The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-04-06
WeyIer a Strange Man,

weyler's moods varied. At times he
would invite a correspondent to sit down
upon sofa with him and enter into a free
| conversation. At others he would receive
| the correspondent while seated at his desk
Looking up. he would say: DO you want
to see me? Well, what is it? Speak! L
am quite busy"
He spoke English only when his adju-
| tants were not present, says Amos Cum
mings in a sketch. He seemed TO be ap-
prehensive that it would create a suspi-
cion within their minds if they heard him
conversing in English with the cores
pondents. If a correspondent produced a
clipping from a newspaper Weyier inVarl-
ably seized IL and put it in his pocket
He patroniZed all the clipping bureaus
in the United States. and had a score OF
scrapbooks. All clippings of denunciation
against him were underlined with red ink
They were placed in a separate scrap
book. All caricatures of himself and of
the little King of Spain were put in
different volume.
AT times he was facetious. George Bry-
son, well-known respondent, once Wis
tied him, and asked permission to see the
Competitor and other American prisoners
| in the Cubanas. IF you don't care to let
me enter the fortress" said Bryson,
please be SO kind as to have them
brought TO the gate where I can talk TO
them
Why" replied Weyler, don't you know
that there are no American prisoners in
the Cubanas? Haven't you yet learned
that 1 have fed them all to the sharks?"
No" Bryson answered. Il hadn't
Learned it,
We'll" replied Weyler. you don't read
the New York Sun. Some days ago one
of the postoffice officials brought me a
letter addressed to Mr. God. managing ed
itor of the New York Sun (the managing
EDITORS name was Lord. 1t was a good,
fat letter. looked over il and found that
two bodies of prisoners had been picked
up off Moro Castle, with their arms and
| legs eaten off by sharks. The correspond
ent further asserted that nearly all the
prisoners in the Cubanas had been fed to
sharks, and the sharks had got so fat they
were hardly able to swim. There was
only one thing to do with such letter
as that" continued Weyler. land that was
TO seal it up and forward it. 1t was a rec
ognition of the confidence of the CORES
pendent in the Spanish mail system. 9th
er correspondents would have sent the let
ter to Key West in a special dispatch boat
Well, the Sun printed it with a fiaring
caption. The only regret that had about
it was that my friend, Don Pancho, of the
Associated Press. was beaten out of the
news. But gave Pancho chance after
ward. On the following day 1 sent for him
and gave him shark story.
Have you heard what the sharks did
| today?' I said to him.
No. he replied.
"'WeI,' said I, this morning I sent
a firing squad over to the Cubanas to
shoot two Cubans. The squad was head
ed off in the bay by two big sharks. One
of the sharks jumped into the boat and
drove the firing squad to the masthead
delaying the execution until new squad
appeared"
He actually forced Don Pancho to send
this story to the Associated Press. "And
the next day." said Weyler, with a smile.
Don Pancho received a dispatch from the
New York agent, asking whether he was
drunk or crazy"
Some absurd stories threw the Captain
General into an uncontrolloble rage. One
day he read in an American newspaper
a story accusing him of wrapping the
Stars and Stripes around an American
prisoner, and of then burning him alive.
Weyler gritted his teeth. stamped his feet,
worked his Austrian chin with anger. and
said that if he could catch the correspond
ent who wrote the story he would wrap
him in the Spanish flag, place a dynamite
bomb beneath him, and blow him eff the
island. This was said in the censor's Of
fee while a score of correspondents were
awaiting a revision of their dispatches.
Next day two of these correspondents dis
appeared from the island