The Washington herald., 1908-04-05
By CLAUDE BLAKE.

BY CLAUDE BLAKE.
When I landed at Port-au-Prinee. on
the first of several visits to Haiti and
Santo Domingo I was met on the wharf
by most imposing parsonage in a cock
ed hat gold-laced coat, and scarlet
-breeches. lie was only a customs officer,
but he looked like the commander-in-
chief at least Alas. his coat was ragged
and torn beneath the sold lace, his enor-
nous black feet were innocent OF boots
and he was pathetically eager for tip
He was typical of the tinseled squalor
Of the Black Republic-that mockery Of
civilization, where African sayagery and
fetchism are veneered over by little
French polish and plenty Of geld lace
Hippoyte - Liberty ~ Progress-Edu-
cation, says a triumphal arch in Port
ap-Prince. Near by there is a Vaudoux
temple. in which have seen the white
cock sacrificed by a half-naked priestess
amid the yells of frienzied worshipers.
President Hippolyte himself was papa
loi. or priest of the Vaudoux cult. Not
a single president Of Haiti. save Geffrard.
has tried 10 break the power of Vaudoux,
with its eannibaI associations. And Geff-
rsrd was rewarded by the murder of his
daughter and his own exile.
Rulers Who Delight I'm Blood.
For generations past the Haitian presi-
dents have .waded through bloodshed 10
a throne and ruled by the sword Chris
tophe, who made himself emperor" and
created an aristOcracy OF negro dukes
BILE depravity. He murdered men not sim
gly. but literally by thousands Nissage-
Saget was fond of clearing the streets of
Port-au-PTince with grapeshot. President
Ulysses HeureauX. a negro dock laboFer
from Jamaica, who made himself ruler of
Santo Domingo. calmly told me AZ dinner
one evening in 1887 that he had shot his
own brother
He was plotting against me, he eX-
planned Il asked him to dinner and
gave him the best dishes. Then. after we
had finished the coffee and liquors. a
file of soldiers came IN 90 lead him of to
execution. He tried to draw a revolver.
bur l was too quick for him. and shot
him first"
ieureaux was bloOdthirsty tyrant. He
would go through the streets of Santo Do
ming0 City with a mob Of soldiers at his
heels and say, Shoot that womanr' or
"llill that man" and il was done en- the
spot one morning I counted fourteen
dead bodies in one Of the principal streets
after his progress. He was eventually as
sassinated by man named Ramon Ca
ceres, whose father he had murdered. Ca
ceres was afterward rewarded with the
vice presidency.
was in Haiti during the chaos Of rev.
olutions out of which the present Presi-
dent Nord Alexis. emerged into supreme
power He is an ignorant brutal senile
negro. with absolutely no qualification for
his position except a bulldog courage.
which has made him popular with the
army. On the day he proclaimed hinl-
self President he shot four political 0p-
ponents in cold blood in Port-au-Prince.
The End oe an Enemy.
Outside the barracks, on that same day.
] saw a luckless mulatto gasping out his
last breath on the sunbaked earth of the
parade ground. lie had been literally
beaten TO "a pulp with bamboo rods by
Alexis orders The soldiers said he was
a spy; bus I was told by others that he
had really suffered because the President
shad an old grudge against him. and was
now i'm a position 10 crafty IT,
recognized sanctuaries for the Haitian
politician who happens to be the under
dog in one of those sanguinaTy struggles
which are the ordinary incidents OF Hal
tian politics Usually no effort is made
10 obtain his surrender; his enemies Try
10 bribe the consular servants 20 poison
him instead.
One Of the consuls at POrt-au-Prince
told me that this enforced hospitality to
refugees is a most unpleasant addition to
the sufficient trials of residence in that
detestable, pes,ilential city. Imagine
having your house overrun by thirty OF
forty. negroes with the flthest habits and
the most Unsuitable craving for good
wines and cigars, he said. And. OF
course, YOU are bound to he civil to
them. for the refugee Of to-day may be
the President OF tomorrow
The sanctity Of the foreign legations
was tested most remarkably at the fall of
Simon sam who was President before
Alexis. He got 10 the French legation in
the nick Of time. The mob howled around
the house for his blood for days. believ-
Ing, rightly or wrongly. that he had loot
cd the treasury and had the money with
him. Yet they dared not profane the le-
CATION, and the French charge d'affalres
escorted him TO a French steamer in
peace.
How "Le Blanc" Is Hated.
II is impossible 10 exAggerate the dis
like, and even hatred, entertained for the
whites in Haiti; it is not nearly so mark
ed in Santo Domingo, where Foreign in
vestment has been, TO some extent. en-
couraged. Every good Haitian is always
ready TO A." cave arr a brick at le blanc.
In more than one Haitian town little
children have spat at me and called me
filthy names In their barbarous French
natOis, simply because my face was
.e. commandant at Jeremie, to
-sam I showed a safe-conduct from Pres
dent Alexis, calmly remarked:
80 ! cannot shoot YOU. white man I (
hoped ! could. I would have treated you
as a spy. We looked 10 Alexis 10 kill the !
whites. but he must be growing old and
weak-miuded.
Alexis and most of bis principal sup
porters we're hand-in-glove with the pa
palsi" and the "mamaloi' (priests and
priestesses Of the Vaudoux serpent wor-
ship when I was in Haiti. Alexis openly
attended meetings of the cult at PoTt-au-
Prince, swhere the white cock and the
white goat were sacrificed 10 the sound
OF the beating of the dreaded black goat /
skin drum. Gen. Anten0r Firmin, Alexis /
great rival. Is. on the other hand,
mulatto of good education and eOnsid- /
erable culture. lie was formerly the I
Haitian Ambassador in Paris, and made /
several notable contributions TO French /
literature Undoubtedly he would be
much better president than Alexis, but he /
is not nearly so popular among the 4
negroes He Is the champion OF the /
mulattoes. The bitter hatred between 4
negroes and mulattoes IS the real driving !
force behind the bewildering maze of /
revolutions and counter-revoiutions in /