of fiubustering. If nothing else
 would have given away her purpose
 the enthusiasm of the Cuban cigar
 makers would have done so. They found
 it out somehow. or they may have been
 helping tn tho scheme that made her
 possible. And they crowded the docks
 excited and jesticulating.
 Watched by Spies.
 l At any rate when she was finished both Madrid and Washington knew
 that she was there and knew the com
 ing purpose for which she had been | fashioned.
 Such was the situation when the con
 tract was signed in the cigar ware
 house. with Pinkertons and spies
 watching her by day and night. How
 she slipped out at night, with cargo of Cuban men and officers, how shC
 ran accidentally into a force of Span iards on the coast near Matanza'
 when her landing party attempted t(
 make the shore; how she escaped from the trap in which Spanish gur
 boat caught her remains 10 be tolC
 in another article,
 For the present it is sufficient tC
 Say that the Three Friends was buil and owned by Messrs. George A. De 1 Cottes. Malcolm Broward and m
 brother Sheriff N E. Broward Whef
 she was completed the privilege O ! frsy 1,a~ Ht InCtlOn anl