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en Ne i n t ce O m n c O ETNEA aush en on rocs on t 00000 .1 N000 1 2 .EA NAE TYEA CA U EU IA 1 t hy U( HAPS it was Fate that thrust upon Bolivar the hard task of winning independence for the South American colomies of Spain. At any rate this task was not his first choice. He seems to have intended to settle down on his prince-- lg estates in Venezuela,,after some years of travel and study in urope, and to enjoy the quiet pleasures of, domesticity. It has been said that his life was filled with two grand pas-- sions. Omne was for a Spanish maiden, Senorita Teresa Toro y Alayazra, whom he married before he was 20 and carried away to Venezuela as the perfect realization of his dearest hopes. -- The other was the passion for achieving the lhberation of his native land, South America, from the harsh despotism of Spain ; but this second passion came to rule his life only after he had sustained a devastating grief, the death of his worshiped bride, only 10 months after he had won her. "If I had not been bereaved," he wrote long afterward, '"my life would have been different I loved her very much, andy at her death I took an cath never again to marry. i abandoned my home and gave myself up to my ambition. The death of my wife placed tne in the road of politics, and caused me to follow the chariot of Mars instead of the plough of Ceres." "The road of fiifics'" which he refers to here, was sadly in need of repairs. grievances which moved England's Amer-- ican colomes to revolt near the end®of the eighteenth century were slight indeed when compared to those which Spain had long inflicted on her South American subjects. -- Bo&u was aware; of these numerous injustices, but he was aware, thrwgl) having seen it with his own eyes, that in France the oppressed people had risen in successful reyolt Still nearer home. he had seen, in a journey through the United States which began at Boston, Massachusetts, and terminated at Charleston, South Carolina, how colonies in America could gain their independence. o -- Mount Vernon, he is said then and there"to have renewed his vow to attempt for his homeland something akin to the services of this great man, whom he %o0 much admired. 7 At his death Bolivar is said to have been wearing a medal which he v&d very dearly because it had come to him from the great Washington, through the hands of the Marquis de 1 789. (% ; FTER his return to Venezuela, Fate allowed Bolivar a bit *A more than 20 years in which to finish his job of shaking off the rule of Spain® over the northern part of South America, and during these years he hardly ceased to "follow the chariot of Mars."' His particular Marsian chanot was smashed now and then, whereupon he would withdraw from the fighting, and sometimes hastily from the contunent, too, till he could recruit new fhighting strength, and then he was at it again. Like his North American example, he was a good loser, practi-- On one occasion, for instance, he seemed to many of his con-- temporaries to be carrying on a desperate, but withal a success-- ful, struggle against the Almighty himself. He had recently shared in a revolt which had won independence for his beloved native land of Venezuela. The cause.of freedom was prosper-- ing, and the king of Spain was driven out. The superstitious people were a bit uneasy about it, nevertheless, for was not the king the annointed of the Lord? And would not the divine wrath presently stmike down the impious rebels? . It was at this critical moment that the capital city of Caracas and all the region round about was smitten by one of the most terrifying earthquakes known in the rather quakish history of that part of the world.' ' It was the day before Good Friday, in the year 1812. At seven minutes past four, when the solemn services of the church were beginning, the earth seemed to think it was'the sea, and began to take on a wave--like motion. . Crash followed crash, buildings falling, thunder roaring, ahd the thunder séemed to come, not from the sky, but from the bowels of the earth. -- Heaven was frantically urged to quiet the disturbance. . 'Such people as managed to escape the falling debris rushed out into the open country, screaming and praying and wondering what they had done to make: God so angry. Royalists and loyal priests hastened to explain that this was all on account of the godlqs rebels. In the city of Caracas alone, 12,000 people perished, and in all the revolted provinces 20,000. & IMON BOLIVAR was in the thick of this material and S moral comfusion. He seems never for an instant to have lost either his head or his heart. He was as busy as the whole Red Cross organization would have been if any such thing had existed in those days, and as defhant as ever of cally undiscourageable, and never so dangerous as when teat. ashington hi s NTR ENE TEA U TTR NNN (Copytight, 1989, NKA Magazsine--Printed in U, 8. Aa.) «ul L0EA en vee ie o I CE EU U T0 N « DNAE I n [Vlatters Delow Rio UGrande, : Here's the Lively Story ' Of South Americq's Libérator. Who Crowned a S}ban'ish Prince | With a 4 ennis Racquet, Stole His Colonies. Fought u3 . Earthqualzes. Loved the Ladies ' And Died in Dissrace n IS excellency waited, and when nightfall came the prepara-- H tions bern. but far enough back from the shore so that no possible sound of them should reach the unsuspecting Spanish navy. When the moonless, starless night had become sufficiently black for this deed of darkness, the cowboy t rode quiet-- ly down to the river bank, and in they plungfl. heading their swimming steeds toward the ships. Arriving with well--timed precision and surrounding each of the gunboats, they were scrambling up the sides of the vessels *"And you wish me to capture them?" interrupted the cow-- boy--general. e e _ s x *But how could: you do that?"" replied the other. "It is impossible.© You haven't so much as a rowboat, and how could you attack a fleet of ships?2" _ _ -- Among the rebel forces were 3000 of what they called llaneros, and we would call cowboys, recruited from the Hanos or plains of the Orinoco river ; a sort of Rough Riders outht, led by an ex--cowboy, General Paez; and these saved the situation in truly remlrhfile fashion. _ -- Bolivar told his troubles to Paez, somewhat as follows: '"General Paez," said he, "you see those gunboats in the river?" The general admitted that he did, and awaited orders. Werl General,"' continued Bolivar, gloomily, "as long as they are in the hands of the énemy, we can't cross." _ _--_"If your excellency mll wait till nightfall, I will show you,' replied the ex--cowpuncher. Probably the experiences of Bolivar offer the only recorded instance of a mvnrb.ttle in which cavalry played a decisive part. This was when Bolivar, during his interminable struggles to liberate his homeland, found it necessary to take his army across a certain river. This seemed to be impossible, however, because of the presence in this river of a small fleet of enemy gunboats, waiting to prevent any such crossing. -- This was, of course, by no means the only attempt to assassi-- nate the South American hero. These attempts continued al* most to the end of his life, but he proved to be a very hard man to kill. He slept little and lightly, and in the presence of dan-- ger his reactions were quick and effective. e ns P " * * uty O inte ath--bed, the killer crept FSH Sneeemiennintiorse stealthily toward it in the small hours of a sultry, summer night. He raised his arm and struck the swift and fatal blow, driving the point of his dagger clear through the sleeping man's heart. His scream of mortal agony aroused the household. Rushing'to his bedside, they found the blood-- soaked body of Bolivar's secretary, who had, by chance, or perhaps by the decree of fate, exchanged rooms with his master that night. -- -- -- This was too much for the private soldiers; they would fight Spaniards, yes, but earthquakes, no; so they deserted in large Rocks. _ Bolivar tried to defend the city with only 40 men. . Then some of these deserted. The cause of liberty was lost--for a while. -- Bolivar straightway began to get ready for the next time. despots and their superstitious alties He was no quitter. for the living who could be rescued. Terror and desperation were depicted on his countenance. HMe recognized me, and addressed to me the following impiots and extravagant words: 'If nature opposes herself, we will wrestle with her, and compel her to obey.'" Nature in this case, however, had several more trump cards up her sleeve. Possibly the rebels might have weathered the disasters she had inflicted an them so far, but a few days later she threw another earthquake at them, and then presently she exploded a volcano in their neighborhood. One of his enemies saw him in that chaos, and writes about the scene as follows: '"To that inexplicable noise, followed the silence of death. The groans of the dying arose from the church of San Jacinto. 1 surmounted the ruins of the church and entered the interior. In the highest spot I met Don Simon Bolivar. He was in his shirt--sleeves, engaged in the search s . * % + habits, and decided that the most favorable opportunity for the foul crime would come when the victim "'a_' ul&_p. _ sn c There came near to being no next time, however, for this dauntless rebel. _ His enemies realized what a boost it would be for their cause if he were suddenly sent to that long exile from which no human being ever returns, so they planned his assassination. J wmitted while he was in Jamai-- ca, whither he had fied for the moment with his secretary and a handful of undiscourageable fol-- lowers. The assassin studied his hat HE murder was to $% QoOover Lsgrace com-- e ETS UKE EUE T BE ETNE E3 CE EUE EU NN NN Nn t t o e e "ilmmnmmml!HHHI!NHlHHIIHIIHHIHHHlHHHHHHHIUll!fl!l!fi Hlllllllmfilfi7 sient'o OUnInA inbtha it ilhis t int ditcntrrintiydiintatch -- Aadudithe k2 .2+20 From that day to this, these same compatriots and their de-- scendants kave been trying to make amends for their cruel treat-- ment of Bolivar, dying, gy erecting everywhere, and in varied forms, a multitude of monuments to Bolivar, dead. Pelt?n that is why the name of é'ta'ii;'a'}.'isug::l; more highly venerated in South America today than is that of Washington on the continent farther north. I Mincini® ui < hammer schibiiint vetr wixtradPemtatrifiabiyt ~Ihabne 24 -- While waiting to receive the last rites of the church, he wrote, or rather dictated, his last words to his ungrateful compatriots. ""My wishes are for the happiness of the people," he said. "If my death should unite them, I will go to the tomb content--yes, to the tomb1 The people send me there, but I forgive them." There is no reason to question the sincerity of his patriot-- ism, nor to doubt that to him, more than to any other one man, is due 'the freeing of South America from Spanish rule. Y et, at the very end of his life, a wave of unpopularity and distrust overwhelmed him, and the very people whom he had served and ui"egLsfnt him into exile, to 'di;|in what seemed like disgrace. JYLWLIYAMR O fame, after all, must rest, not on his amuse-- B ments, but on his achievements, and on his lifelong devo-- l tion of all that he had and was to the,liberation of hit native land. "I disregarded rank and distinction,"" he once said, "because I aspired to a more honorable destiny--to shed my blood for the liberty of my country." A most revealing, though unedifying document it is,. yet it seems to have diminished little, if at all, the deep reverence and en'eem in which this great South American patriot is so widely 1 1J held There was published in Paris, in the year 1858, a book de-- voted exclusively to the scandalous adventures and amours of the South American Liberator. It has been widely read, and can be found in most large libraries in South America. It con-- sists largely of letters written by Bolivar's boon companions, telling of incidents which--occurred in the various parts of South America which he visited, and it contains also some of the letters which he wrote to his girl friends. If Washington had been guilty of half that which is rather freely admitted about Bolivar in this regard, we would refuse to own him as "the Father of his country," or perhaps have to blush at the double meaning that those words would convey. J more astonishing td us than those of his private life. When. at the death of his young bride, he vowed never to marry again, the vow seems to have referred to marriage only, and not at all to other relations with women. _' After making all due allowance for the spiteful stories cir-- culated by his enemies, and for the alarming frankness of Latin--American writers, as compared with the more discreet concealments of the Anglo--Saxon, it seems clear| that Bolivar's hectic career was liberally interspersed with amorous scandals quite foreign to the character, or at any rate to the habits, of his great North American prototype. About a year later, spurred on by the ferocious butcheries otdered by the Spanish Commander Boves, Bolivar seems to have turned savage, for the time being. On February 8, 1814, he ordered the patriot commanders at La Guaira and Caracas to shoot all the Spanish prisoners in their dungeons and hospitals Accordingly over 800 royalists were killed in cold blood, or rather in hot blood. Deeds fol-- lowed, on 'both sides, which South Americans and Spaniards would gladly forget, and which there is no.suffhcient reason to dwell on here. Bitter at the atrocities practiced against his supporters, he decreed death to all Spaniards who failed actively to aid the patriot cause. Regularity, however, was not Bolivar's long suit, either in war or in private life. He and his followers lived considerably nearet the equator than we do, and the warmth of the climate seems to make the blood a little hotter down there. His methods of dealing with neutrals and prisoners, for in-- stance--though it was in retaliation for like cruelties practiced by his Spanish adversaries--can hardly appear to us as other than ferocious. , Washington had no love for the treacherous Loyalists of our Revolution, but he never issued a proclamation condemning them wholesale to be shot on sight. Bolivar, however, did just about this. & '"Spamiards," said he, in his proclamation of 1813, "count of death, even though you are neutral, if you do not work actively for the liberty of Venezuela! Americans, count on life, even though you are culpable." before their defenders fully realized what was hap-- pening. On parting with his horse, each cowboy had privately instructed him to swim back to shore, ' thus making it somewhat important to the attack-- ing force that--they win possession of the fleet; though, even if the steeds had waited around, in taxi fashion, it would doubt-- less have been rather difficult for their defeated riders to dis-- embark from ship to saddle. But their riders were not defeated. They speedily forced the astonished sailors to yield, even though the ships' officers protested that the use of cavalry in naval battles was highly irregular and not sanctioned by the rules of civilized warfare. ul L L ENUE EUE EL enE 00 4E Ch oo e x1X on oi oo ve mm o e o t ie OLIVAR'S fame, after all, must rest HE. irregularities of Bolivar's military severity are hardly Bolivar as he looked in 1828. . . . life skeich of the fiery patriot /X¥ a 0 ». c pg i: From a | ¥] w@ A it