The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1921-08-05
Island Republic Rejoices at the
Death of its Richest Mil
li0naire.
CRUEL POWER OF WEALTH
peasant Trod Down Millions as He
Piled up Riches on Misfortunes
OF Others-Lived and Died
a Brute.

Havana.-"El Pote' is dead and all
Cuba rejoices. The peasant who be-
came a millionaire many times oyer
n used his wealth to WELD a cruel
power dice as he had lived. haunted
ana mated, a victim Of his own power.
In 40 years he established a career
lurld with tragedy, dark with sordid
scheming, tremendous with both sue
cess and failure. A year ago reputed
tle richest man in Cuba, he came to
a miserable end at his own hands, and
Almost his last words We're that the
wealth which cost him 40 years of
uhremltting toll to accumulate did not
yleld him n hour of happiness.
Jose Lopez Rodrigues was known to
virtually every n in Cuba. He was
a strange, sinister figure. and even in
death he furnishes a remarkable ex-
ample of what can be accomplished
by the constant, ruthless application of
power to a single task. Ferve ell
f"te th pot boils) was his watch
WORD, his motto, the rule Of his sordid
life, and it was from this that he came
to be called Gel Pote," the name with
which millions became familiar. Fol
years he thrived, at the expense Of
others Their the fortunes Of war
turned against him. and, fearing the
loss of all his ill-gotten gains. he com
mitted suicide by hanging himself with
a twisted sheet.
Filthy Of Body.
Not more than five feet in height.
"El Pote" had the powerful, thickset
frame typical of the Gallego peasant,
He wore the oldest clothes he could
find and was foul Of mind and speech
and filthy Of body.
Jose Lopez Rodriguez was born i'm
Spain and emigrated to Cuba in his
fifteenth year, fleeing from the hard
conditions of the Gallego peasant life.
In Havana for a while he worked with
pick and shovel, hut as soon as he
could he abandoned such hard manual
labor to work for an old secondhand
book dealer, peddling the books from
house to honse. One morning his aged
employer was found dead in his bed
n young Lopez Rodrigues. who slept
on tie premises, was arrested on sus-
picion of murder. but after spending
some time IN prison he was released
FOR lack Of sufficient evidence to in
dict.
The widow of the murdered book
seller continued the business and
Lopez rodriguez. after his release
from prison returned to his old en-
ploymenf. tine morning the widow
was fouEd hanging in her room. but,
no evidence being found to confirm
a suspicion that there had been foul
play. a verdict Of suicide was returned.
BY the tinne he young employee had
saved up some money and he bought
the business.
Piles Dollar on Dollar.
Living upon almost nothing and
working tirciessly, he steadily in
creased his trade and piled one dollar
on another until with the passage of
the years his fortune grew to re-
spectacle dimensions.
When. after the wealth Of Cubans
had been drained by three years of
revolution and embargo, the American
fleet %blockaded Havana In 1898, Gel
Pote'-for by that time he had come
universally to be known by his sobri-
|quet-waS able to acquire for cash
large properties for a 1.-THE Of their
tvalue, and when the Cuban republic
was set UP he was a rich man among
men who had been ruined. The latter
were compelled to go to him for cash
which he alone was able to lend. And
so it came to pass that many of those