National Republican., 1875-11-17

of the 'deep salt sea,D whose ebbing force
sways them to and fro at its mournful bidding.
Kerosene helped to do It.
The San Francisco papers are jubilant over
the near completion of the first ship ever built
at that port. The vessel win be one thousand
tons measurement, and constructed wholly Of
FIR. How "frn It viii sail before sinking we
are not at present ready to state, but, to the
best of our Judgment, 1t will depend greatly
on how soon she strikes fog with another
vessel in It.
Boys are great imitators. Two West Virginia
lads who saw their father cut off the head OF q
chicken with hatchet consulted each other on
the subject for awhile and then concluded to
repeat the act, by substituting one of them
selves for the chicken. It was at a house
raising, and as the father was In the act of
lifting log to its place, he saw his son with
hatchet raised, in the act of severing his little
brothers head. He let 50 of the log, which
fell, killing six men, and before he could reach
his son the weapon had descended and the
head, completely severed from the body, rolled
CHASTITY from the block. The deeds done by the
hatchet vary. It made Washington an immor-
tai example for the young concerning truthful
ness, and was instrumental in killing seven
persons in less than a minute. If the above
story is true, the man who invented the hatchet
ought to 90 to meet the fellow who,,constructed
the first guillotine.
Each recurring day the American people
become more and more restless concerning the
prolonged bloody strife which has for the
past seven years distracted the finest island of
the Indies, and made its Inhabitants wretched
beyond the power of those who arc not there
to see the crimes to comprehend. Notwith
standing this uninformed condition of the
masses, still enough of woe and bitter cruelty
and never-ceasing brutal crime is known by
all to touch the tender chords of sympathy
which are ever waiting to respond to the suf-
ferings of oppressed humanity. And this the
people feel. 1t Is not transient sympathy,
but strong and still increasing, full of deep
and honest fervor, which viii never be satiated
until the yoke which now gals struggling
people shall have been lifted, and the precious
boon of freedom borne in its stead. The atti-
tude of the Government heretofore has been
so cool and Indifferent, except now and then
the glimmering ray of pity shown by some
official, that, for all the world might know,
we as a nation were void of sympathy for
those whose cries for help came daily to our
shores-cries burdened with so much distress
and thrilling story that It has been the won
der of foreign lands that America could have
Hithstood the sorrow of their pleadings. Not
a dav hos passad for saven vaa re h,,t what has
been fraught with scenes of shocking inhu-
manity, which have overspread the Queen of
the Antilles like pail, whose dire influence
is worse than the mists of pestilential morn,
whose incendiary torch and loud -mouthed can
non and belching musket and. flashing
blade and never-satiated rabble have swept
like blighting curse over the hills and wales
of the richest land in the Caribbean as the
minions of Spain, bent on doing the will of
their King. The island has been laid in waste,
the production of crops impeded, and in
many districts entirely destroyed; the in
habitants have been mercilessly taxed to sup
port the very war that is devastating their
fields, burning their houses, rsvaging their
and numbering their offspring on
every hand. The policy of Spain, violent even
to the verge of madness, whose every feature
is marked boldly with the brand of depressing
tyranny has willfully wrought the present mis-
cradle condition of the Cuban people, This
destruction and general ruin could
easily have been ayerted by Spain. She has
deceived the people of this Western province.
She promised to strike from them their fetters,
and never fulfilled her word. She promised
them full and ample representation at Madrid,
but never kept her word. She agreed to send
them rulers who would not make their. au-
thority source of personal aggrandlzement,
but she sent them hard task-masters, who
goaded the people to desperation by series of
Infamous acts of positive and enormous rob
berry, which are a disgrace to the lowest shades
of barbarism. In short, she has not been
ruler calculated to inspire the love and esteem
of her subjects, and the result is before US.
The truth is now known and felt by every in
ttllIgent American who is moved by the better
impulses Of his nature, and the masses are
waiting for the Government 10 take
some positive measures to undo the great
wrongs which we have continually heaped
upon our brave little neighbor by our stolid
indifference, which, in its absolute inhumanity,
has no comparison in the annals of our history
as a nation.