Morning journal and courier., 1888-05-14
EN OTHER LANDS.


 legislature.
 
 EN OTHER LANDS.
 A Wanderers Return To Cuba-An
 Elusive Host With Blessings and
 Hills zn ShOwerS-The Revolution
 ary spirit of the Island-A Journey
 Through the Xntsrior-The Wild
 Charge of 8 Mad Bull.
 VALLE DEL AeUAcATE, Cuba, May '. To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 Ny companion and host had expected his brother and friends from the country to be awaiting our arrival at the old, half-deserted city of Trinidad. But they were not; and we sought quarters for the night at centu- ry-old bodega posada or inn, where we were received es men of distinction indeed. This, however, was wholly in the ethical sense. It in nowise bettered the quality of our food; ministered to our bodily needs; or cleared the filth, feas and cobwebs from our dim old aleobas. An out-of-the-way inn in Cuba is a shelter much inferior to night in the open air. Mine host will dance all around you with ineffable welcomes. He will call upon all the saints to guard you. He will protest endlessly, "My house is thiner' Then he will go to sleep. He awakens just before you depart and showers blessings and bills upon you. If in the meantime you have got anything but quain' and Imaginable experiences and studies, you are in truth a born diplomat.
 We were no more than settled at the an- cient inn when little episode occurred il- lustratiug the revolutionary feeling never suppressed in Cuba, and which must speed fly, unless all signs shall fail, again break forth in such universal resistance to Span ish misrule as shall awaken our own pusil- luminous government to action that should have been taken half century ago. Of 8 sudden there was 8 great oommotion with in the old hostelry. Excited cries issued from below us and in 8 twinkling half @ hundred people had crowded into the little patio or court. From the window we saw a mounted squad of the trimly-uniformed but loathed guardia civil dash across the plaza, and then sweeping down the calle with drawn sabres, dash squarely into the wide entrada at full gallop, cutting and slashing as they entered. In another moment out poured the crowd pell mell, scattering in ev- cry direction, but uttering all manner of jeers, oaths and derisive cries as they disap- peared My companion, much agitated, pre- vailed upon me to desist from descending to the patio; but from the interior gallery, along with grinning crowd of mozos, we could look upon the excited soldiery, and see the dismounted officer in charge hastily clutch his handkerchief, wet it at the patio n,;fh fa erase some dreaded emblem from the whi- tened, inner wall Before he had obliterated it we saw the Cuban flag. ''Vive la Cubsl" was written beneath the emblem. My com- panion, Don Manuel, was white with excite ment Hastily drawing me back into the grimy alcoba, he paced the echoing tiling in silence for a little and then said:
 ''That was our fag-the Cuban flag Fifty thousand of my brethren fell to sus- tain it. Spain sent over one hundred and fifty thousand men to the island to prevent l it's recognition by the world. Of that vast number, it was publicly stated in the Cortes of Madrid, not enough returned to fill a sim gle regiment!
 t'Some daring wag probably traced the flag on that wall while our old posadero was asleep If he were known it would cost him l his life. But every soul who saw it, save the l cursed guardia civil, loved it, shouted 'Vive 1 Ia Cubal' in his heart, if not with his voice, and prays God it may yet wave over free | Cuban people. It will
 s'Of it's history and meaning9 It was de- signed by Lopez junta in 1868 and was first | raised by the brave Cespedes of Bayamo in October of that year, with less than fifty l men beneath it; but by the middle of No l vember there was an organized army ot twelve thousand behind it. How well those patriots fought the world knows. All senti. | ment aside, it was the most beautiful oi | flags. A red triangular field, whose base formed the extreme width of the flags Jeff end, was broken only by central white star
 and it's apex pierced the second division o four stripes, alternately white and blue ! These four stripes represented the four State of the island under the hoped-for Cuban re
 public; the white stripes were the promise O
 peace and the unalterable purity of motiv'
 in the movement; the stripes of blue wer symbolic of the ever-blue skies above Cuba
 the triangle was significant of the fact tha
 the members of the junta designing the em
 blem were all master masons; the red delt reminded that liberty could only be bough by blood; and the single white star was tn universally understood and sacred pledg
 that Cuba should at last add another star t.
 the statehood galaxy of the American Un
 ion"
 We were awakened at daybreak the mex
 morning by loud humping and hallooin, | at the door of the old inn. Don MaRue
 sprang from his bed, took one nasty glanc from the balcony, and then in light attire de
 scended as preeipitately as a nimble sleep
 walker to the court below. A moment late
 there were hilarious greetings and embrs
 cings between my friend and party 0
 mouated yeomen, armed with machetes ant
 what not as if for brigandage or revolution
 as could dimly see through the half-nigh
 light in the narrow calle beneath. Extr horses had been brought, and in twinklin
 we had paid our score, were in the saddl
 alongside our friends munching delicious or
 anges for our stomach's sake, and on our wa
 through the streets and plazas of the sleep : old city to Don Manuels boyhood hom
 among the Cuban coffee lands, three-sco miles into the interior from the sea.
 It is doubtful if another stranger, at an place or under any circumstances, could fa upon such lucky conditions for observat1o and study of remote Cuban life and charae l teristics as were mine in this one trip owe an old Cuban road from Trinidad to the Wall 7 del Augaeate. Here were five of us mount ed and armed with such outrageous prodiga , ity that therein our only dangers lay. Do 5 Manuel, bright intelligent, alert with a
 those quickened perceptions resultant frol 8 the splendid friction of 8 successful Amer ? can business career, was returning to h 2 youthtide home after generations absence and drinking in every familiar scene, obje' a or sound in positively rapturaus delight, WI @ ever ready with winsomely profuse interpr' Il tation, bubbling from one to another la, guage in charming friendly and fraternal e forts. Then there was the aged elder brotl s CT whose eyes glowed with pride, but with s wearing certain grave and saddened dign
 ty, most fitting type of the patient, hopele
 Cuban landholder of to-day. The two ye n men were as perfect types of the slouch