Wilmington journal., 1870-01-07
The Cuban Patrlot-A Calm Inspection of
BY MARK TWAIN.

aud with hatred for bis inhuman oppres-
sors. Our journals are filed with the
struggles, the sufferings, and the noble
deeds of this patriot, and nothing on earth
can get our attention for a moment unless
it has something to do with him. The
tears that are shed over his misfortunes
every day would float navy; the daily ink
that is lavished upon the INNINGS Of his
virtues would float another one; and o
month of the prayers that are offered for
! his lifting up, if cOnceDtrated upon the
worlds dead, might precipitate the final
resurrection. We are bound up, heart and
soul, in our Cuban patriot" We live but for
him. We should die if be were taken from
u. Daily we cry, "HOiy, holy, holy, and
perfect and beautiful is heavens beloved,
the Sublime Cuban patriot
And how grand q character he is ! How
gallant, how lofty, how magnanimous
| His career from the moment his heart is
first stirred with patriotic emotions till
! that heart ceases to beat, is "a chivalrous
romance. He begins by shouting "Down
| with the Spaniard y In the streets OF Ha-
vana. Then he and hundred of his fel-
lows sre captured by handful of soldiers
and thrown into prison. Here they take
the oath to the Government, hire out to 1T
as spies upon other patriots, Nnd finish by
denouncing a hundred Of their personal
friends to the Government at so much IL
head Those parties are duly shot, garro-
ted or hanged in the public plaza, or 9th
erwise made away with according to the
peculiar taste or the cOmmandant III the
matter of executions.
| Next, the patriot escapes to the country
and resumes patriotism once more. few
hundreds of them band together, and then
we hear of gallant deeds They pounce
upon deserted plantations and burn up the
sugar crop and the negro quarters-and
forthwith our great journals shrek the
great tidings of "Another grand patriot
victory !'
Then the Government troops capture
half the knightly gang and shut them up
in barn and burn them alive. And in-
stantly our great journals, and our con-
greesmen, and ourselves, rage about the
brutal inhumanity of Spain-and with all
our hearts we hate those Spaniards for
burning up those pure patriots, and we
know we are sincere, too, Notwithstanding
we cannot somehow help feeling rather
glad they did it.
Pretty soon the great journals tell us, in
laundering display lines, how the patriot
warrior Don Aguilar Jesus Maria Josey
John the Baptist Bustamente made bril-
liant dash upon the great plantation of
Senor Madre de Dios ell Calderon Gewhili-
: kens de Valladolid, and burned up the
whole concern, considering it best on the
whole to do this, inasmuch as Senor Val
ladolid's political opinions were exactly of
the universal Cuban pattern, and could
never by any possibility be depended
upon to remain in one shape two hours at
a time unless the holder of the same were
asleep or dead And further, the papers
, tell us how the patriot Bustamento and his
600 followers next marched Vallodolid and
his family down the road some thirteen
miles on foot, and with ropes around their
necks for convenience of steering them,
and then, while the helpless parents and
children knelt and pleaded piteOusly for
life, boldly carved them to pieces with
Bowie-knives And all America shouts,
'Hurrah for gallant Cuba-down with her
hatred oppressor - And fiercely we be-
siege Congress to ''recognize" the strug
Cling patriots and reward their single
hearted virtue with our appreciative pro
lection.
Right away we hear that the Spanish
troops and Bustamente's army have met
and fought q tremendous battle. We & g.oat
, over the particulars. We thrill from head
to heel as we read how that the battle
ragged furiously from 8 in the morning till
6 in the evening, resulting In the complete
, destruction of eleven barns, two planta-
tions, three saw mills, one hospital and it's
patients, and the total roHt of the enemy,
with loss of sixteen wounded, and also
one killed by being run over by q wagon.
But we grieve sore TO hear that the patriot
Bustamente was taken prisoner by the
brutal Spanish horde, and Our hearts sink,
and suffer, and break, when we hear that
his captors lassoed him and dragged him
three miles to the military prison at the
heels of q galloping horse, and then deci-
ded that it was Just as cheap to contipe
what was left of him in coffin. And how
we do abuse the unciViized sort of warfare
, those Spaniards wage
| But soon we rejoice once more, when
We hear that the unconquerable patriots,
from a safe hiding-place in the hills, have
sent out emissaries and fomented con-
, spiracy among the slaves which has re-
suited in gentle midnight massacre by
the blacks, of couple of dozen slumber-
, ing families of white people, accompany
ing the decd with the usual Cuban i'm
2 pGrtiallty as to whether the families were
{ "patriots" or friends of the government.
2 And while we are still rejoicing over
( this victory, we learn how that the patriot
f instigators Of it, being close pressed, laid
down their arms, took the oath to serve
I Spain, and then for Il consideration in
? formed on and helped to capture all those
. slaves and furnish each of them with
twelve hundred trihing lashes on the bare
/ back with OK whips, in the course of which
entertainment some of the slaves died
{ and the rest followed suit the next day
But ali, they died in glorious cause
They died to free their country from the
OppressOr. It is sweet to die for ones
: native land. The poor humble blacks will
t live in history-for nearly year
+, In his self-sacrifcing struggles for his
, country's freedom, the Cuban patriot
r makes va!orous use OF every method and
5 every cOntrivance that eau aid in tho good
a cause. Murder, theft, burglary. arson,
t assassination, rape. poison, treachery,
, mendacity, fratricide, matricide, homi-
/ eide, parricide, and ali sides but suicide,
= are instruments in his hands for the saliva
ton Of his native land, and the same are
instruments in the hands Of the ''opprgs
. sof' foT damnation of the same. Both
y parties, patriots and government servants
!, alike, stand ready of any moment, appa
= rently, to sell ont body. soul, and boots
: politics, religion, and principles, 10 any
- body thas will buy and they soeu
equally ready to give the same away fol