The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-08

in the way OF fiendishness that he did
not already knOw-may be judged from
the fact that Nalmaseda considered him
ms best general and the most promising
othcer of Young Spain In the few years
Weyler spent in doing more than his
part TO render Cuba a waste and blot
out her inhabitants he was meanwhile
aqdlng TO his repute and Importance at
Madrid. No sooner was the rebellion
finally suppressed than he found himself
preferred as were few others for pro-
motion, The crown knew il had found
the right man to decimate and torture
During the years that followed hardly
a month passed that Weyler did not dis
unguish himself in some manner. with
his secret ideal the famous Duke of Alva,
VINO headed the Spanish campaign in the
low countries over 300 years ago. once
there establishing his council of blood,
and killing with grim laughter that he
might contlscate for his master, Philip OF
spain, The Butcher" made himself a
modern Alva with wonderful fidelity. The
Spanish government sent him off to the
Philippine Islands to quell an insurrec-
tlon, and he covered those bits or terri
tory out in the China sea with fountains
Of blood, returning successful beyond the
hopes of the Cortes.
This last great exploit of his was in 1889.
Since then he has been living quietly in
Spain in command of one of the divisions
of the Spanish army at home, resting on
his laurels, but with his prestige growing
greater each year. When it was seen that
Campos could not put down the present
Instruction, the entire country's thoughts
turned at once TO Weyler, THE Butcher"
and it was the word among diplomats on
every hand that he was the one man
who could terrorize and force to her knees
the Cuba of revolt.
With headquarters in Havana, Valeri-
anO Weyler is plotting day by day for his
great strategic moves. One thing, and
one thing only, Spain seems to fear-that
before he can bring his crushing machin-
cry of death in every direction, innocent
and guilty alike. he will die by an assas-
sins bullet or dagger. With the helms
man struck down failure would be almost
inevitable. There is no small likelihood
of this, for there are thousands of men
in Cuba to-day who would gladly sacrifice
their lives for the purpose of killing this
man. They would do this in the remem-
berance of the outrages and indigntties
their mothers or wives perhaps ever then
children, suffered a quarter of a century
ago at Weyler's hands. For the most hor-
rible thing about this mans campaigning
and that which is striking terror through
Cuba, is that it is not alone the insurgents
that suffer under his rule, but the innocent
and helpless as we'll.
lncarnate savagery is the only descrip-
ton. Bestial, sensual cruelty are but
faint words to describe what these men
remember. And the Weyler of to-day, il
is feared, is worse, immeaSurably worse
than the Weyler of 1870 who was tC
some extent restrained because he was
not in complete command. Now there is
nothing to prevent his carnal, animal
brain from running riot with itself in
inventing tortures and infamies of bloody
debauchery which he will dignity under
the comprehensive title of Martial Law.
Under Valmaseda the division generals
of the Spanish army charged with crush
ing the revolution of 1869, who We're scat
tered through the island each with his
own command and with instructions tC
handle the people they came in contact
with precisely as a terrier dog does 6
rat, were bitterly cruel. They were, one
and all, men of unbounded ferocity, whose
one object was to make military record:
for themselves regardless of any feel
| ing of humanity. Boat and Palacios, Ma
rim and Montoner form an awful quartett'
| OF names in Cuban history. With tn,
tenacity of bulldogs they ravaged witt
! their long fangs of death and destruc
ton. They were known and will ever b.
known in the West Indies as the human
hyenas." But-and it is no exaggeratior
TO say this-Weyler in his own distric
out-Heroded Herod and went far beyond
all the other generals 'in his rapacity
in his bold crimes against every Law
of even ordinary decency. He so eclipseC
! them all. wreaking the most of his ami
NAL ferocity on the utterly defenseless
that it was there and then that he achiev
ed his best known title, THE Butcher"