The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1907-03-02
(From the New York Eve

i ING Post. November 1.)
Seven years ago lonely gun
boat. the entire seaJtighting equip
ment Of the United States Cd, Vene-
zucla. steamed from Port-of-Spain
into the harbor of Caracas, Vcne-
aucla's capital city. The gunboat
was the vessel on which the de-
d, eed President, Andrade, had fled
iron his conquerer, Castro. only a
few days before. On board was this
message from Andrade to Castro t:
81 return you the navy; you
may need it for yourself. "
But Andrade was bad prophet.
Cipiiano Castro has not yet need
ed the "navy" to save hsmsclf.
Though menaccd a thousand times
by revoutionists and plottcrs, he
has never lost as grip on his self
confidence i'm the seven years OF
his usurped power.
Though born rude mountaineer
| (perhlps of mixed Blood, for It has
been said that he Is part Andean
Indian. and reared " cattle
smuggler; though favored at the
start with no education but what
he picked up along the forced
march TO power, and with no
wealth but what he took by d:nt
Of triakery, theft, or open violence
this man Castro has been an abso-
lutte dictator since the first day
Of his entrance into the capital,
defying popular prejudiceS, laws,
courts Of justice, secret enemies,
and even the most powerful foreign
nations.
Boasting as he went on his way
stepping into new tolls only To
wiiggle ont of them the next day
looking over the Drink of ruin as
III to discover whether he could
invent some new effrontery by
which to cxtricate himself, he has
succeeded in making his position
stronger year by year. pretending
ut times to grant Constitutional
rights to- his subjects, but in real
ity giving them nothing; defeating
each plotting opponent IN turn. bull
lying foreigners to the last limit
but cautious enough to stop just
in tire to avoid war with super
ior Power; in short, disregarding
all the rules OF law or decency for
which other men, even South
American amventmrers, have some
respect, and accomplishing, through
sheer courage and NERVE" and
Individual magnetism results little
short Of marvellous.
| Altogether, Castro is mystery.
His enemies say he is not a dlplo-
mat, but merely an audacious spit
fire; yet he outwits the diplomats
and overcomes the conservatives of
hts own and other lands. They
tell you he has bad Judgment, no
tact, no gentleness of feeling, no
conscience, even no honesty with
his friends;; yet he has been a
match for the mcst prodent OF his
tradllceis, peer of the most
tacttul, and he has managed to
hold together around him a coterie
Of advisers whether through friend
ship or fear, who obey him impli-
citly and apparently have no fault
to find with the rewards he has
given them for their years of SER
vice. But, after all, it is his army
that is TO be thanked especially
FOR the continuance of the despo-
tism, and the reason his soldiers
stick to him Is that he pays them,
which is more than any other Vene-
znelan President ever did.
There is a difference of opin-
ION as to the progenitois of Clip
riano Castro. To his biographers
and interv!Gwers he has not given
an ralthemtic account cf his paren-
tage. Some say his mother or his
father was an Indian. Others de-
e'@re that he is sprung from "A
recreant scion of Spanish nobility
runaway into the hill-comtry of
Venezuela. In any event, Cipriano
inst saw the light in the far-away
tnckwoods CT the province Of Les
Andes, and there, when he grew
to manhood, he tended cattle on the
his, near the Colombian borders.
de is now in the neighborhood of
Edty-five years-nobody seems to
know exactly when he was born.
One story has it that the cattle
were his fathers but again the IN
qu1rer hears that neither father
nor son owned an acre of land, in
which olse the herds must have be-
longed to somebody else. But,
anyway. Castro herded and smup-
gled. Being near to the Colom-
ban border, it Is reported he used
ta drlve the herd from one coun-
try to the other 50 as to avoid
the tax collectors of each country
when they came around semi-an-
nually. Thus it happened that one
day the governor Of the province
of Los Andes seized two or three
oxen IN lieu ct taxes.
| The seizure eventually caused
Castro to become President op