, 1888-05-13
NJ
The Love the Cubans Bear to Their
Native Flag.

pected 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 a century old bodega y
posada, or inn, where we were received as
men of distinction indeed. This, how
ever, was wholly in the ethical sense. 1t
in nowise bettered the quality Of our
food ministered to our bodily needs, or
cleared the filth, feas and cobwebs from
our dim old alcobas. An out of the way
inn in Cuba is a shelter much inferior TO
a night in the open air. Mine host will
dance all around you with ineffabie well
comes. He will call upon all the saints
to guard you. He will protest ~endlessly,
MY house is thinel' Then he will go to
sleep. He awakens Just before you de-
part and showers blessings and bills upon
you. If in the meantime you have got
anything but quaint and laughable expe-
rience and studies you are in truth a born
diplomatic.
We were no more than settled at the
ancient inn when a little episode occurred
illustrating the revolutionary feeling never
suppressed in Cuba. and which must
speedily, unless all signs shall fail, again
break forth in such universal resistance to
Spanish misrule as shall awaken our own
pusilanimous government TO action that
should have been taken half a century
ago. OF a sudden there was a great com-
motion within the old hosterly. Excited
cries issued from below us and in a twink
ling half a hundred people had crowded
into the little patio or court. From the
window we saw a mounted squad of the
trinity uniformed but loathed guardia
civil dash across the plaza, and then
sweeping down the cattle with drawn
sabres, dash squarely into the wide en-
trada at full gallop, cutting and slashing
as they entered. In another momen out
poured the crowd pell nell, scattering in
every direction, but uttering all manner
of ieers, oaths and derisive cries as they
disappeared. My companion, much agi
tated prevailed upon me to desist from
descending to the patio; but from the in
terror gallery, along with n g%rinning
crowd OF mozos, we could look upon the
excited soldiery, and see the dismounted
officer in charge hastily clutch his hand
kerchief, wet it at the patio fountain, and
spring with it, as a sponge, to erase some
dreaded emblem from the whitened inner
wall.
"Five la CuJar' was written beneath
the emblem. My companion, don Man
uel, was white with excitement. Hastily
drawing me back into the grimy alcoba,
he paced the cchoing thing in silence for
a little and then said:
That was our fag-the Cuban flag.
Fifty thousand of my brethren fell to
sustain it. Spain sent over 100000 men
to the island to prevent its recognition by
the world. OF that vast number, it was
publicly stated in the Cortes OF Madrid,
not enough returned to fill a single rcgl-
ment
''Some daring wag probably traced the
flag on that wall while our old posadero
was asleep. If he were known it would
cost him bis life. But every soul who
saw it, save the cursed guardia civil, loved
it, shouted ViUc la CuLuh in his heart,
if not with his voice, and prays God it
may yet wave over a free Cuban people.
II UWi
"Ofits history and meaning? 1t was
designed by Lopez junta in lSGS and was
first raised by the brave Ccspcdes of Bay
amo in October of that year with less
than fifty men beneath il, but by the mid
die of November there was an army of
1900 behind it How well those patri-
OTIS fought, the world knows. All senti-
ment aside, it WAS the most beautiful of
flags. \ red triangular field, whose base
formed the extreme width of the flag 5
left end, was broken only by a central
white star. and its apex pierced the second
division OF four stripes, alternately white
and blue. These four stripes represented
the four states of the island under the
hoped for Cuban republic; the white
stripes were the promise Of peace and the
unalteraDle purity of motive in the move
ment; the stripes OF blue were symbolic of
the ever blue skies above Cuba; the TRAN.
gleiwas significant of the fact that the
members of the iunta designing the en-
blem were all master masons, the red field
reminded that liberty could only be
bought by blood; and the single white
star was the universally understood and
sacred pledge that Cuba should at last
add another star to the statehood galaxy
of the American Union.
We were awakened at daybreak the
ext morning by a loud humping and
hallooing at the door OF the old inn. Don
Manuel sprang from his bed. took one
hastY glance from the balcony, and then
in light attire descended as prccipitately
as a nimble sleep-walker to the court be.
lOw. a moment later there were hilar-
ious greetings and cmbracings between
my friend and a party of mounted yoc-
men, armed with machetes and what-not
as if for ~brigandage or revolution, as
could dimly see through the half night
light in the narrow Gale beneath. Extra
horses had been brought, and in Il twink
ling we had paid our score, were in the
saddle alongside our friends munching de-
licious oranges for our stOmach's sake,
and on our way through the streets and
plazas of the sleepy old city to don Man
uels boYhood home among the Cuban
coffee lands, three score miles into the in
terror from the sea.
1t is doubtful if another stranger, at
any place, or under any ordinary circum
stances, could fall upon such lucky condi
tons for observation and study of remote
Cuban life and characteristics, as were
mine in this one trip over an old Cuban
road from Trinidad to the Vale del Auga-
cate. Here were five of us mounted, and
armed with such outrageous prodigality
that therein our only dangers lay.
Don Manuel, bright, intelligent,