The morning times., 1897-02-23
Americans to the Rescue.

If there is a spark OF the once splendid
despot hating, ,liberty-loving, fighting Amer
ican blood left in our country. there will
be a Western question quite productive
of events and sensations, within the next
few weeks, as the Eastern question has
been for the past few days. The situation
created by the cowardly ana Infamous
policy of the present administration, with
regard TO the repeated insults to~ouT flag,
the Imprisonment, torture and murder OF
our citizens by the Spanish officials and
forces in Cuba, at last has reached a stage
so acute that il is difficult if not inn
! possible to see any outcome from it which
shall not involve war with Spain and our
occupation OF the Island OF Cuba.
Added to the long list of horrors which
from time to time this journal has had
to recount it now appears that DR.. Ricardo
Ruiz, for many years q practcing dentist
in Philadelphia, has been dubbed to
death in the cell at Guanabacoa TO which
he was consigned on suspicion OF unfriend-
illness to the Spanish government. OF
course it was reported by the authorities
! that he had committed suicide in prison;
but inspection of the body by General
| Fitzhugh Lee and the medical experts he
| forced Acting Captain General Ahumeda
| to allow him to take to Guiana baCoa, dis
| closed terrible wound on the back Of
the head and friGhtful scars on the wrists
and hands, and these only too plainly
| told the history of the dastardly crime.
If that were not enough, prisoners in the
| Jail had listened to the blows, and 10 the
| agonizing cries for mercy that came from
/ Dr. Ruiz's cell while the murder was
being committed.
knowing that Dr. Ruiz had been thrown
into a dungeon, Consul General Lee had
demanded access to him, and access for
| the prisoners counsel, and had been con-
temptuously refused. Spanish sub
| iect, arrested on whatever charge, must
have examination and formal committal
within seventy-two hours, but an Amer
| lean may be pitched into filthy hole
and kept there indefinitely. In such cases
our representative is and has found himself
/ absolutely helpless. The Spanish friendship
of our State Department has not even al
| lowed the presence of single warship in
the harbor of Havana to back the hand of
our consul gen eral. WhenGen Fitzhugh Lee
reported the facts to his government and
| asked for active and peremptory mea sures
to secure the release, or proper civil trial,
of DR.. Ruiz his representations were ig-
| nored. and the inhuman butchery of the
prisoner followed naturally.
Spanish officials are said to sneeringly
assert that it is not for nothing that the
Spanish legation in Washington is spend
ing thirty thousand dollars a month! They
also observe. sardonically, that the United
States is under the control Of trusts and
monopolies which are determined that
there shall be no war and no interference
with Spanish atrocities.
Perhaps they have right to think SO,
and to believe that the claws OF the Ameri-
can eagle have been finally clipped to the
quick. DR.. Delgado, peacable American
citizen, was slapped in the face and
knocked down by the Spanish Gen. Mel
guiZo. That officer told him that if the
American consul We're presenG he would be
treated in the same way. Then DR.. Del
gado was shot and hacked with machetes,