HAYTIAN REVOLUTION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 294, 7 December 1908, Page 2

HAYTIAN REVOLUTION.

PILLAGING SHOPS. London, December 4. Foiled in their attempt to murder President Alexis, the rioters at Port-au-Prince pillaged shops and houses and fought among themselves. Four were killed. Ultimately General Poidevin and a party of soldiers and citizen* fired on the mob, killing twelve. Qrijer wai then restored. ; i HISTORY REPEATED. HOW PRESIDENT ALEXIS ROSE TO POWER.

If President Lord Alexia baa really been ejected by a coup 4'etat, hlitO'y will be merely recreating Itself. President Alexis is himself the product of several successful coups d'etat It ii ■ now six or seven years sineo he led-the rising that overthrew President Hyppolite. Hyppolite set out one day to punish Alexis's rebels, but he did not get far. On mounting his horse on one side he fell dead on the other. The " heart failure" that caused hii end was traced to the priests and prlestresus of the " vaudox" savage rites, with , whom lie was out of favour and who had poisoned him. , With the death of President Hyppolite, the day was virtually won for i Nord Alexis. Fighting went on In th'j ■ north and in the south, but in the t«gion of the capital all waß quiet. By . chance a general of Alexis's followers ! one Tiresals Simon Sam, happened to , come upon Port-au-Prince with tw« hundred and fifty men, found it unoccupied by any troops, and marched in. Forthwith he installed himself in the Presidency, and took over all munition of war and money in the Treasury. This done, he apparently became uneusj as to how his chief, the redoubtable Alexis, would receive the neH-s of his exploit. He sent a polite message to say that he had made himself head of a provisional Government, Mid' decla'ed that he would reform Alexias President of the North. He to<jk care to remind his ex-chief that he, Simon Sam, had possession of the State's firms and money. There was nothing for Alexis but to reflect on his subordlwte's villainy and wait. And iu due lime his waiting was rewarded, and lie became de facto, and later de jure, ruler oi Hayti. - ££<!■ It has been said of Hayti and her rulers " There is this element of political constancy iu the rapid tale of Haitian Presidents, that none of them are reformers. A man changes his opinions, they say, but not his principles, and reform is hated on principles In truth they are African negroes savages reverting to type in an environment Sluhed with slavery and slaughter." It is also related 'that when nn Ehglish iner-' chant landed nt Port-au-Prince a dozen years ago, the negro port doctor who boarded the ship at quarantine forthwith asked for his "usual." When hj« made clear what he wanted, and It was prepared for him, it was lutlf a tumbler of sifted sugar filled up with portor and stlired till melted, following him came n couple of Custom officials, attirod in coats smothered in gold lace, but for the rest a pair of dirty duek trousers and their bare black feet thrust into plaited straw slippers. Their " usual," for which they asked, we.*: two pairs soc)<s and a couple of handkerchiefs. From the State they received nothing but their gold-lace coats. They and their like are thrown out of State employment with wf successful revolution, and take service forthwith on the side of some new protender. The wealth of the island opej» this humble adventurer-in-waiting'

career to many. From the soO and climate they ean live with no regular, work to speak of, and in their apart) time bear weapons in the poiiticai struggle.

Incendiarism is the first symptom oS a revolution, according to an English merchant ou the spot who witnessed the ndvent of Alexis. Europeans are left respectfully alone by the nsgro political firebrand. To be a " ft passport ; but among their own negro selves victory Iras to be won through murder and loot. As soon as the out-

break began negro women trooped into the Euroopean stores, which were kept open, with' clocks, silver, crocked, money—and they asked for no receipts. Th« " blancs " wer# completely trusted, nnd had themselves to )itn a paper with (hi' owner's name—Venus Aphrodite, prolmbly—to the wares stored in their improvised safe deposits. White they were stili at this tlie negro revolutionaries poured down the street,! armed with clubs and Spanish knives, anrt drunk with rum and " vaudonx" religious exhortations. They have usually a horror of firearms, even in their army ; most of them tun, their head away when they fire. Split up i i groups, thoy proceeded to txte,nninate each other, earring their vendetta pway back to the hills, wnere lfc'nlwnys overawes the island politiij-C"*. 1