THE CREATOR OF A NEW MEXICO.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 217, 12 September 1911, Page 2

THE CREATOR OF A NEW MEXICO.

- • <-'TTA-T*AinT7,R SKETCH- 1 .035! ' BIADIIKO, .v ' THE 3£A2I OF TED HOUR.: J Not within the memory of living men has a genius .for revolt displayed itself with a more pirfect success than • "that of Fraaciseo Madcro, the head and front of the recent Mexican insurgency In. forming this, deliberate judgments the Paris "Matin' supports it with considerations reflecting infinite ■ credit upon the parsonality of the man'who, unaided, has established a belligerent power where once Diaz was " supreme, "who without resources has organised: an army, arid who, destitute of any real authority, has swayed' a region aa extensive -as a European kingdom with more than tho sovereignty of a European monarch. Whatever the results of the negotiations now in progress for the solution of-the crisis in Mexico, it seems to our foreign contemporary, .that tho creator of ho amazing a Situation must he endowed with all the capacity for which Diaz himself is famed. Yet Madero remains amobseure figure. Ho did not emerge into the general view until -Ms arrest last.,year for presuming to contest the presidency with tho maker of modern Mexico. Since that period., Francisco Madero has shown himself "a master of men." Forced time and again to fly. for his'life; ho.-has kept' his revolutionary government in being. He has directed the operations of four bodies of troops, each considerable in . itsell. Ho has issued decrees and enforced them. He has dictated trans to the one dominant personality, left in the Latin-American World. . . ' - - • -" ■ ' „

:V iMadero is descried as a man in the prime of life, tall for one of his race, .well boom in the Medcan sense, gently reared, ah idealist of a studious turn, , caring little, lor the tobalence of war, dilil and. undemonstrative, little given to

•tlio-ebullience of the latin -temperament. "Neither hid" 'career nor his character oi-- could suggest to his -worst foe the swashbuckling -typev"""He is. gentle in his manner, refined "in hia" appearance, modest ir, .rt_i i-3iis.- bearing and' quiet in his methods. : S<i> far all accounts, unless they emanate [from Memcari official (sources, suhstanti- . ' ally "agree. He has studied much in many schools and- travelled widely. ir Destiny . : rather' '-'thaai. any. adv-er.tarous propensity „_.of IxL-i. awn seemg to ,have elev.ited this W'C /poetical. .dreamer to -his perilous erni- . :r. neiice" Htf'is to the foreigner, at any Tate, the riddle and the surprise of the . hour,. ■ • 'Reserve is a marked characteristic of Madera " Pew men seam better equipped " by temperament for mingling freely with their fellow creatures without, anything - like self-revelation. Tlie real ambitions of Madcro remain to all who have come ' • '•■ in contact'. with . hiro during, the past ■ ' few yoajs .an inscrutable;mystery. His demeanour throughout' the trials of the varied ca'rtlpaigns' he' has kid: remained :"** tranquil, even cheerful. He endured every l;c. hardship, even t» deeping on- the bare earth'beneath the stars and faring as rudely, as. the humblest-of his troops. He .. . . is "apparently inured' to the fatigues and ■ ' privations of the soldier's lot. Victory, " according to..the -corespondent of the

*1; Suondon "Standard," who has studied bis : man well,- does not elate him, and he .••-"'■.•never seems cast down by defeat; His -"-"••''•tf Lst£ngni3hiag trait is cammess. A cer- . quiet, itnobbrraivo - mastery of ixrauner like that of a man knowing; how- to -eommund, imposes itself inoffen- \ r avely. yet surely upon the turbulent ele- - . ments he has to deal with. Madero never ■ -has to-contend against revolt among his f-' ' followers. Hedirects and is heeded. He - " orders and-is-obeyed nnquesiioningly. ..-Those critics-of MaJero. .who refer to him with contempt as a dreamer, seem • justified, to a--writer in .the Berlin "Kreuz-lZeitung," iby the ideality" of the man, Thero is in his ~-r ' fece'-iho -look' ol -a'.maii' rapt. and. inspired. "The great dark eyes are' of the sort vacancy for minutes .as if beholding what Bo-waking, mortal ::OMllit.:desa.ibe." t'-ypw living Mexicans have so perfect an "" ; acquaintance with their native- land as . Madero has managed to acquire. He . ~ "...has penetrated the"dense forests of the ...... hot. lands and the jaguar in its jungle. He has'prospected for the prei>.' ■' cious -medals in Oaxaca and (limbed the .. '.crater. of Popocatepetl. He belongs to a distinguished .and. .wealthy -family • in . .■which - for generations 'the tradition of .. .iQulturg has been carefully maintained. On<: of the haciendas of the MjuLeros is as Jmrge as-some counties. His relatives {belong to-the first families, the women . 'receiving their education in Krasoce and! the anen- in some cases going to Oxford

- and to -Camlbridge. His bearing and ibreeding suggest the -Mexican aristocrat. -'-•--Nevertheless, -Madera lias, studied the p<wses-o£-his ..native 'lattd' as po&sibly no "'.other Mexican, now alive haa dreamed •of-doing.: .ihow.'thejrrlive be-cause-he has shared their privations. He lias striven' to spread some knowledge of democracy among them, much to the

r, '. amusement of the old-fashioned riders of .. thoV .republic. He wishes especially to modify the native costume Into somof' thing more civilised, and to diffuse a .... habit of reading, I'or all hjs patriotism, j Madero has

IbeeiT -ii'.cui'ed of lacking the Mexican '•""lffiiit. * His foes insist that he defers. . .. too much to Ms American advisers, encouraging the introduction of "Yankee manners" among-, his women folk awl •never presenting himself at a hull fight. The charge of partiality to "gringoes" | as & serious one in many parts of Mexico, ■and would stem in the light of the "Tmpa.roia.Fs" comment to be well founded bo far as Madero's friendships are concerned. • He has, it appears, encouraged the migration of thousands of American (families into northern Mexico. He of-1 ■fended .the high-spirited Mexican youth "• on one occasion by. bidding a party of them tio emulate the industry of the despised grxngoes. Madcro lias same distrust of the gilded youth of his native land—sons of men vastly rich, who have some smattering of French culture and aid. sympathy with the democratic ideal. Gambling is a' vice rigorously suppressed wherever Madero's sway extends. Bull fights- he"is compelled to tolerate, bat his absence from them is not to the liking ; of- the peons. They complain, too, of his tendency to cut down their aupply • pf the national drink. Bred to the law a3 well as to the profession of arms, .Madetro remains by jtemperament what he would have become from choice, a man of letters. ."Madera rases an exceptionally pure Spanish, according to the French newspaper <M>ires- ' pendents. He has not permitted the .corruption of his- vocabulary iby merely local idioms. His speeches hare a distinctly ■ [rhetorical ring, due, no doubt,, to- his, . I »om«what Kterary inathwte. ' I'"," !TW domestic life ojj' Madero jr afilfeast terta the revolt, calicd him to the fiddL <ma oJi the highly patriarchal kind so j of his nafee Ijjkl. JI& . A gpw&i .M* awctfew, rr ■ w; i.-. - ;; ••'

and lis wife in one vast household swayed by the Bead of the clan in somewhat despotic fashion. When time had

•demonstrated the proclivities of the family, the wealth of the household was largely lost iby confiscations. The wife of the provisional prudent of the-revolntionary republic accom-: panied- himt-on'-ittanjt.oi.his. flights until the pursuit grew too hot. ■ It is in the capacity of a: teacher of his people that M&dero prefers to be judged. The Mexiciins have had no political education. They can get it only by practical experience of self-gov-ernment. No flight from a. federal foe is too precipitate to let Francisco Madcro forget his hook. In the starry evenings he talks freely with his staff of life, of man, of history and of politics. He .seems to justify hj Ms moods and hia manner the taunt that he is a dreamer until, our authority a.dds, one sees him at his work. Then he is all energy, all resolution.