Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1895-05-31

Zelda had good machetes. There is not one
Cuban in hundred who knows how to
use gun. The islanders have been denied
the use of firearms SO long that those who
had fallen into possession of guns in the
battles of the ten years rebellion often
threw them. down when they got into bat
tie and relied chiefly upon their cane
knives. The battle of Baira, in which so
many Spanish heads were cut off, and
which was the bloodiest in Cuban history,
was won by cane knives over the best
American Springfield rifles in the hands
of the Spaniards.
A 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 bullock that had been butchered some
days before was placed before him.
"Now," said the Cuban, II will split
that head open between the horns with
one stroke as if it were SO 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
split down from head to foot with such a
weapon. In the national museum in Mad
rid 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 it.
There are three classes of these knives.
The fist is nothing more nor less than
sword, IS inches in length, made of the
very best American spring steel and in
cased in leather scabbard. It looks like
an ordinary sword, but Is much heavier.
It is worn ~ Cuban officers and gentle
men. The next is an overseer's machete,
very flexible, and with slight stroke it
will sever mans head from the body.
But the broad, heavy 16 inch knife is
Cuba's peculiar weapon Of Qffense and de-
Tense and her principal agricultural and
domestic Implement 1t Is used for nearly
every service for which we use knife, an
ok, a cleaver, a pruning hook or scythe.
Forests are cleared with them, and they
are about the only tool in a butcher shop.
Nowhere else in Spanish America Is the
machete so generally used. Nearly the
whole of Cuba is devoted to the cultiva-
ton Of cane and tobacco, and every stalk
of these crops is harvested with the ma
chete. Great skill in handling them is the
result.
An army of the most skillful fencing
masters in New York or Paris could not
stand up before an equal number of Cuban
cane cutters. In one Of the engagements
few days ago, when q detachment of
Spanish cavalry charged upon the Cubans
in the open, as the onslaught was made
the Cubans are reported to have caught
the Spanish sabers in orquetillas or forked
sticks and then cut men off their horses,
as if they were nothing more than stalks
Of grass.
These regular cane knives, on account
of their peculiar shape, cannot be worn in
scabbard. They must be worn hanging,
exposed from the trunk, and the fact that
they can thus be worn at all 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 Absolute
ly every male Cuban wears ono. 1t is his
most highly valued piece Of property, and
he will do almost anything to secure a
good machete. In the mountains of south
eastern Cuba he is at home with his ma
chete. He would not give it for the best
American rifle or revolver. The under
growth is too dense for anything but the
passage of the machete through the brush.
He trims his footpath and waits to spring
upon Spaniard and behead him. And
there is nothing that Spaniard breads
SO much in Cuba as the work of these
knives. Their stroke is the stroke of death
in nearly every instance.
r. TIT T~c-