Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1897-02-07

OF CuDd Will give SOuA
knowledge of the topography thah can
be described in brief letter.
Block houses, built OF stone masonry
with heavy walls embrasured ana TWO
stories in height, are erected at inter-
walls of from 500 to 1000 yards along the
entire trocha. being especially strong
at points where railroads or highways
cross this line. Earth works with out
side bitches six or eight feet in depth
and beyond these barbed wires thirty or
forty in number, regularly spaced, are
stretched and firmly secured on frames
some fifteen inches from the ground,
presenting the appearance OF extend
ed wire mattresses. These are placed
parallel to the roads, and form mod
ern and novel "cheval-de-frise." The
block houses are strongly garrisoned
and are supplied with separate tele-
phones. which communicate with each
other and each connected with line
TO General Weyler's quarters in the
civ of Havana. The intervening
spaces are inaccessible by reason of
swamps. streams and other physical i'm
pediments.
The cost of this trocha was twenty
millions of dollars. My friend went
within a few miles of where MaceO fell
and learned some details Of his death.
perhaps not heretofore published.
Maceo pronounced as though spelled
Massage. with accent on the second syl-
able), was slain within the trocha while
accommodating. He had with him 400
1..,- oil
reach some 1000 men. Loving his cav
airy he advanced with his staff and was
ambuscaded by large force OF Spanish
troops secreted behind a stone fence.
II was not known until his body was
found and recognized that the Cuban
leader was killed.
The treachery story Of his staff sur
geon was woven out of the whole cloth
bv the insurgents for the purpose Of
exciting sympathy for the cause and to
conceal Macceo's indiscretiOn. Maceo S
loss was a severe blow to the insurgents.
He was a veritable Martinez in COM
mand, intolerant of neglect, eXactlng
in discipline and obedience, intrepid,
resolute daring, patriotic and deeply
loval to his cause, qualities which ami
mated his troops who followed him
! with answering fidelity.
| Gomez is reckoned q selfish man, not
wanting in courage but after the shekels
| or whatever else may turn up. He receives
| large pay from the Junta TO continue the
fight on the plan adopted by Maceo, whose
ability he is not credited with possessing.
The brutality ascrlbed to Weyler IS great
" exaggerated. His recent order to burn
and destroy the crops of the Cubans Is
heralded as atrocious and barbarous' his
execution of spies and traitors has sur
named him the butcher" and the crime:
of Robespierre and Marat pale before the
massacres of tyrant Weyler. War is crue
and the evils which follow in its wake ar,
stained with cruelty. yet nations Of tho
highest civilization vie with each other II
perfecting engines of war most destructive
to human life. Rapid-fring guns, torpe-
does. dynamite are the inventions Of Chris
tian nations.
But these are peace makers and only
invented 10 deter from war" says Mr.
High Civilization. Was ever a Krupp CUR
known to be loaded with olive branches?
If Tamerlane was monster, Cromwell
|
women and children for a cause-one q
Turk, the other a Christian.
The British government having usurped
the Dominion of Hindostan. destroyed the
rebelious Sepoys by claiming them to the
mouths of cannon and blowing them &c
atoms. Was Christian England more mer-
ciful than Spanish Weyler?
The present Spanish forces in Cuba num-
Der 10000 nearly $4,000 having died from
disease and battle. Two hundred thousand
of these troops are occupied in the protec-
| ton of the trocha and $1,000 are in the
cities of Havana and Matanzas for defense
| and the enforcement of martial law, the
cost Of maintenance being So 900 month
". Soldiers receive about thirty dollars a
month (NIexlcan dollars for pay while in
active service; in time Of peace sixteen
dollars a month.
The insurgent forces bearing arms do
not exceed 5000. These occupy, as before
| stated. the province of Del Rio and in the
mountain defiles and Businesses are as
securely entrenched as the "Nez Perces''
were under Chief Joseph in the lava-beds.
There they await the opportunity to cut
the trocha and harass the enemy. Con-
| fronting these facts, relations and sur
rouudings. is it not probable that this guer-
rilla warfare may be indefinitely con-
tinued?
Now the grave question presents itself,
is 1t proper for the government to in
| terfere?" Noisy sentiment seems to IA
vor Interference on behalf of the insur-
| gents: serious consideration may develop
prudent difference of opinion. If Spain
| is the original and rightful owner of the
| Island of Cuba (and this no one will
deny), should the United States assist
thirty or forty thousand malcontents TO
seize and possess this garden Of the
sea" because they find home-rule de-
mands rent of her property by taxing
her subjects-property she is bound TO
maintain and protect from danger, for
eign and domestic? As well should our gov
eminent have submitted to the organized
and armed forces in the whisky Insur-
rection" who imagined themselves I'M
justly taxed; or to have conceded to the
South Carolina Nullifers" the right TO
refuse the payment of custom duties.
Again, should this heterogeneous crowd
succeed, what assurance have We that
the home rule would be improved. Is it
not likely to be monarchic aye, despotic,
rather than liberal and free? Our i'm
preston. from colladng facts. is that
not six months would elapse before the
tocsin of war would be heard anc q race
war would scourge the land. The first
half of the present century Of Mexican
misrule saw more than twenty Emporers,
Kings and Potentates deposed through
revolution and bloodshed, melted by race
antagonisms This is domestic quarrel.
in which IL is always prudent not TO med