Morris tribune., 1909-02-06
.CUBA'S SO[D|ERCH|EF
Characteristics of Jose Miguel
Gomez, Her New President.
SMALL MAN, BUT A FIGHTER.

SMALL MAN, BUT A FIGHTER.
Credited With Making More Spanish
Soldiers Into Cuban Lace Than Any
Other Warrior In the Bush-Honest
and Energetic.
This story begins away back in 1868,
when squad Of Spanish soldiers were
observed running rapidly through a
| village street in Cuba. Just in their
rear, emitting loud outcries and prod
ding valiantly at the rear guard with
a machete, was a short, pudgy Cuban
youth, saddle colored from months in
the bush. Later he returned, crest
fallen, to make his report to the gen.
| eral commanding the patriot army.
'sMy head is bowed in shame, senor
| general said he. 81 let two Of them
| get away"
And just for that the general COM
! manding kissed Jose Miguel Gomez on
| both cheeks and made him a captain
on the spot That was the first public
| appearance of the gentleman who was
recently inaugurated president of Gu
| ba He made other appearances Of a
| similar sort all the way through the
| ten years war By dint of strict ap-
plication to business and a remarkably
| keen eye between gun sights he won
his way to a major generalship at the
| end. Down in Cuba they say that b.
made more Spanish soldiers into Gu
ban lace than any other man who
fought in the bush. Wherever one
passes a bit of pockmarked WALL and
finds an ancient crone who can tell
something of the wallis tradition one
is apt to find that General Jose Miguel
Gomez and firing party and a dozen
or so Of the. soldiery of Spain figure in
the story. ;
This is regarded as excellent mill
tary tactics in bush fighting. If the
Spaniards caught the Cubans and
could conveniently pen them up in one
Of their neat little concentration pens
they did so. But If the transportation
facilities were bad they just shot
them out Of hand. And the roads
were extremely bad through9H s4ths
Pearl of. the Antilles at that period.
So with the Cubans. In moment, of
mfrth General Gomez is said tor have
once estimated that if Cuba could
have obtained "a fair. price for the
tanned hides. of the Spanish soldiers
she could haye well financed the war
and had enough left over to make
cockfghting profitable. ~.
No one should imagine, however,
that Gomez was bloodthirsty butch
err He merely followed the lines laid
down for him and fought for indie
pendence-and because he liked it. y I'm
Havana they think that he still lkes
to fight. They are prepared to wager
that, whatever else he may accom-
plish in his administration. he will
keep that island policed as 1t never
has been under Cuban rule. If neces-
sary short. pudgy. saddle colored
Cuban gentleman will take to the sad
die himself and hang revOlutfonfsts all
over the landscape. And his soldiers
will refer to him as el presidente.
In some respects he resembles the
lamented Castro Of Venezuela. His
father owned large cattle ranch. and
Jose Miguel owns the same ranch.
with others he has annexed In the in
tervals Of making war. And bis. idea
Of making war is to make war and to
keep on making war until the other
To hnS Ans 3Nxy
learned to read and write in the Col
lege Of San Salvador before he left
his home In Sancti Spirits. Santa
Clara province. to volunteer for the
ten years. war. He liked fighting so
well that although he came out with
looked the old homestead over and
ordered the barn painted before he
started in ON fresh war. He kicked
this one up all by himself almost.
They call it now the little war;" but it
was quite a lively little garden party
at that while it lasted. Then he went
home until the war which resulted in
American Intervention came.
Since then he has had comparatively
little to do. Of course there was that
occasion when he rode into a village
at the head Of body Of troops. under
President Palma's administration, and
announced that if Palma didn't hunt
the mournerS' bench in hurry he
was going to take the government
apart to see what made it tick. And
he defied the supreme court and about
every one else in sight. But through
all his fighting he had the people with
him. Palma had him imprisoned once
on a charge Of conspiracy, but Gomez
denied that he had conspired. He was
merely planning to upset the govern
ment, he said, so of course Palma or
dered him released. What else could
he do? In the intervals Of fighting
and politics Gomez takes an intelli
gent interest in the primeval instinct
which makes one chicken of the male
sex fight another ditto. A month or
so ago he was arrested at a cockfight