Second Edition. THE CREATOR OF A NEW MEXICO

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 25, 14 September 1911, Page 6

Second Edition. THE CREATOR OF A NEW MEXICO

,V CHARACTER SKETCH OF > '-MADERO. . ..H4* . - s . jiJ< THE ‘ MAN OF THE HOUR. Not within the memory of lining man has a genius for revolt displayed itself, with a more perfect success than that of Frandisdo -Madero, the head and front of, tlie.- recent Mexican iusurgence. In forming this deliberate judgment, the Paris “Matin” sup- 1 ports it with considerations reflecting infinite credit upon the personality of the man who, unaided, has' established a belligerent power where once Diaz was supreme, who without resources has organised an army, and who, destitute of any real authority, has swayed a region as exten- • sive as a European kingdom with more than the sovereignty, of a Euro- ■ pean 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 the creator of so amazing a . situation.-«;«xnusti'rber,’OpdoWed!i.,with all the capaeity'- l fdP : •IlfP ,0 5re^ a MAde'i t b ,:v femains ■ an obsCurk , . . He did not emerge into;-the general view until his ayrest Jast; year for presuming to contd^tythe - with the maker 1 of‘dtibddrn Mexico. Since that peri-. Madero has shown him-’ jeUi a. “master of men.” Forced time and; again to fly for his life, he has his revolutionary government in .being.,/ Me .libs directed the opera-)tionq-.pf- fpurbodies ; pL troops, each itself; \He; has issued decEfeies and'■enfpr.ced : .'therii..;-. : - He has dictated tdrms to . th'et'bney dominant personality left in the Latih-American world.

, Madero is .described, as \a man in the prime of life,' tall for one of his race; well-born in; the/Mexican sense, ( gently reared, an- idealist of a studious turn, ’ cafing’ little 3 -for' the, turbulance of war, cold and undemonstrative, little the Latin temperament. “Neither his career nor his character could sug-; gest to his worst foe the swash-buck-ling type.” , He is gentle du his manner, refined in his appearance, modest in h,is.bearing, and quiet in his methods. So far all accounts, un-

less they emanate from Mexican official sources, substantially agree. He has studied much in many schools and travelled widely, “destiny rather ■than -any adventurous propensity of his own seems to -irare elevated' this dreamer to his - perilous eminence.” He is to th'k Tprki^mjf,' at any rate, the riddle and the surprise of the hour. J ' ' •; Reserve is a marked characteristic of Madero. Few men seem better equipped, by temperament for mingling freely with their fellow-creatures without anything like self-revelation. The real ambitions of Madero remain to all who have come in contact with him during the past few. years an inscrutable mystery., His' deipeanour 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 stars and faring as rudely as the humblest of his troops. He is apparently inured to the fatigues and privations of the soldier’s loti Victory, according to the correspondent of the London Standard, who has studied his man well, does not elate him, and he never seems ■cast down by defeat. His distinguished trait is. calmness. A certain cool, quiet, unobtrusive mastery of manner like‘that, of a ; man knowing how to command,; "irapoges itself inoffensively yet surely upon the turbulent elements he .lifts,..to. deal with.’ Madero never has to cohtend against revolt among liis followers. He directs and is heeded. r He prdei’s and is obeyed unquestioningly.. l, . Those critics of Madero who refer to him with contempt as a dreamer, seem justified, to a writer in the Berlin “Kreuz-Zeitung,” by the “poetical ideality” of the map. There is in his face the look of a,'mam rapt and inspired. ,/■'‘‘The!:gl’Oat dark eyes are of the sort termed psychic. They fix themselves on vacancy for minutes as if beholding what no waking mortal could describe,”

Few living Mexicans have so per- ( feet an acquaintance with their nalivc .land as Madsro lias managed to acquire. He has penetrated tho dense forests of the hot lands and stalked the jaguar in its ‘jungle. He has prospected for the precious metals , in Oaxaca and climbed the crater atPopocatepetl. He belongs to a distinguished and wealthy family in which for generations tho tradition of culture has been carefully maintained. One of the haciendas of tho Maderos is as largo as some counties, ilis relatives belong to tke first.lain-; dies, tho women receiving their ediij. cation in Frd.ice and the men in some cases going .to Oxford and,,Ci}iq-; briclgp.,......His bearing and. bregdjng. suggest ■ tlic Mexican aristocra. Nevertheless Madero lias studied the masses of his native land as .possibly »|T other Mexican now alive, has dreaiutff’ of doing. He knows how they dive, because he has shared their privations, lie has striven to spread some knowledge of democracy among them, much to the amusement of the old-fashioned rulers of the, republic. He wishes specially to modify the native costume into something more civilised, and to diffuse a. habit of , reading. v For all bis patriotism, Madero has been accused of lacking the Mexican spirit. His foes insist that he defers too much to his American ad- - visors, encouraging the, introduction of “Yankee manners” among his women folk and never presenting j himself at a bull-fight. The charge of partiality to “gringoes” is a serioiiS ond in many' parts of Mexico, and ■would seem in the light, of the “Imparcial’s” comment to be well founded so far as Madero’s friendships,,sjre i Concerned. He has, it appears,;,encouraged the migration of thousands i of American families into Northern ■ Mexico. He offended the high-spir-; ited Mexican youth on one .occasion ! by bidding a- party of them ■ tQ f ,pnui-■ late the industry of the despised gringoes. Madero has some distrust of the gilded youth of bis native landsons of men vastly rich, who have some smattering of French culture and no sympathy with tho democratic ideal. Gambling is. a vice rigorously suppressed wherever Madero’s sway extends. Bull-fights he is compelled to tolerate, but his absence from’ them is not to tho liking of the peohs. 1 They complain, too,' of f ln's i tendency to cut down their supply of the national drink. Bred to the law as well as to the

profession of arms, Madero remains by temperament what he would have become from choice, a man of letters. Madero uses an exceptionally pure Spanish, according to j the French newspaper correspondents. Ho has not permitted the corruption of his vocabulary by merely local idioms. His speeches leave a distinctly rhetorical ring, due, no doubt, to his somewhat literary instincts. , ; The domestic life-pf Madero, at least-until the revolt’called 'the field, was of the highly patriarchal kirid so characteristic, of his native land. .He dwelt with his parents, his brothers, and his wife in one'- vast household swayed by the head of the clan’ in, somewhat despotic fashion. When time had demonstrated the revolutionary proclivities of the family, the wealth of the household was largely lost by confiscations. The wife of the provisional president of the revolutionary republicaccompanied him ion npany of his flights until the pursuit grmr too hot. . ’’ : j capacity of a teacher! of hip I people that Madero prefers tA be judged. The Mexicans'have had no political education. They can get it-.-ionly by practijal experience of self-government. No alight from a fedbrql foe, is too precipitate to let Francisco Madero foiget his book. In the starry evenings he talks' freely witlr.bis staff of life, of man,.:pf historyy and of politics. Ho seems to justify by his moods and his manner the taunt that he is a dreamer until, our authority adds, one sees him at his work. Then he is all energy, all resolutioil.