The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-05-09
cUBA's WEAPON OF WARFARE.
The Machete or Cane Knife which
the Insurgents Are Using.
From the New York World.


There is no weapon I'm peace or war like
the machete, which the Cubans now are
using in their fight for liberty Every
country has a sword of it's own. but Cuba
Is the one place whose only sword and
only instrument of war has been her reap
ing hook or cane knife. If she frees her
self from Spain the most decisive part of
the work must be done with the machete
\ New York Cuban, in giving his osti-
mate OF the chances of the Cubans said
mat the conflict hinged very largely on
now many of the people in cane fields had
good machetes. There is not one Cuban
IN a hundred who knows how to use a
gun The Islanders have been denied the
use OF firearms so long that those who
had fallen into possession of guns I'm the
battles rebellion often threw them down
when they got into battle and relied
chiefly upon their cane knives. The bat
tie Of Baira, in which so many Spanish
neads were cut or, and which was the
Dloodlest In Cuban history, was won by
cane knives over the best American
Springfield rifles in the hands of the
Spaniards. .s
The Spaniards now have a rife of AZ
caliber and of their own make Cuban
leaders have bought Remington and Moser
rihes OF the same caliber, so that they can
use an ammunition captured from the
Spaniards. They are making every effort
to encourage their cOuntrymen in the use
or guns, but have not neglected to smuggle
a great many cane knives into the island.
the cane knife weapon OF war and con-
traband goods. Germany, ENGLAND and
the United States furnish Cuba with all
her cane knives, and SPANS declaration
making them contraband Is enc of the in
teresting diplomatic questions that Secre-
tary Gresham is now trying to adjust
The best cane knives are made in Amer
lea, and before and since the uprising on
the island there has been a great de-
mand for them Besides, the cane crop in
Cuba is now being harvested, and Spain
feels that she can crush the uprising
more easily If she can cripple the harvest.
The mother country has not only taken
this opportunity to deprive Cuba of the
one weapon and utensil that is neces-
sary both in war and peace, but she has
sent an agent to the United States to buy
cane knives or machetes, as they are all
called in Spanish, with which TO train her
own Cuban army. But the prospect that the
Spanish soldiers will learn how 10 use this
weapon is not half 50 promising as that the
Cubans will learn how to use rifles.
A Sunday World reporter was shown in
a little shop in South street just what
Cuban cane knife will do IN the hands Of
a Cuban who knows how TO use one The
dry head of a bullock that had been butch
cred some days before was placed before
Now" said the Cuban, 81 will split
that head open between the horns with
one stroke, as If il were 50 much butter &"
This he did The Cuban said he had cut
off horses heads in battles and had more
than once seen the CHASTITY sight OF men
with
a weapon. In the national museum in
Madrid are a. number of gun barrels cut
in two by these knives.
The great execution OF the machete lies
in the wonderful skill In handling 1t. There
are three classes Of these knives The
first Is nothing more nor less than a
sword, twenty EIGHT inches in length,
made of the very best American spring
steel and encased in a leather scabbard
1t looks like an ordinary sword. but is
much heavier. 1t is worn by Cuban Off
! a
seer's machete, very flexible and with a
slight stroke it will sever mans head
from the body
But the broad. heavy 16-inch knife is
Cuba's peculiar weapon OF oifense and de-
Tense, and her principal agricultural and
domestic implement. 1t Is used for nearly
every service, for which we use a knife, an
axe, cleaver, pruning hook or a scythe.
Forests are cleared with them, and they
are about the only tool in butcher shop.
Nowhere else in Spanish America is the
machete so generally used. Nearly the
whole of Cuba is devoted to the cultivation
of cane and tobacco, and every stalk of
these crops Is harvested with the ma
result.
An army of the most sklllful fencing
masters in New York or Paris could not
stand up before an equal number of
| Cuban cane-cutters. In one of the en-
| gagements a few days ago, when a de-
tachment of Spanish cavalry charged
upon the Cubans in the open, as the on
slaught was made, the Cubans are re-
| ported to have caught the Spanish sabers
| in orquetillas or forked sticks, and then
! cut men off their horses, as II they were
I nothing more than stalks of grass.
/ These regular cane knives on account
/ of their peculiar shape, cannot be worn
4 in a scabbord They must be worn hang
I ing exposed from the trunk and the
| fact that they can be thus worn at ali
| denotes that the wearer Is one of very
careful habits, for the blade is always
kept as sharp as the very best steel
! can be made. Absolutely every male Gu
ban wears one. 1t is his most highly val
ued piece of property and he will do al
most anything to secure a good machete
In the mountains of Southeastern Cuba
he is at home with his machete He would
not give it for the best American rife
dense for anything but the passage OF
the machet through the brush He trims
his footpath and waits 70 spring upon
a Spaniard and behead him. And there
is nothing that a Spaniard breads so
much in Cuba as the work of these
knives. Their stroke is the stroke of
death in nearly every instance.
Cubans in New York say that Span
ish soldiers need not hope to attain much
proficiency in the use Of weapon that
the Cubans have been brought up on for
more than a century. The Cubans can,
however, maintain Ony guerrilla warfare
with such weapons and win hand TO
hand battles. But they are so devoted to
the machete that some of them Will tell
you it VIII, in some way, achieve for
them their liberty.