The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-03-04
CASTRO STILL
HOLDS HIS OWN
sfirinu Career of the Man of
Mystery, South Americas
Remarkable Dictator.
ARMY OF TWENTY-THREE
ANpRADE PROVED A POOR
PROPHET.

,-,u YORK. March 2.-Seven years ago
toneIv gunboat. the entire sea fighting
-,,nn,ent Of the United States Of Vene-
10 steamed from Port of Spain into
-. barbor Of Caracas, Venezuela's capt.
81 citv. The gunboat was the vessel on
- the deposed president, Andrade,
tod fled from his conqueror, Castro, only
fsw DAYS before. on board was this
,,essaee from Andrade TO Castro:
81 return you the navy; you may need
1; for yourself"
Rut Andrade was a bad prophet
,,,,-iano Castro has not yet needed the
..a.,,vr TO save himself. Though men
- thousand times by revOlutionists
al nIotters he has never lost his grip
a. his self-confidence in the seSen years
~ his usurped power.
"a Tbouqh born a rude mOuntaineer (per-
hans of mixed blood, for it has been said
thaf he is part Andean Indian). and
rasred A cattle smuggler; though IA
,,ored AZ the start with no education but
,rbot he picked up along the forced march
20 newer and with no wealth but what
~ ~ nv dint of trickery, theft or open
Iiolence this man Castro has been an
t-oi4te dictator since the first day of
SiS entrance into the capital, defyins
nnnular preiudices, laws, courts of jus
flee secret titAltNes anu NfNA NAAS 4isDoe
powerful foreign nations.
No Rules of Law or Decency.
Roasting as he went on his way, step
ning into new tolls only to wriggle out
II them the next day, looking over the
brink of ruin as if TO discover whether
he could invent some new effrOntery by
which TO extricate himself. he has sue
ceeded in making his position stronger
wear by year. pretending at times to grant
constitutional rights to his subjects, but
IN r,slitv giving them nothing; defeating
each Dl1tting opponent in turn; bullying
foreigners to the last limit, but cautious
enough to stop just in time 10 avoid war
with a superior power: IN short. dlsre-
garding all the rules of law or decency
for which other men, even South Ameri-
can adventures. have some respect, and
accomplishing through sheer courage and
nerve" and Individual magnetism results
little short of marvellous.
Altogether Castro is a mystery: His
enemies say he is not a diplomat, but
merely an audacious spitfire; yet he out
wits the diplomats and OvercOmes the
conservatives Of his own and other lands.
They tell you he has bad judgment, no
TACT no gentleness of feeling, no con-
science, even no honesty with his friends;
vet he has been a match for the most
prudent Of his traducers, a peer of the
most tactful. and he has managed to hold
together around him cOterie of adj
KfSeFS. MutIntE through ALltnQ5n1D
fear. who NObey him implicitly, and dp-
paTertly have no fault to find with the
rewards he has given them for their
years of service. But, after all, it is his
army that is to be thanked especially
for the continuance of the despOtism and
the reason his soldiers stick to him is
that he paws them, which is more than
any other Venezuelan president ever did
A Product of the Andes.
mi
the prOgenitOTs OF Cipriano Castro. To
his bi0graplers and interViewers he has
not given an authentic account of his
parentage. Some say his mother or his
father was an Indian. Others declare
thai he is sprung from a recreant scion
OF Spanish nobility, runaway into the
bill country Of Venezuela. In any event,
CipTianO first saw the light in the far
away backWoOuS of the province of Los
Andes, and there, when he grew to man
hood, he tended cattle on the hills. near
Tie Colombian borders He Is now in
the neighbOrhoOd of 70 years-nobedy
seems 10 know exactly when he was
born.
One story has it that the cattle were
his fathers. but again the inquirer hears
That neither father nor son owned an
acre of land. in which case the herds
must have belonged to somebody else
But, anyway. Castro herded and smug-
ed Beng near TO the Colombian bOr-
tcts y II ItpuIAtu- ne USED 10 drive the |
herd from one country to the other so as
e avoid the tax collectors of each coun-
~ when they came around semi-annu-
any Thus II happened that one day the |
governor of the province OF Los An |
les seized two or three oxen in lieu !
u taxes.
The seizure eventually caused Castro |
Q become president of Venezuela. for |
rs revolution followed a visit to Caracas !
Q enlist Andrade's assistance against the |
governor.
The Army of Twenty-Three.
=. When the governor OF, Los Andes took |
lls cattle, Castro straightway journeyed /
= caracas. He saw Andrade The pres |
zen. would not heed his complaint but /
loeu with the governor. Castro left the /
,aidce, very wroth. Report has it that /
4e went into the public square. collected 1
sHall crowd. and said: 1.-THE next time
!. oonle TO Caracas, it will be at the head 1
= an army The audience, if this ever /
,:anpeheq at all, naturally laughed at /
nm, I'M Ihen he returned to the noun /
10 the governor he sent word that /
Iouole would be forthcoming if the oxen /
sere not returned at once. The governor |
castro summoned his fellow mutineers,