The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1909-01-29

for which he would often neglect mat
tiers of the highest Importance: child
ishly addicted to pomp and glory, de-
manding adulation after the style OF
Louis XIV. AS an example Of the
kind Of fattery which appeals to his
conceit.. The writer once, while on
Caribbean steamer. picked up a
piece of a Venezuelan newspaper
which had been used as wrapping
paper. A column biblically divided
into prose verses, every one of which
began ~ ALA esta Castro" caught
his eye. "What is that?" he asked
Venezuelan near him. The other
started to. translate. 1t was evident
ly the account of festival. 1t read,
sAnd there is Castro, in whom all
courage, all honor, all patriotism, all
glory is combined. And there is Cas-
tro, in whom all virtue, all generos-
ity and nberality is united. And
there is Castro" The Venezuelan
glanced down the column, and with a
smile said, "It's all the same, you
can fill in for yourself the rest of the
column"
In contrast to this peacock conceit
was the extraordinarily democratic
side of Castro's nature. He was al
ways easily accessible, and was ac-
customed when on the street to in
dulge in conversation with whomso-
ever he should meet, and would often
distribute pennies to the street ur-
chins.
Castro owed his strength to his alb
solute fearlessness. When one con-
siders the series of revolutions as
well as the foreign troubles, how
Hernandez, Matos, Rollando, Perra-
"a and Vidal went down before him,
and with what i'll success the four
great Powers attempted to discipline
him for being a mischievous boy, one
cannot but feel shade of adn1ira-
ton for the enfant terrible. But at
times he has commanded only the
worlds laughter, as he did when once
he resigned, "as an offer to his faith
erland." 1t was quite apparent that
he merely wished his fatherland to
see how indispensable he was. From
his three pleasure palaces just out
side of Caracas he made it as difficult
as possible for his successor, Vice
President Gomez, and, as was expect
ed, the fatherland had very soon to
acknowledge its dependence upon the
little man of mystery. Then he re-
turned to Office amid a popular dem
onstration that must have surpassed
Bolivar's second triumphal entry into
Caracas.
Where he received his education.
such as it is, has been the subject Of
varied conjecture. His knowledge of
the refnements of the Spanish LAM
guage needs little comment. Even
the peon is proud of his language and
makes an effort to speak it properly,
with fair results, considering his
scant civilization. Castro, moreover,
has served a silent term in Congress
at Caracas. 1t is said Of him that at
that ti1a he could not tolerate shoes,
probably never having worn anything
before but the sandal.
A visitor at one of Castro's villas
describes the great man as skipping
about like child He had just had
a row of different colored electric
lights put around the piazza and was
immensely proud of them. Another
visitor says that everything belong
ing to him is marked eel glorioso
Cipriano Castro" A personal friend
of his said of him once: "He may
be like a child, but he is brave man.
He is absolutely fearless"
While burdenlng the people with
excessive taxation, he has kept him
self popular by Roman methods, with
festivals, dances and bull fights, and
on more than one occasion gave ban
Quets free to all, from the highest to
the lowest, the remembrance of which
among the highways and hedges may
In future ages promote the diab1e-
otto to sainthood. But he did moth
ing to improve Venezuela, as Blanco
had done, beyond adjoining Caracas.
Still he was pleased to dub himself
"The Restorer" and to substitute his
own likeness on the postage stamps
for that Of the great liberator, Boz
livar.
When in 1899 he assumed the die
tatorship it was common supposition
that he would go the way of many
other Venezuelan dictators. In 1902,
the time of the Matos revolt, the ac-
customed end was expected as the
commonplace inevitable. That the
Venezuelan Blondin never lost his
precarious foothold was due to his
treatment of his army, which he was
SO radical as to pay. Moreover, he
surrounded himself with able adVis-