The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-07-05

 OF vENEzUELA'S .
 INDEPENDENCE

Caracas of the gay stucco houses, the terraced roofs and the luxuriant plazas will take on an added color to- day, when Venezuelans celebrate their Independence Day. The star-span- gled red. yellow and blue banner of the United States of Venezuela will be as prevalent to-day in that repub- lie as was the Stars and Stripes in Uncle Sam's country yesterday, and, although the festive spirit of the Lat in expresses itself in ways quite unlike those of the Anglo Saxon, the patriot ic exuberance of the Venezuelan is no less sincere. Caracas boasts of being a center of literature and culture, and in proportion to population it probab- ly contains more poets and orators than any other city of the world, The glorious Fifth" is their annual oppor- tunity, and the voices of the bards re- citing their latest deathless lines, in the most impassioned Spanish. will be heard to-day in every plaza.
 Although only a few miles from the sea. Caracas is built on a mountain slope more than 5000 miles above the tide-level. and thus gains a picturesque background and a salubrious climate. The houses. with their stucco fronts. are richly decorated. often to the point of gaudiness. and the wealth of color gives to the sedate northerner the idea that Caracas is always in holiday garb. The Fifth of July's celebration centers about the cathedral, where rest the bones of many of venezuela's 8 heroes. including Simon Bolivar, the Liberator. fl
 Venezuela's independence was at tained only after a, long struggle and much bloodshed. The efforts in that direction began as early as 1797, and Espana and Gaul are the heroes of that futile revolution. Francisco Miran- da was the leader of the first import ant revolution. In 1910 the people of Caracas rose against the Spaniards. deposed the governor, and opened a Constitutional Congress. It was on the fifth of July 106 years ago that this body formally declared the indepen- dence of the United States Provinces of Venezuela. and that date has ever since been celebrated by the people.
 After brief period of freedom Venezuela was again restored to Span ish authority. The earthquake of 1912, which caused the death of 12.000 people in Caracas and almost destroy
 
 restoration of the royalist regime. Bol- ivar then revived the revolution and after long struggle, with varying success, defeated the royalists at Boy aca in 1919, and this ended the Span ish dominion in the northern part of South America, Venezuela was for some years 8 part of Bolivar's Greater Colombia but in 1880 it became a separate and independent nation.
 Since then the history of Venezuela has been written largely in revolution ary red. The downfall of that illus trious dictator, General Cipriana Cas- tro, in 1908 has been followed by a pe- riod of comparative quiet and prosper ity., General Juan Vicente Gomez has had to cope with several incipient rev. olutions, but all of them have fizzled out, and the masses of the people have been left free to pursue their occupa- tions in peace. Many considerable public Improvements have been initiat- ed in the last few years. The harbor at La Guira, the port of Caracas, is no longer the worst in the world. Scores of roads have been built from the in- terior, with consequent development of the natural resources of the repub- lie. The two and three-quarter mill lion of Venzuelans now live in the cit les near the .coast and herded in the mountain valleys, leaving the greater part of the countrys area uninhabited save by few settlers of Spanish and negro descent, and the Indians.