Los Angeles herald., 1906-09-07
PRESIDENT PALMRS
AMERICAN CUSTOMS
Head Of Cuban Republic Lived
Eighteen Years on 4 Farm
In New York stats
From the New York Evening Post

Estrada Palma, country schoolma ster
| OF 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
revolutionists formally elected him
their leader between skrfnishes 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 cnptiv-
ity i'm Spanish fortress.
II am president of the Cuban repub-
lic," he had said to his guards, when
they demanded his Occupation" i'm the
course of census at the battlemented
prison among the pyrenees in 1878.
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 character
lied him, he leaped out of enforced OBJ
scurity into the Havana palace once
occupied by the Eay-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 us he had shown when he
established a private academy to tide
over his banishment
Whatever may be the weakness of
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 politeness with his mental fit
ness for the office has been, no doubt
q 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 modera tie 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 q group of men was OBJ
liged to become at least a general
quickly" Yet the career of the re-
publics president and his personality
are of unusual interest. Few, if any, of
his countrymen have passed through
more varied adventures, served gtheir
cause so continuously and steadfastly,
or displayed the conservatism that has
been his distinguishing trait; none has
met with such success or won such
popularity.
New Seventy-one Years Old
President Palma was born in 1885 III
the province of Bayamo, where his
father was rich landowner and cattle
raiser. The boy had all the advantages
money could give him. He studied un
der a 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 balrister III
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 confscating 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, "and
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
rose to leadership. was chosen a dep
uty, and finally became president of
the provisional government. This gov
ernment was a migratory establish
INcnt moving it's headquarters as often
as the enemy made it necessary; but
ii was recognized by the natives, none
the less. ana Cuba Libre continued to
look upon Palma as its chief, with
General Maxino 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 Figueras,
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 1878. the ten
years war was over and Spain had
tightened her grip on the island to
such an extent that it was useless for
MIN 10 return. f1e Sdlleu IOf 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 fled
thither some months previously. Sym
| pathy and aid were plentiful there.
Palma married the daughter of Presi-
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
| picturesqueness. There he founded
with David Cornell the Institute of
Estrada Palma for Cuban boys living
| in the United States. Henceforth he
was known as "Schoolmaster Palma"
For eighteen years, with the excep-
tion of the period of the Junta, he
lived his quiet life there. growing in
the affections of his neghbors, and do