Image provided by: Yamhill County Historical Society; McMinnville, OR
About The Yamhill County reporter. (McMinnville, Or.) 1886-1904 | View Entire Issue (April 15, 1898)
HE story of Cuba is a tragedy, a tragedy so black that the pages of history, not ex cepting those up on which is writ ten the diabolical doings of the Spanish Inquisi tion, contain no counterpart. It is a nar rative which had its beginning In the dis covery of America; it was rooted in Span ish tyranny, transplanted into centuries of treachery and oppression, reared in in- ternicine strife, ami matured in this re volting war and its attendant horrors, which have wrested from Cuba the proud title, “Denrl of the Antilles,” and earned for her the name of "Isle of Blood.” The revolution was organized by Jose Marti, a Cuban exile in this country nnd a man of genius and courage. He organ- lzed here what is called tlie Cuban Revo- lutionary 1‘arty, an association of clubs of Cuban political exiles, for the purpose of raising money to free their country. Valcrtano Weyler y NIeoTan to succeed Martinez Campos. The question may tie asked why the pat riots, after so many victories, did not in vest the city of Havana and end there with the Spanish dominion. The answer is very cigar. After the bnttle of Coliseo Gen. Gomez reviewed his troops and found that each soldier had only three cartridges. The Cubans in the United States were making vain efforts to send a big expedition to the patriots. But if the Spanish army was defeated in the fields of Cuba, Spanish diplomacy was triumphant at Washington. At Guira de Melena on Jan. 4,1890, the patriots had to fight with their machetes to enter the province of Havana. For such a state of affairs Gen. Gomez considered his best plan to be to organize armies Ln all the pr< fences invad ed, so far as his resources permitted him to do, and try to raise the war in Dinar Canovas, then In power, resolved tc fight the revolution with the first of the Spanish generals and with all the resources of the nation. Gen. Calleja was recalled ami Gen. Martinez Campos wus sent to Cuba with 25,000 soldiers. Martinez Campos landed In Guantano- ma, Santiago de Cuba, on April It), 1895. His first impression was pessimistic and the long chain of defeats inflicted upon his command until December of the same year proved how right he was in believing from the first day of his arrival that this war was to be more important than the previous one of 1808. He wasted a great deal of time in useless trips by sea to Ha vana and again to the East. Maceo was preparing in the meantime his men and Gomez was formulating the plan of the great invasion of the West In order to carry the revolution to all the provinces and establish in each one a regular body of the Cuban army. July 13, 1895, is the memorable date of the battle of I’eralejo. The war had been until tl»?n confined almost to tlie province of Santiago de Cuba, with some small hands of patriots roaming through Duerto Drincipe and keeping up only an unimpor tant guerrilla warfare. But Maceo had already obtained some notable triumphs, and Martinez Campos decided to carry re- enforcements to tlie Spanish towns in the interior which were in great danger of at tack by the insurgents. While Martinez Campos was on the way to Baynmo, Ma ceo offered him battle near I’eralejo. relation to Th» engagement \tas a pitched battle, C uba ’ s geographical THE UNITED STATES. and the Cubans, not numbering 6,000, car ried the day. Gen. Stantocildes fell dead del Rio province. At Garro Jan. 8 the near Gen. Martinez Campos. Tlie Span patriots routed a Spanish column and en iards lost all their ammunition and their tered I’inar del Rio. Gen. Gomez then horses. Completely routed, a body of withdrew to the east while Maceo proceed them, availing themselves of the darkness ed to the west. On Jan. 17 he obtained of the evening, fled to Bayaino, carrying another victory at the very gates of Dinar Martinez Camisis on a stretcher borne by del Rio city and on Jan. 22 he took the four soldiers. lie was exhausted by fa town of Banes at the western extremity tigue nnd filled with despair. More than of the island, three months after his de 300 Spanish soldiers were left dead on the parture from Baragua in Santiago de field. With tlie splendid booty secured Cuba. On Feb. 12 Maceo returned to Ha by him, Maceo completed the arming of vana province. Gen. Weyler publicly de his patriots. clared Dinar del Rio pacified, and the gal From April to Octolier Gomez success- lant Cuban leader returned to that prov fully carried the war through Duerto ince on March 15. Drincipe province and laid his plans for Before this Weyler had already shown the invasion of the west. On Oct. 22 Ma his sanguinary spirit and plans of mur ceo, having received orders from Gomez, der. Drisoners of war and innocent per who was appointed commander-in-chief of sons unjustly charged with aiding the re the army, in September, by the assembly bellion were shot every day in Havana. women and children, were condemned to die from hunger. OPENINQ OF THE BICYCLE SEASON. Wholesale Slaughter. From the date of those decrees until November, 1896, 300,000 people were mur dered thus iu Cuba. Since Novemlier, as a result of Weyler’« sanguinary orders, the number has been increased to 400,000, What monster in history ever did so much against humanity and civilization? Nero, Caligula, Tamerlane, Torquemada, Alva, when compared with Weyler, appear mild and humane. A poltroon, liesides being an assassin, he never offered battle to the Cubans or took the field to fight. In his time Spuin sent 200,000 soldiers to Cuba. He kept them inactive guarding the trocha from Mariel to Mnjana in Dinar del Rio province or from Jucaro to Moron in Duerto Drincipe. At other times from his palace in Havana, following on a map the imaginary positions of his enemies, he or dered his column* to make combined move ments that always resulted in defeats. One instance of the stupidity and cow- I ardice of Weyler occurred on May 1, 1896. I He ordered one of his favorite combina- I tions of columns against Maceo at a place called Cacarajicara in the province of Dinar del Illo. The result was that the forces of the Spanish Colonels Inclan and Gelabcrt were shattered by the Cuban leader, and the havoc made in the Span ish lines was so great that the Spanish soldiers, panic-stricken, threw themselves into the sea to escajie the Cuban machete. Weyler, as in all other cases, accused his subordinates of not having obeyed his or ders exactly. On Dec. 7, 1896, Maceo, after having crossed Weyler's famous trocha and en tered Havana province, was assassinated in an ambush near Dunta Brava. The rev olution lost in him a great patriot and a heroic soldier. But Weyler soon under stood that the murder of Maceo was not the death of Cuba's cause. In March, 1896, Gen. Calixto Garcia landed in San tiago de Cuba. He soon replaced Maceo as a dashing fighter and a brilliant com- | mander. At the same time Gomez in SPANISH SOLDIER A SLOUCH. Santa Clara had won the important battle of Saratoga and controlled the whole He Lacks in Martial Ardor end Is Listless and Untidy. province. The battle of Juan Criollo in February, 1897, was another of Gomez's The average Spanish ofllccT or soldier important victories, and in Santiago de would not Impress an American favor Cuba the latter part of the year was made ably. As a rule they are not well set conspicuous by the triumph of Gen. Gar up, and they are generally undersized. cia at Victoria de las Tunas. Weyler was recalled in November, They all lack the West Dolnt cut which when, after the death of Canovas and the is so much admired by Americans. fall of the short-lived Azcarraga cabinet, They may understand the theory and Senor Sagasta was selected as prime min practice of war, but the true martial ister by the queen regent. It is a well- ardor does not reach down into their known fact that Weyler’s recall was im backbone and legs. None of the officers posed upon Spain by this country. would ever be accused of wearing cor Gen. Don Ramon Blanco, who was to change the sanguinary methods of war sets. as some of our fledglings in the fare of his predecessor, entered Havana military service are. The uniform of Nov. 29, 1897. Spain granted to Cuba officers and men seems to be of the an autonomist system, which has been de same material—a tine green and white clared a mockery by all impartial judges. stripe gingham, or some similar fabric, The Cuban* rejected it, and the new for both coat and trousers. The officers Door ns were the majority of the few Cu bans who lived iu the United States be fore the beginning of the revolution, they listened to the eloquent appeals of Mnrti and gave him all they had on earth to lib erate Cuba from Spain. Mnrti was ap- pointed delegate of the party, and his faithful friend, Benjamin J. Guerra, was made treasurer. There was not much money then in the safes of the afterward famous Junta and their funds were soon exhausted by an unsuccessful attempt to start an expedition from the South. But Marti hail obtained the co-operation of Gen. M nxinm Gomez and Gen. Antonio Maceo, two veterans of the last war. He knew that the discontent against Spain was deep throughout the island. He had important connections with conspirators ill all the provinces. He gave without hes itation the orders for the uprising and went to Santo Domingo to join Gen. Go mez and take, with him, the field. At that grave ami decisive moment the total funds of the patriots amounted to not more than $70,000. It is wonderful that with a sum, comparatively speaking, bo paltry for so grent a purpose, a war should have been raised which cost Spain up to February, 1898, besides the sacrifice of so many of her soldiers, $250,006,000 mid caused to the United States a net loss in trade and business of $300.000,600. On May 19, 1895, Mnrti was killed in the engagement at Dos Rios, lint his work had already been done. He had landed on April 11 with Gen. Gomez at Sabana la Mar, on the southern coast of Cuba, after issuing at Monte Cristi a revolutionary manifesto, and had had time before his death to convoke the representatives of all the Cuban provinces to a general assem bly to elect a provisional government and frame n constitution. If this was not done until later, in September of the same year, at the town of Jimaguayu, it was not the less true that from the first days of the revolution the desire of Marti, as of al) the patriots, was to organize a republic with popular institutions. Two months before Marti's death Gen. A SCENE AMONG TIIE STARVING RECONCENTRADOS, / Antonio Maceo luid landed nt Duava, near Baracoa, Santiago de Culm province. of representatives, started for the east The most summary court martial preceded regime inaugurated in Havana on the first With u handful of men and a few rifles witli 2,000 of his men. On Oct. 30 Gomez the executions as a mere formality. In day of this year by Gen. Blanco was as ami cartridges, a small open hunt brought invaded I.as Villas. Maceo joined him on other cases the victims were murdered in a complete failure. The patriots declared him to Culm from Jamaica. But his name Nov. 29 near a place called Los Guayos. cold blood in their dungeons or thrown the acceptance of autonomy an act of and his presence were enough to make From there they itegnn their triumphant alive into the sea during the night at the treachery to their flag. They hanged as Spain tremble. He and his heroic broth ma reh. On Dee. 3 the Spanish Col. Se entrance to the harbor to feed the sharks. er, Jose Maceo, were surrounded by su gura was defeated by the insurgents nt The horrors of the Council of Blood under perior Spanish forces on the day of their Iguarn nnd had to leave his dead on the Alva look pale when 'Compared to the landing. They broke through the Span field, together witli a great supply of arms crimes of Weyler. In the country his ish lines and made their way into the ami ammunition. On Dec. 15 the Spanish troops had orders to kill every non-com country. In a few days, as soon ns the battalions of Canaria* nnd Trevino were batant without regard to age. In the news spread of their arrival, the province routed by Maceo at Mai Tienipo, after the cities he appointed as inspectors of police of Santiago de Cuba rose in urms ami most gallnut charge with machetes of the the most infamous murderers and thieves Antonio Maceo had around him more than Cuban cavalry, led by Maceo himself, that from the Spanish penal colonies in Africa. 10,000 Cuban soldier*. hits ever been seen in the Cuban wars. On In a short time more than 100,000 persons Tlie revolution was saved. The few Dec. 21 tlie victory of El Desquite cleared emigrated from Cuba panic-stricken. patriots who took up nrm* on Feb. 24 at the way for the invaders to the province But Weyler was not satisfied. He in Balre nnd Manzanillo had courageously of Matanza*. Martinez Campos then tended to destroy the country and to ex resisted under Gen. Bartolomé Maso, now made a desperate effort to check tile two terminate the natives. Seeing that the Cuba's president, the attacks of the col- Cuban leaders. Until that moment he had executions iu the forts were too slow a Villas of the Spanish Gen. l.aehnmbre, ni lieen recoiling liefore the invaders with method and that the destruction wrought WATCHINO HER DYING BABK. his columns, hoping that they would stop. by his columns was not enough to ruin the But he saw that each step of the patriots island, he conceived one of the most mon spies all the Spanish agents sent to them to the west was n decisive triumph for strous crimes ever committed against hu to propose such a scheme. They rejected their cause. The euthusinsm of the revo manity. On Feb. 16, 1896, he issued his with scorn the offers of money made to lution was growing day by day through two famous decrees of concentration. By them by Blanco. The death of the Cuban out the country. Tlie Cuban ranks were them every human being in the country Gen. Aranguren, near llavaua, did not tilled by volunteer* from nil the cities and districts was compelled to leave his home, discourage the patriots In the least. They tow ns by which Gomez nnd Maceo passed. after it had been destroyed by the Span kept up the war as enthusiastically ns ever, adopting as their motto "Indepen Martinez Canqos rallied his almost dis dence or Death.” persed men ami presented bnttle at El Co liseo on Dec. 23. Effective Tip. I he action was sharp and decisive. Mar A hungry guest nt a Chicago hotel, tinez Campos behaved bravely, lending one of his w ings in a charge against Go who ha«l sa.t at one of tlie talxl«ws unno mez, but Maceo, falling on the Spanish, ticed for several minutes, called a wait won the day for Cuba and compelled Mar er to him at last, ami said: tine* Campos to retire. The captain gen "Young fellow, I saw that man over eral hurriedly entered Havana, making there hand you a tip of half a dollar nun wagox ox it « bounds . preparations to defend the city, and he just now.” well as the proposals of peace from the confessed his defeat to the astonished “Yes, sah.” Spanish volunteer* and residents of the cnptain general of the island, Don Emilio “Yov've got his order, have you?” Calleja. The envoys of the cnptain gen capital. •'Yes, »ah.” eral told Mnso that the revolution was a Spain Send* Weyler. “Well, now. I’ll give you a tip «Iso, failure. The provinces of Dinar del Rio On the night of Dec. 27 the captnin which 1« this: Bring me exactly the and Havana were entirely quiet. A few general mad«' that avowal. A few days unimportant bands in Mntanza* and San later the rabid Spaniards of the city com «ante order. serve«l in exactly tlie same ta Clara bad been dispersed or had sur pelled him to teuder hi* resignation to style as his. and with the same rendered. Duerto Principe was unani Madrid. They demanded front Canovas a l>rotu;«tnf«s, or I'll rejx>rt you. Do you rt Ac or mt criu. mously in favor of peace. But Maso, captain general framed in the old iron get the idea, young fellow?” knowing well how to receive such rei>orts, east of the Spanish conqueror*, not to ish column*, «nd go to one of the fortified "Ye*, sah.” refused to yield. He had confidence in tight battle* ami risk his life on the field, town* under the vigilance of the Spanish The two dinners were served at the the landing of Maceo, Marti and Gomez. but to exterminate the native population. soldiery. With the home* of the recon He knew the great moral effect that the In their belief, women, children, every one centrado* their cultivated land* were to same time, ami were precisely alike. presence of those leaders In the field was born in Cuba, should l>e held responsible be devastated nnd «round the town* When a boy gets hurt. It can never going to have on the Cuban people; and for the situation. They did not like a where they had to live not a piece of Spain knew It a’so. The news that Maceo soldier with a gallant career and personal I bread w«» to be given to them. In this be told how luidly he Is bruised until was in Cuba reached Madrid shortly after courage. They wanted an executioner. manner, under pretext of n military opera- after he has been given his Sa tun lay the overthrow of the hagasta cabinet. Canova* satisfied them and appointed Don ; tioo, half a million people, most of them bath. wear a few gilt stars on their coat sleeves and a white canvas cap; the enlisted men a Dana ma straw hat, with one side folded up and fastened with a rosette. The volunteers, corresponding to our National Guard, who have been doing duty in Havana as an adjunct to the poliice, have an inspection and guard mount every morning on the Prado. I twice saw this ceremony, says a corre spondent, ami never saw anything so slovenly done before. There was no sizing up of the men; a boy 5 feet 21 inches would be between men six or eight Inches taller. Talking in tlie ranks seemed to be allowed ait all times. At the Inspection the man be came immovable only when the officer approached him, and relaxed Into so ciability immediately after the officer had passed. Some had leggings, many A SPANISH SOLDIER. daughter, Miss ELlen Dee, is enthusi astic In admiration of her distinguished father. Miss Lee is a dainty young woman, slight of form, with a wealth of auburn tresses, flashing eyes aud the unmis takable Lee chin, bespeaking courage MISS ET.T.EN LEK. and determination. She Is every inch the daughter of a soldier, and for her own worth as well as on account of her father and the family name she is pop ular in Richmond. AS OTHERS SEE US. An American, Two Japanese* and a Dish of Potatoes. Even those who desire to be strictly accurate sometimes erect their story from a single instance, as a geologist conceives the framework of a long- extinct animal from one bone. The fallacy of so doing is well illustrated by the following story told to tlie writer by one of the participants: A few years ago two Japanese gentlemen of high standing were traveling in tlie United States, and, among other places, visited a large aud widely known manu factory. They were afterward invited by the senior member of the firm to lunch with him. Colonel M. was also of the party, lit happened that the first f«Kxl placed on the table was a disli of fried jiotatoes, and as the manufacturer enthuskistleally explained his business to his guests he unthinkingly took a piece of potato from the dish with his fingers and ate It. A seund and third piece followed. The Japanese listened politely, but Colonel M. observed t.liat they were closely watching t'heir host’s method of eating. The colonel has a keen sense of humor, and he at once decided that he would follow his friend's example and see what the others would do. He did so, and in stantly loth Japanese made a dive for tlie dish, and thus they sat eating po tatoes with their fingers, presenting, it is to l«e feared, the appearance of four men who bad had nothing to eat for a long while, and expected never to get anything again. WiU it be surprising If In a future Japan«>se book on Ameri ca this broach of good manners shall find a place as an American custom? had not. They were a job lot of mis-I tits, assorted sizes aud colors, from 15 ■ to 40. The regulars have had a hard time of It. In summer about 50 per cent, sicken nnd «lie. Some of them have had to beg on the streets, not having receiv St. Louis Negroes W ear Wigs. ed their pay for more than six months. The colored swell of St. Louis is now Tills refers to the enlisted men. The w«'aring a wig. The fad started among officers are paid. and. apparently, enjoy the lighter-skinned negroes of both sexi- themselves. Although their bullets es. but soon spread to tlie darker col might have as much penetration, they ored. until now many negroes as black are no match for the American soldiers a« the proverbial ace of spades have in Intelligence. hair as straight as that worn by any white man. Tlie negro has ills kinky hair shorn as short as isissible and then A PLUCKY GIRL. gets a wig of hair the color he desires. Courageous Miss Ellen Lee, Daughter In many Instances the effect produced of Our Consul to Cuba. is decidedly grotesque; but the wear The most popular man in Virginia ers of the borrowed locks are happy, and perhaps one of the most popular so what matters a little thing like that? men In the country La Gen. Fitzhugh More Ornamental than Useful. Lee, our consul general to Culia. I hir Helen—Young Dudeleigh remind* me ing hi* official life in Havana he has contacted himself as a soldier ami an of a chrysanthemum. American gentleman, and has crept Mattie—In what respect? into the confidence ami esteem of the Helen—Oh. he’« nice to look at, but people of the United States. he hasn't a cent. The home of Gen. Lee is tn Rich One Man's Idea. mond. and the people generally call him She—What Is your Idea of happiness? “Fit*.” Everyone in the city seems to He—Being “next” in a crowded bar know Mtn. an«l everyone Is proud of him. Almost every «lay the Lee family ber shop. receives letters from all over the coun By the term. "A «lay of reckoning try recording words of praise for the wiU come.” is meant that if you accept ex-Oonfederate cavalry leader. Hl* own Invitations to dinner, you wlil have to family Idolises Mm. and hl* eldest Invite back.