Omaha daily bee., 1908-08-02
ROMANTIC SIDE OF ASPHALT
Stuff With Which Streets Are Paved
Rich in History.
FORTUNES MADE AND UNMADE
Some Americans Enriched, Others Inn
pOverished--The Basis of an
international COmDIi-
cation.

Precious few people, walking on the
yielding surface Of asphalt %pavements in
midsummer, know that the material under
foot has a history as rich In romance
and wealth as the gold mines of the
west, surprising the latter in being the
cause of international complications. A
writer In the New York Times, relating
The Lurid and Romantic Melodrama Of
Asphalt" tells a moving story Of fabulous
wealth gained by some Americans and the
impoverishment of millionaires who were
caught in the mess in Venezuela. The
writer says. in part;
The omance of asphalt Is as wild a
melodrama as could be conceived. One
chapter tells how a penniless American
biscuit salesman obtained a grant as
large as the state of New York and in
Guiding some OF the richest land in the
world at that. In another chapter asphalt
paves the way for a South American
beauty to walk into Paris as the bearer
OF an ancient title and a queen of society.
Revolutions that cost 1900 lives have a
place In the melodrama, and the latest
chapter shows a country as large as Ger
many, France, Italy, the Netherlands
Belgium, Switzerland and ireland pos
sessed OF limitless resources. a mining
country, a forest country, a cattle coun-
try, an agricultural country-lyinE unde-
veloped because of the comphcatins OF
the same romance.
And in an ea-rthquake-proof house down
there In the tropics sits today a middle
aged. black-bearded man with a dash OF
Indian blood. backed by a population of
less than 3,OOO.OOO sLuls (even II all were
well disposed toward him) Rndl holding at
bay men with grievances from this coun-
try, England, France, Italy, Holland and
one or two South American states. II
certainly is a hornets nest down in Vene-
zuela.
CastrO's Responsibility.
Castro is the man who today has to stand
the responsibility of the whole thing, but
he did not begin 1t, Even II he were all
his most bitter enemies claim. no one man
could in nine years have twisted and knot
ted things as they are twisted and knotted
now in Venezuela. The romance began back
in President GuzmaE Blanco's day. Since
that time the complications have been so
many that 1t would seem as II another
Nibelung's Rims had been made OF asphalt
and cast into the world 10 bring trouble
to anyone who came near II.
It all started iD 1852. when an understood
man by the name OF Hamilton arrived In
Caracas to sell biscuits for an American
firm. He was no financier and history does
not even record that he was a particularly
good biscuit seller, but he knew an adven-
turf When he saw II and liked the taste OF
it. So. circumstances favoring, Hamilton
started an endless chain of queer events.
GuEman .Blanco was president OF the re-
public then. He was an industrious presi-
dent. too: nobody deTies that. The only
exception that can be taken to his method
OF work was that instead OF looking after
his country his energies were confined
wholly to getting hold Of large sums Of gold
and shipping them out OF the country for
his own private use In event Of a rainy day.
! BIanoo had a daughter. the very beautiful