The age-herald., 1897-11-19
QUEEN PARDONED
 THE PRISONERS !. Minister Woodford CabIed the
 State Department. THEIR STORY WELL KNOWN Captured With the Famous Competitor
 in April, 1896, AT TRIAL WERE SENTENCED TO DIE Some Conditions Thought to Have
 Been Imposed.
Some Conditions Thought to Have
 Been Imposed.
SENIOR DE LONE coNFERs WITH DAY
Another Troublesome Factor of the Weyer Regime Will Probably Be Removed, So That the Cuban Tobacco Crop
 May Be Exported.

Washington, Nov. 1S.-Min.ster Wood ford has telegraphed the state depart ment that the Spanish cabipst has noi- fled him that the queen has pardoned the Competitor prisoners.
 The state department now announces that the Competitor prisoners were turned over to Gen. Lee last Monday and will be sent by him direct to New York.
 It is not doubted here that the pris- oners are liberated on some such condi- tions as were imposed in the case of former prisoners; that is that they will not return to Cuba. After their bitter experience in the Cuban jails it is not be- 1ieved that the men will be disposed to violate any unde. standing of this kind to which they may be parties. It is singular that the men should have be;n for four days in the custody of Consul General Lee without the fact having be- come generally known, but it is supposed that secrecy was observed in order to insure departure from Havana without exciting Spanish trouble from the ex- treme corserva i've Spanish faction.
 There were four prisoners, namely, AL fred Dabosde, the captain of the Com pet tor a native of New Orleans; w liam Gildea, the mate, a naturalized citizen; Ona Melton, who claims Kansas as his native state and who went on the Com petitor in the capacity of a newspaper corresp p ndent; Charles Ba. rett, of Brit sh birth but who claimed the protection of the United States by virtue of his sailing on an American vessel.
 The conditions under which the Com petitor was captured April 25, 1896, off the Cuban coast, while engaged in land ing arms for the insurgents have been often described. The defence of the m n was that they were forced into the ex- pedition against their will by the insur- gent party aboard the boat They were tried before naval court martial, be- fore which they could make only poor showing, principally because of their ignorance of the Spanish language, in which the proceedings were conducted, so that the conviction and the imposition of he death sentence was not matter of surprise.
 At that point, however. the case as- sumed diplomatic importance. The Un.tei1 States government through its consul gene.al at Havana, then Ramsn Williams, and also through Minister Hannis Taylor at Madrid, interpcssd an energetic protest against the execution of the sentence, claiming that the men ware improperly tri=d without the guar antees held out in the famous Cushing protocol. This protest caused the re- moval of the case to the higher judicial
 I trial was ordered. The Spanish govern ment, however, did not, and has not yet, conceded that the Gushing protocol ap- pied to such cases. To admit thst would, in the opinion Of the Spanish authorjti; s, greatly stimulate the fitting out of filibustering parties in the United States.
 The new trial had been ordered by the Madrid supreme court on the glounds of irr gularites in the previous trial, not because of amy concession of the soundness of the objections interposed by the United States officials. It was to have begun last Monday, and it was thought would have resulted in the inn position of the death sentence again. This would have provoked an explosion in this country, according to the antsci- paltlOn or une uepsiT TliIeHt oiilci1iS, ludt would have bel hardly less violent than the feeling caused by the famous Virginius episode, so it is to them a matter of satisfaction that the Spanish queen has cut the diploma tic tangl+ by the pardon of the men before the second trial
 Senor Dupuy de Lome, the Spanish minister, had long confluence with Assistant Secretary Day this morning, and it is believed the Span sh govern ment is about voluntarily ito remove an- other troublesome factor from the faca of negotiations in regard to the decree made by Weylsr prohibiting dhe exporla- tion of tobacco from Cuba This prohibi- tion has worked great hardships upon the large American cigar making inter- ests, and up to this time all efforts of the state department to secure an ameliora- tfon of tine harsh condJ.ltcns of th+ de- cree have been unavaiHng.
 The reason asserted by Gen. Weyler for the decree was the necessity of keep