The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-07-15
MoBILIzADo oB MASoNs
The Courage of Juan Allegue, Basque, and Antonio Aldaya, Cuban Mulatto.
 (From the Now York Sun

CnOugn ne naQ been III Cupd TOT more than five years he was still u Basque to the backbone. New Englaaders of Spain, the Basques have been called; thrifty, energetic, brave, they are a credit to any country.
 Matias had come to Cuba first, more than ten years ago, attracted to Con- stancia by the stories told by Iriate, who had returned to old Navarro with fortune, earned during his twenty years stay in Cuba. Felipe had been the next to come, and he and Matias, as soon as they had saved enough money, had sent for their mother and Juan. They were all three good sons and hard workers.
 The elder brothers worked in the fac tory, but Juan had always done field work, at first as an ordinary hand, and afterwards as segundo, or foreman. Two years ago, when the swamps at Santa Lucia had to be drained, he su- perintended the work; and day after day, from sunrise to sunset, wet to the skin, he worked away, cheerful and ac- tive, doing his duty to the house" When, last November the tide of in- surrection surged into the Villas, and the Marquis, who represented the house, decided to arm a certain num- Der of trusty men. Juan Allegue was | one of the first to volunteer and ask for a gun. As his record was good, and lie | knew how to manage men, he was en- rolled as mobilizado and placed in | command of Guavinos, with twenty other mobilizados as a garrison.
 l Guavinos is a little cross roads town of twenty or thirty houses. Juan Ale 1 gue's fort was a wooden house, sur l rounded by earthworls and a barbed wire fence; it stood In the middle of the town. It was one of the most ex- posed positions, for the country beyond it was full of insurgents, and the mani gua or thick woods, began just beyond I it and continued until lost in the ever- glades of Cienega. Hardly night passed that the garrison did not ex- change shots with the enemy.
 | Shortly after Christmas a part of the town was burned by the insurgents, who set fire to the outlying houses first and compelled the townspeople to set fire to their neighbors houses under threats of death if they refused. Juan | kaltS uG Haul, llOl llItQ On llC HUI NlS- ible at the blazing houses for fear of killing the women and children; but the fire troubled his mind, and thereaf- ter at night he often led part of his men on accommodating exoeditloa to rre- vent further attacks
 After midnight of February 22 q countryman hurried to the fort to re- port that band of insurgents was at- | tacking a farmhouse about three-quar- | ters of mile away Taking ten men with him Juan .Allegue started at once, following a roundabout track in order to take the enemy in the rear. When l he neared the farmhouse he was fired on by the main body of the insurgents; 1t turned out that only a detachment had beensent to destroy the farm.
 The first volley of the insurgents dis abled Juan. A ball shattered his ankle joint. He could not stand, but, drop- ping on his knees, he gave the order to fire, and for three-quarters of an hour encouraged his little force to fight and then the enemy retired. The farmhouse had been burnt, but before he permitted his men to return to the fort Juan had himself carried to the place, so that he could see for himself that there was nothing to be done by his men. Then, sometimes dragging himself on hands and knees, sometimes carried by two of his men, he led his force to the fort He reached it about 3:30 o'clock. AL through there was telephonic connec- tion with headquarters, Juan would not allow his men to send woro of his wound, but waited until o'clock, at which hour the forts were called up in turn and reported. Then he told of his fight and asked that a train might be sent out to relieve him.
 He was soon brought to headquarters, and taken thence to the hospital at Cienfuegos. In a few days his leg was amputated, but he sent cheerful mes- sage to the Marquis that if he could have wooden leg he would go back to his post in a few days But on March 12 the Marquis received telegram from Matias saying that Juan was dead.
 Had Juan been soldier in the Span ish army he would have received the Cross of San Fernando for Heroic Valor for continuing in command after being wounded and for fighting superior force; but he was only a mobilizado, so his only reward was the knowledge that he had done his duty to "the house."
 Antonio Aldaya is 8, Cuban mulatto a master mason on the Constancia estate.
 From December to March he superin- tended the building of the stone forts around the estate, riding from one place to another, now through the fields, now through the woods always unarmed, going where many others would have
 hesitated to go without an escort. If the insurgents had caught him they would have hanged him.
 But this is not war story.
 Some years ago the Marquis decided to increase the height of the tall chim- ney at the works, and Aldaya directed
 the work. One certain day in the mid dle of summer the chimney was practi-
 cally finished. The scaffolding, both outside and inside, had been taken
 down, and only the narrow iron ladder
 set in the inside gave access to the top
 The chimney was more than 200 feet
 high.
 On the top were three men putting
 finishing touches to the work. Aldaya
 was one of them. Suddenly a terrific thunder storm came up. Aldaya al
 once ordered the men down from the chimney, and they obeyed him gladly
 One man was a short distance down the
 ladder, Aldaya was about twenty feet further up the ladder, and the third