The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-05-14
STORIES TOLD AT KEY WEST.
Incidents of News Gathering in Cuba
ReInted bY Correspondents.

incidents OF News GudReFlnS In Ouua
Related by Correspondents.
KEY WEST, Fla, May 13.-There is many
a long wait here for the dozens of special
correspondents who have no tugs at their
disposal and nothing to do but TO await the
arrival Of the mail steamers and scan the
horizon with glasses for war vessels COM
ing in with prizes The long line of chairs
on the shady side of one hotel veranda in
town has come to be known as Lotus
row" and the war face has taken rank
among the watchers with the bicycle face
and the trolley car face in cooler and less
troublesome climates. Blue, tropic skies,
white, dusty streets under a blazing sun
and hypnotic vistas of feathery palm tronds
and banana trees against the cloudless hori-
zon all tend to somnolent laziness, cigar
cites and cooling drinks, and, of course,
stories
Now that news no longer has to run the
gauntlet from Havana albeit the censor is
now an American naval officer at this end
of the line, some stories may be freely told
that were contraband of print while the
actors were still in reach of Blanco's arm.
AS matter of fact, there was very falr
amount of smuggling and blockade breaking
in news and other things while Havana was
still accessible to the correspondents, and
these tales, once told in whispers. are now
coming out on the shady side of the hotel
porch as "reminiscences of the ante-blockade
days.
The Havana customs authorities and such
agents were an easy lot at best. They sell
dom called a bluff that was made with a
good front, and the things that went on I'M
der their noses almost daily would have
cost half the force their jobs had the facts
ever got to the palace. The writer landed
in Havana some months ago with a bundle
of kilograms in his pocket that ought to
have put him in Cabanas. They were adj
dressed to another correspondent who was
too much under the ban to receive mail or
kilograms i'll his own name at Havana. The
carrying of the bundle of messages from
Key West was merely q friendly office that
half dozen other correspondents had often
done before. To have concealed the papers
on ones person would have been confess
sion of conscious guilt in case of discovery;
so the bearer simply folded the messages
lengthwise and stuffed them into the big
State Department envelope that held his
passports The officials who received the
passports all saw the messages, but never
questioned their contents.
The foregoing incident was mild, however.
compared with the exploit of another and
more radical correspondent, who. being in
full sympathy with the Havana Junto, UNI
dertook to convey them about thirty pounds
of dynamite at Il time when they needed it
badly and when the lines on filibusterinS
were drawn unusually close lie simply
packed this explosive in two big wooden
candy boxes with covers, and put in layer
of big chocolate creams over oiled paper
ION top. The special agent at the gangway
of the steamer knew him, and when he
started down the ladder to the shore boat
said to him. jolxingly, whats that you've
got-dynamite?'
You guessed it." said the unabashed
scribe, pulling back the lid. take Some up
to Blanco." The astute special agent took
a generous handful of the Chocolates and
the dynamite went ashore.
Letters from the Woods" as the insur-
gents lines are vaguely termed IN havana,
were almost as dangerous as dynamite; but
they were passed through the lines quite
as often. One of the several newspaper
men who went into the fields returned our
ing Weylers regime with enough letters
to have hung him, several being official
documents for the Junto in New York.
There were three Spanish officers on the
train that brought him into Havana from
Sagua la Grande and he had reason to
think they had marked him, and were going
to arrest him at the depot in Havana. JUST
before the train stopped he called his Cuban
servant and, taking bundle OF the solled
shirts from his grip. tossed them to him
with the remark take those up to Blank $,
meaning laundry with q very pro-Spanish
proprietor The man got off with the bun
die, which had the insurgent letters sate
inside it, and when, three minutes later, the
correspondent and his baggage were RICHLY
searched. there was nothing found on him
but a couple of very pro-Spanish letters
written him by some oblglng CUBAN Irlehus
for just such an emergency.
Another of the correspondents who is close
in touch with the, Cubans and mas zone
for fGo,11 fhctl nv
man in Key West. tells with smile now
he helped a Spanish captain to capture
Cuban standard, which exploit mace I'M, tne
on Weyler's staff at the palace. The stand
ard was made to order by the Cuban Junto
in Havana and the correspondent and the
captain took it out with them one night
with q small detachment of Spanish cavalry
from MatanZas. Coming to good dark
place in the road the two conSplratOrs raised
q war yell and dashed ahead, emptying two
Mausers and four siX-shooters into the
bushes. The cavalry escort punched ltselI
in the middle of the road ana commenced
shooting in general way at the scenery
That is always tactful move made by the
Spanish when they think they are attacked
After many rounds of ammunition had been
used the captain came daShlng up WIN the
Cuban standard on Il short section or a
broken staff The affair was cnt9 i ns +h 5s
gallant captain followed in due course. Ihe
intrinsic value of the standard was about
$3.50 in labor and material and Tor IT the
Cuban Junto received a pass TO carry 20
nourds of medicine through the Spanish
lines
OF all the methods of smuggling through
the custom house, however: one OF the
most unique was recorded in Havana by a
letter from Gomez not long before the block
ade was inaugurated. 1t reads: Many
thanks for the cavalry trumpet from our
friend9 in New York ! can safely say it
is one of the sweetest instruments in the
world. We hone to hear it blown as soon as
we get the jelly boiled out OF It, 1t mad
come in a consignment of preserves to a
Havana grocery firm.