THE DEAD EX-PRESIDENT.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXIX, Issue 58, 4 March 1913, Page 8

THE DEAD EX-PRESIDENT.

A SKffCH, > Npf ftx-Py?isident MaderOj who was " ,kil!«d Vheir ffeiii "the National- .. tataoe in Mexico's caprt&Pto the spenittttttuujr at toidiught. an interesting ekatacter sketch appeared in the 'Lyttwsoa. Times,! writtek when he was a aafpbive in the hands enemies. He was dear bed as a than m the prime oi life, tail for one of his race, weli-bom • in the Mexican sense, gently reared; ah idealist of a studious turn, carina litt.e for the turbulence oi war, cold and undemonstrative, little given to the ebullience of the Lat n temperament. "Neither hia career nor his character could suggest to his worst foe the swashbuckl n<( tvne." lie was gentle in his manner, refined in appearance, modest in his bearing, and qu.et in his methods. He studied much in many schools and travelled widely. "Destiny rather than any adventurous propensity of his own seemed to have elevated this dreamer to his ner.lous eminence." He was 18 months ago, to the-foreigner at any rate, the riddle and the surprise flf J&e hour. Reserve was a marked characteristic

of Madero. Few men seemed better •quipped by temperament for mingling freely with their fellow-creatures without anything like self-revelation. The reial ambitions of Madero remained to all irho came in contact with him during the past lew years an inscrutable mystery. His demeanor throughout the trials of the varied campaigns; he has led remained tranquil, even cheerful. He endured every hardship, even to sleeping on the bare earth beneath the «taia a.nd faring as rudely as the humblest of his troops. He was apparently inured to ths fatigues and privations oi the soldier's lot. Victory, according to the corespondent of the London 'Standard,' *vho studied his man well. d : d no* elate him, and he never seemed cast dowti by defeat. His distinguished trait, was calmness. A certain cool, quet, unobtrusive mastery of manner like that of a. man knowing how to command, imposed itself inoffensively yet surely upon the turbulent element? he has had to deal with. Madero never had to*, contend with revolt among his immediate followers. He directed and was heeded. He ordfered and was obeyed unquestioningly. Those critics of Madero who referred to him with contempt as. a dreamer seem justified, says a writer in the Berlin 'Kruez-Zeitung,' l>- the "poetical ideality" of the man. There was in his face the look of a man rapt and. inSpired. "The great dark eyes are the sort termed psychic. They fix themselves on vacancy for minutes as if beholding what no waking mortal could describe."

Few living Mexicans had so perfect an acquaintance with their native land as Madero managed to acquire. He •had penetrated the dense forests of the hot lands and stalked the jaguar in its jungle. He had prospected for tlx precious metals in Oaxaca and climbed the crater at Popocatepetl. He belonged to a distinguished and wealthy family in which for ~°nerat : oiu the tradition of culture has been carefully maintained. One of the haciendas of the Maderos is as large as some bounties. His relatives belong, to the first families, the women receiving ttiei? education in France and the men in some cases going to Oxford and Cambridge. His bearing and breeding suggested the Mexican aristocrat. Nevertheless Madero had studied the masse? of his native lafid as rmssibly no other Mexiqan now alive has dreamed of doing. He knew how they Ive because he had shared their Privations. H< had striven to spread some knowledge of democracy among them, much to the amusement of the old-fashioned rulers of the republic. He w shed specially t; modify the native eostuwH' iii'o something more civilised and to diffuse a habit of reading. Foi 1 all his patriotism, Madero wa.< accused of lacking the Mexican spirit. H's fo'-s insisted that lu< deterred to; much to bis American advisors, encouraging the introduction of "'Yankee manners" among his womenfolk and never presenting himself at the bullfight. The charge of partiality ol "gringoes" is a serious om> in; many partfi of Mexicn, and would seem in the light of the 'lmparcialV comment tc be well founded so far as Madero's friendships were concerned. He had. it appears,. encouraged the migration ol thousands of American families uitr Northern Mexico. He offended the hfehspirited Mexican youth on one occasion by bidding a party of them to emulate the industry 'of the despised gringoes. Madero had some distrust of the gilded youth of his native land—sons of irien vastlv rich, who have some smattering of French culture and no sympathy with the democratic ideal. Gambling was n rice rigorously suppressed wherever Madero's sway extended. Bull-fights lit was compelled to tolerate, but his absence from them was not to the liking of the peons. They complained, too. of his tendency to cut down their sup ply of the national drink. Bred to the law as. w-ell as to the profession of u' ins. Madero remained by temperam, -M what he would have become from choice, a man of letters. Madero used an exceptionally pure Spanish, according to the French newspaper correspondents. He had not permitted the corruption of his vocabulary by merely local idioms. His speeche? left a distinct rhetorical ring, due, no doubt, to his somewhat literary in Istifocts.

The domestic life of Madero, at ieasi until the revolt called him into tht field, was of the highly oatrarchal kind So characteristic of his native land.- He dwelt with his parents h ; s brothers and h's wife in one vast household, swayed hy the head of the clan in somewhat despotic fashion. When time had demonstrated the revolutionary proclivities of the family, the wealth of th: household was largely lost by confiscates. The wife of Madero accompanied him on man-- of his flights until the pursuit grew too hot. It was in the capacity of teacher of his people that Madero preferred to be judged. The Mexicans have had m political education. Thev can get it only by practical experience of selfgovernment./ No hight from a Fed era' roe was too precip : tate to let Frar.cfeco forget his btiok. In the starry evenings he talked freely with his staff of man. of history and of rtolitics. He seemed to justify bv his moods and his manner the taunt that he was a dreamer until one saw him at his work. Then Vie was all energy, all resolution.