The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-06-22
THE cLoaiFiC0 MAcHeTe.
Actually, as Well ne F~igurativeiy, Amer
ica's Gift TO Cabn.

~ @"D"
1T is curious how the humble ma
chete' that ] used to know so Familiarity
In bygone days has been brought into
fame by this Cuban revolution" said a
former West Indian planter. ut re-
minds me of the strange way in which
the civil war in this country took a gro
tesque song abou The land of cotton,
cinnamon seed and sandy bottom'-a
song of burnt cork, banjo and bones
and made OF Ii a war hymn that to
millions OF Americans Is still sacred.
The history of this century includes
Dixie among its documents. And to-
day the eyes Of mankind are directed to
the tableau Of Columbia arming Cuba
for the battle. and. instead of 'Voici lie
sabre Columbia sings Take the ma
chete.'
Don't you know what a 'machete' is?
II is an agricultural implement. some
thing like the primitive cornknife of
this country. used where hand b
rules to cut the cornstalks for gather
ing into shocks, only the 'machete' is
heavier, sharper. a little longer and
broader I'm proportion. broadening to-
ward its point. The crop 1t has to reap
is the sugar cane, which,. in the West
Indies. at least, is much thicker and
tougher thar the thickest cornstalk, and
is toughest rear the ground.
However, the ordinary use of a
machete goes far beyond the mere ut
ting of the cane crop. The wild shrubs
and the withes, or ropy vines. which
make the underbrush of the West Indies
are of tough fibre. In the temperate
zone underbrush is something of an OBJ
stacle in getting through the woods
when one is In a hurry, but 1t is an OBJ
stacle that can be put aside with the
hands at the cost of a few scratches and
rAnfG In tho frnnia rndnrhrrrch 10 IN
much more serious matter. as our SOL
diers are likely to learn with some pain.
There the shrub that has taken only a
few years to grow commonly takes much
more than "a few seconds, or minutes,
to break. and the withes have a way of
twisting themselves together into haw-
sers OF many strands and great
strength, hanging in loose bights high
and low from the boughs overhead. 1t
is absurd to thing of stopping to break
branches of shrubs IL you wish to move
rapidly through a tropical forest. and
even If you have plenty OF time and
muscle to spare for the exercise your
patience Is likely to succumb under the
exasperating embraces of those long,
timber 'Iianas.'
so for generations the machete has
been a necessity to the rural popula-
tions. from whom the rank and file of
the Cuban Insurgents have been main
ly recruited. They have used ii to reap
the crops. to clear the land for fresh
cultivation, and to help themselves to
an open pathway whenever they wished
IL make a short cut through the bush.
Tho last of those uses must have be-
come specially important in the g%uerril-
la warfare of recent years. At the
same time those Cubans who most
readily Joined the revolutionists were
just the class to whom the machete was
the most natural weapon of offense
and defense.
You will find the machete occupying
much the same place in their daily life
among the inland negroes of Jamaica,
for instance. They call it a 'mashay'
there. They. too, acquired a good deal
of skill in handling it,. n in at least
one riot they ave used it with MUIR
derous effect as "A weapon though
never in h~and-to-hand fight with
armed forces. Some years ago. and.
for all know, even now, almost every
other negro to be met on a country
road I'm Jamaica would be carrying a
'mashay.' unsheathed. because they
were no more provided with scabbards
han hoes or pickaxes would be. 1t was
the peasants constant companion, and
might occasionally be his protection
against a savage dog. or. in some dis
tricts, a stray alligator, or ne could use
- 49, ~ - '''n J''N ~ ~ S'A
eral principle Ia a snake, even if
harmless. should always be chopped
up. Not infrequently 1t has figured in
the criminal courts, when two negroes
have fallen out after too nue. conviv-
iality at the roadside rum shop.
"One interesting thing about IL is that
Columbia has armed Cuba with the
machete in a commercial and literal
sense. as well as in "A political and fig
urative me-. The machetes used
throughout the West Indies were for
mcrly mostly of English make; now
they are American. The American
manufacturers have fairly beaten their
competitors in this line, as in others.
until now there are comparatively few,
IL any. English-made machetes sold in
that part of the world. 1t Is not likely
that the Cuban patriots will ever hew
down Spanish soldiers with machetes
or ever nav done so to any great ex-
tent: still there is a certain p%oetical
fitness in the American-made machetes
as the emblem of this Antillean war of
guerra al machete.'