Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1896-12-10
The qrads,
A Democratic Newspaper.
By JOS. K. ROBINSON.
FREE CUBA.

tenden, with a force of 400 men
landed at Bahia Honda and threw
their lives away in the vain N
deavor. A year before, Lopez,
John T. Pickett and Theodore
O'I1ara, the last named forever
famous as author of sfThe Bivouac
of the Dead" had made a futile
landing at Cardenas, only to be
repulsed by the Spaniards and re-
PEELED by the apathy of the Gu
bans.
Lopez and Crittenden were ex-
ecuted. Not until seven years
after the failure of their expedi-
tor lid the Cubans take heart to
enter upon the struggle for free
dom once more. In September
1868, they renewed the unequal
fight which lasted for eight years,
costing Spain 200, 900 lives and
over 500, 900, 600.
The end, as it seemed, came
with the awful tragedy of the
steamer Virginius, when fifty-fve
men, captured on the high seas un-
der the American flag, in a vessel
sailing under an American regis
ter, We're brutally murdered by
Commandant Burriel at Santiago
de Cuba on the sixth and seventh
of November, 1873. Ninety
three other captives would have
met with the same fate but for the
interposition of a British naval
commander, Captain Sir Lambton
Lorraine.
Two years ago, the shoulder
ING embers of the rebellion broke
forth again, and since that time
all the might of Spain has been
vainly invoked to crush what
promises to be the last, because
the successful effort of Cuba to
free herself from foreign control
Under the lead of Cespedes, son
of the late rebel President, and
afterwards under that of Garcia,
Maceo and Gomez, the insurgents,
white, black and half-breed, have
defed all the power of Spain and
slowly made themselves masters
of nearly all the island.
The brave but humane Campos
abandoned the hopeless task of
subduing the rebellion and was
succeeded by General Weyler, no
torious for his cruelties in the
war of 1868. With absolute pow
ers and almost unlimited military
and naval resources, he has not
been able to strike a single effec-
tive blow or to prevent the Cuban
Junta, whose headquarters are in
this country, from holding regular
communication with their COM
patriots. Filiubstering steamers
have sailed to and from the island
with nearly the punctuality of
government despatch boats.
The fercest battle of the pres
ent war was fought last week in
the Rubi hills of Pinar del Rio,
whittier Weyler with 35, 600 men
had advanced in the hope of wip-
ing out the enemy at one blow.
Maceo had mined the field over
which the Spaniards had to march,
and when the attack vas made a
terrible explosion killed owe 700
of the assailapts. The insurgents
opened fire on the main body with
dynamite guns, while their sharp
shooters, practicing the tactics of
the embattled farmers at Licking
ton and Jackson's backwoodsmen
at New Orleans, picked off the
enemy with murderous accuracy
of aim. Weyler returned to Ha
vana with a loss, according to the
estimates of the rebels, of nearly
1000 killed and twice as many
wounded.
AS matters now stand, the Gu
ban patriots seem to be almost
sure of success. Weyler with
200, 900 at his command has
failed to crush a few thousand
daring men who do not possess a
single city or seaport, a seat of
government or a base of supplies
other than the contraband quar-
tiers of the Junta in the United
States, 1t shows what a handful
of determined men can do when
they are inspired ny lofty patri-
otism and a firm resolve to be free
or die.
Mr.. Cleveland's administration
cannot be accused of undue sym
pathy with the struggling patriots
at our very door. The neutrality
laws have been enforced rigor-
ously, so far as they could be en-
forced at all. But the govern
ment has been unable to convict a
single flibuster, for the reason