The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-08-11
raeAcneaous oesosor
Instances I'm the Present War which
Justify Their Reputation.

Instances I'm the Present War which
Justify Their Reputation
Since the outbreak of the present war
the world has ~resounded to the loud
yociferations of SPANS honor"
Spain's ships are sunk. her armies cap
tured and her colonial possessions
wrenched from her, but still she cries
like France at Pavia, that honor is
saved.
For a nation which regards honor
above everything else, avs the New
York Press, Spain has been in the acts
of her agents, singularly negligent OF
that desirable commodity. A superfu-
ity OF any one article often makes one
careless about IL. Then, again, per-
haps Spanish honor is OF a peculiar
brand unknown to the rest OF the civ
flized world. Here are a few incidents
which look that way:
Every sensible man believes now that
the Maine was blown up In the haroor
Of Havana by q Spanish mine when
she was there on a friendly visit. 1t
was such a cold blooded piece of treach-
erous murder that for a while even
many Americans refused to believe IL.
The destruction of the Maine was the
beginning of our realization OF what
Spanish honor meant.
At AHt III S"t Ah1h W. 49,
conspicuous cases, incidents in which
Spanish honor came out In bold relief.
In a little book called Dewey at Ma
nfla," being a story of the fight, as told
by the notes and letters of an officer
on the Olympia, edited by Thomas j.
Vivian, occurs the following: Just as
the picture of Ulloa's end Is luridly
bright, so that of another ship is
gloomily dark. For the sake of her gal
liant mates, this ship shall be nameless.
She had hauled down her colors about
the same time that the Ulloa had re-
fused to do so and gone down with
them all a-futter. A boats crew from
the McCulloch was signaled to go and
take possession of the nameless ship,
when, to our amazement. she opened
fire on the approaching gig. The en-
sign stood up in the stern In OPEN
mouthed wonder at such a piece OF
treachery, but kept his boat along his
course. The Incident had not passed
unobserved by the squadron, however,
and the S~paniard's fate was a swift
one. There was no need for the COM
modore to fly a signal, for II was with a
common impulse that every one OF our
vessels stopped firing at the enemy In
general and directed every available
shot at that Spaniard in particular. The
bay leaped and loaned around the
traitorous vessel. as though II had been
struck by a Texas tornado. and when
the waters were at rest again the Span
lard had vanished as completely as
though tina ornado had carried her
bodily into a ~neighboring state"
Another brilliant example of the hon.
or. of Spain, as typifed in her officers.
was afforded at Manila, when the COM
handing officer of the arsenal at Ca
vite hoisted a white flag and then calm
ly told Captain Lamberton. who came to
receive his surrender, that he a not
surrendered at all, but had simply de-
cided to make a truce while the fighting
was going on, so that he could remove
women and children from the arsenal.
He was persuaded that IL was a real
surrender, nevertheless.
How at Santiago field hospitals were
fred on and wounded men, struggling
to the rear, shot down 10 well known.
That again was Spanish honor. Ste
phen Crane says:
Red Cross men, wounded men, sick
men, correspondents and attaches were
all one to the guerilla. The move of
sending an irregular force around the
TANKS of the enemy as he Is making his
front attack is so legitimate that some
of us could not believe at first that the
men hidden in the forest were really
blazing away at the non-combatants or
the wounded. Viewed simply as a bit
of tactics. the scheme was admirable.
But there is no doubt now that they
Intentionally fired at anybody they
thought they could kill.
You can't mistake an ambulance
driver when he is driving his ambu-
lance. You can't mistake a wounded
man when he is lying down and being
~bandaged. And when you see a field
hospital you don't mistake II for q
squadron of cavalry or a brigade OF
infantry"
1t was a fine sense of Spanish honor
which impelled the unners on Ger
vera's ships to throw overheard the
breech blocks of their runs after they
had surrendered and to open the sea
cocks of the Oquendo after her flag had
been hauled down. Lying is, of course
almost indispensable to Spanish honor
Blanco's lies and the lies Of the Spanish
ministers are too well known to need
comment. The captain general OF the
Philippines, before the American fee
got there. issued a proclamation saying
that the favorite amusement of the
Americans was pillaging churches and
sacking nunneries. and that they al
ways tortured their prisoners and des-
ecrated g~raveyards. He Is an educated
man and of couree knew he WAS living