The age-herald., 1898-02-26
THREE YEARS OF
 WAR IN CUBA

Three years ago Thursday the uprising against Spanish tyranny in the Island Of Cuba was begun. It was not an ephemeral movement, nor the expression Of discontent of a faction, but rather the desperate att tempt at resistance of a people driven like rats into a corner whence there was no escape unless it should be by maiming the hand that scourged them.
 For three centuries Spain had fattened and grown gross on this her bond slave of the Antilles. For three centuries she had shown no mercy, no compassion. no justice. From the heart of Cuba has been squeezed the life-blood to feed the Castfliian vam- pire. and when the captive weak and tot tering refused because she could not give further sustenance, the whip swung and stung as the lash urged her forward to the final and supreme sacrifice. The infamous Duke De Ava was never more cruel, nor Torquemada more ingenious, in the ex- quisite agones of torture in their day than were in later days Weyler in his butcheries and Pando in his complacent connivance at the burning of old women at the stake and the ravishing of children by his bestial soldiers.
 Feb. 24 1895. was the Lexington of Cuba. Word had been conveyed over the island before. From Cape Maisi, in the east, to San Antonio in the west, it was known that the last struggle was to be begun. For three years preparations had been going on. From 1892 to 1895 Jose Marti, young, enthusiastic, imbued with patriotism that could not be threatened or cajoled, had been travelling through the United States and Central and South America, arousing the spirit of independence among those of his countrymen in whose hearts still burned the desire to their native land taken from beneath the yoke of Spanish domination.
 Martf, young as he was, knew that while strong arms and determined wills were the strong arms in all wars, the main sinew was money, and he found patriotism strong enough to supply 1t. In his mission he res ceived enough in ready cash and in assur- ances to warrant the striking of the blow.
 Maxine Gomez veteran of the Ten Years War, implacable, uncompromisng, vigor- ous in mind and body, was then in Santo Domingo, an exile. In accordance with a pre-arranged plan, he met the young pa- triot, and together they landed on the ca it. ern coast of Cuba with handful of men and inaugurated struggle that for per sitsency, dogged determination and steady exhaustion of a powerful foe is one of the most remarkable conflicts in the history of warfare. In an island 750 miles long, of fering no extraordinary obstacles to prop e1y disciplined force, Spain has been un- able in three years to subdue, with 240 900 Ii1eIl, dn eHeIny lHdL IidS Ut DO tiiue eACteu- ed S5,OOO, constantly dependent upon their own resources and without outside aid or recognition.
 It would be idle to go into description of battles, as we understand them. Perhaps it would be better to divide the three years warfare into nine campaigns-three to each year. The Cubans were obliged by reason of their weakness in numbers to pursue guerrilla policy. They were in the position of pign1ies in danger of being crushed to death under the feet of a giant and the natural law of self-preservation taught them that the giant must be tired out in his blundering, destructive rage before he could be conquered.
 Cuba has its dry and its rainy seasons, in contradistinction to the hot and cold sea- sons of this latitude, and 1t is in the dry season only that active military operations can be carried on.
 The first campaign was begun when there were 1000 Spanish soldiers on the island and 59,000 volunteers subject to immediate call if an emergency demanded their serv- ices.
 Notwithstanding the care exercised by Marti and Gomez, the secret agents of the Spanish government learned of the expected uprising, for on Feb. 23 the then captain general, Calleja, suspended by proclamation the constitutional guarantee of protection to all except those who had sworn allegi- ance to the crown. The home government at Madrid was notified, and the situation was deemed serious enough to warrant the minister of foreign affairs, Senor Ahar- zuza, in procaiming martial law. Seven thousand picked men were immediately dis patched from Spain to join the regulars, and the first campaign of the royalist sol- diers was directed toward preventing Co., meg from reaching Camaguay in the prov ince of Puerto Principe.
 The second campaign was against Maceo, e. I- f-.- T the island. It failed as did the second at- tempt to overcome him in Bayamo, where Martinez Campos, the Spanish commander, narrowly escaped capture.
 Then came the invasion of Matanzas by Gomez, the marching to the west by Maceo and his successful entrenchment in Plnar del Rio; the building of the trochas, which were expected to end the war; the humih- ating failure of Weyler to injure or drive Gomez out of Santa Clara, and the writch- ed spectacle of General Pando becoming almost crazed after demonstrating hds in- ability to dislodge General Calixto Garcia from his position the Cauto river
 This in all would make six campaigns of activity, each of them comprising hun- dreds of skirmishes, but no pitched battles, and all resulting in the exhaustion of the Spaniards and the increasing strength of the insurgents. To make up the total of nine, there must be put in the three sea- sons when cane grinding was prevented.
 The Cubans have suffered the loss of Marti, Maceo and Aranguren among the most conspicuous of their leaders; but the Kossuth, the Washington of the patriots Maximo Gomez-stdll bids defiance to his foes, dmpervious to their bribes as he Is to their bullets. At the conclusion of the thdrd year of the war, the insurgents have S6,- sgSO we'll armed and equipped men in the field, and the Spaniards less than 65,OoO half-fed under paid and discouraged.
 The majority of the Spanish eoldiers are mere boys recruited from the north and west of Spain, ignorant of any weapon more formidable than pruning hook until muskets were placed in their hands and they went through a perfunctory drdll They have been shipped to Cuba like so many cattle, and have had no more care at the honds of their commanding offi- cers than dogs Not less than 125,000 Of them have died of fever and smallpox.
 Of the sckening horrors of the methods employed by the Spanish soldfery in thedr war of exjterunination enough has been