New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-06-15
"NUTILATED BARBAROUSLY."

1t is with extreme reluctance that Americans
will accept the announcement that the bodies
Of the marines killed in the recent night at
tack on their camp near Guantanamo were
mutilated Every person Of honorable In
stincts must have wished to believe for tho
sake Of Spain herself, that the first report to
that effect was enormously based upon hasty
observation Of wounds received IN the fight
But It is no longer possible to entertain that
belief or to remain in doubt. Admiral Samp
sons official report to the Navy Department
confirms the hideous story. He cannot have
been mistaken. Conclusive proof must have
been submitted to him before he sent his brief
dispatch 1t is not a suspicion, but fact
which he communicates. "Mutllated barbar
ousy' are his words.
Such an accusation brought against any other
nation called civilized would have been utterly
incredible, and the mind shrinks from believing
that even Spain can condone the act And yet
II must be said that the part Of Spain the
performance and the federation Of It are even
readily conceivable. Her history Is black with
atrocities committed both in peace and war
In this very struggle to reconQuer Cuba her
Unsuitable cruelty to helpless prisoners and to
innocent non-combntants has .been established
whole world 1t Is said that she has done only
what the insurgents themselves have done.
That may be true The blood and the trad
tons are the same. But twenty-five years ago
the monster Burriel, Governor Of Santiago
subjected his Vrginius victims to awful fortunes
while they were still alive and the dead to In
famous indignites For this he was never even
rebuked, so far any record shows. and
nothing better than a spurious promise Of
atonemcnt was ever made to the United States
The Napoeonic wars and the Carlst uprising
bore constant witness to the barbarty which
underlies the thin veneer Of Spanish civilian
ton And now again, at the end Of a century
Of dishonor and deepening degradation. that
most Christian" nation makes another lOath-
some display Of the brute spirit which fills
and dooms t. We should like to know what
incredulous Americans who refused 10 accept
for a moment the original theory and the accu-
INFLATED evidence Of the Names destruction by
Spanish treachery think now on the subject or
Spanish capacity for such n deed. Is race
which IA capable of mutilating barbarously the
bodies of brave men killed In battle incapable
Of anything that is abhorrent?
We know now, at least what our soldiers
and sailors must expect to endure II they fall
into the hands Of the enemy. Not In every In
stance, thank God for Cervera has shown that
honor can and does exist among them; but
perhaps wherever a Spanish officer, proving tho
rule by q personal exception. lacks the power
to curb the vile fury Of subordnates. There
Ia no need to speak Of the emotions which
such an act as Admiral Sampson describes will
arouse In this country, and 1t Is impossible to
doubt that they will be shared wherever his
report is repeated by the military representa-
tive Of a foreign Power observing the opera
tions Of the war The sympathy Of CONT
mental Europe with Spain, already waning. can
scarcely survive the shock Of such n revelation,
and II would seem that the respectable people
of all Christendom must long to see nation