Evening star., 1898-11-18
TROOPS IN MUTINY
The 0rden Publicoes Demand Their
Pay.
some EXCITEMENT Tn HAVANA
Awed by Regular Troops and
Disbanding Fiction.
A PITTA nee OF PAY
A PITTA nee OF PAY
Copyright 1898, by Charles NJ Pepper

HAVANA, November II, 1898.
Incidents of vanishing and impotent
Spanish sovereignty multiply as the end
draws near. Perhaps it should not be call
ed impOtent, for its efforts are not barren
The regular troops are holding the city
from within they held it last January
when the mob was rioting against autono-
my AT this writing there are no rioters
to suppress. The habitues of the cafes are
yet disputing whether the soldier whom
Gen. Arolas ran through with his sword
Thursday night is dead and buried, or
whether the sword thrust was only skin
scratch. While the military authorities do
not enlighten them on this subject, the SOL
dier is corpse and his comrades know it,
The cry of the troops is Brothers ALL we
want our pay Yet brothers are massed
against brothers to prevent the demand for
pay being repeated the orden publicoes
made it. The orden publcoes, as an or
SanizatiOn, have been dissolved They are
now simply mutinous regulars like the rest
OF the troops. AS a body of picked men
they We're splendid police force for Ha-
Vdha. Pending American control no ade-
quate means can be found for replacing
them.
The Present Mutinies.
90 not Know whether or not the hap
penings of this week have been given an
exaggerated Importance in the United
States. Since Captain General BIanco mas
been acting as press censor. probably the
cable dispatches to the newspapers have
not been so sensational as those sent by
the members of the American Military
commission to the authorities in V. N.ashing-
ton. 1t all depends on what happens next
week and the other weeks that are to
elapse before the flag goes up on Moro
Castie- The city is calm on the surface.
Iodo esta tranquilo everything quiet
as the Spanish official phrase has it. And
II the army is paid everything will be quiet
tomorrow and day after tomorrow.
The present mutiny is simply d cuimiua-
ton. The orden publicoes had been unable
10 get any portion of their wages. They
knew their Superiors had received some
money. Becoming desperate, they decided to
strike for what was theirs. They had been
holding meetings and many of them had
refused to go back to police duty Their
places had been filled by regulars from the
barracks. The keenly observant population
OF Havana saw and waited. Thursday
morning the third company of orden publ
Goes went to the palace and demanded to
see the captain general. They wanted
their pay That they were making this
demonstration on behalf of the entire body
was well understood. General Solano, the
chief OF staff. came out and demonstrated
with them, but they did not go away
Bluff old General Arolas. the military gov
ernor OF Havana, arrived storming like wild
DUH, called tncln bad names, cuffed them.
slapped their faces and ordered them to
their quarters Then the orden publicoes
went away. but not to their quarters. The
official account said they stopped in front
OF the palace in an attitude of apparent
disorder. Americans will not understand
how crisis such this could be passed
without a bloody revolt. l have never
found any one in the United States who
could understand how the pacifcoes permit
ted themselves to be shut up in prison
pens with their wives and children to be
starved to death without throwing them
selves against the bayOnetS of their cap
tors. And 1t is equally difficult to appre-
clate the present circumstances. No one
can imagine crack regiment of American
troops gOaded into mujny for any cause
and then, after mutiny, quietly submit to
d major general slapping their faces and
sending them away. And after the general
had killed one of them the submission
would he ineXplicable. Only a knowledge
of the degree to which the common people
OF Spain and of Spanish colonies have been
imbruited by centuries of subjection can
explain II. There is the other side, too
which is the lOcseness of military disci-
pine in the Spanish army that permits a
mutiny to be treated political incident.
Moreover, we have not yet seen the end of
the incident.
We'll undcrstood on Both Sides.
This mutiny of the orden publicoes was
perfectly understood on both sides 1t was
a demonstration that they must have some
of their back pay. Having made it, they
We're satisfied to await results. The turn
had now come for the government, or what
remains of Spanish sovereignty, to make
its counter demonstration During the
afternoon | noticed that some of the troops
were being withdrawn from their barracks
and stationed at the parks and street cor
rers where the leading thoroughfares in
terscct. In the evening came the coup,
which wasn't so much of stroke of force,
but which answered for a possible emer-
gency. General Arolas had gone out into
the towns near by and brought in three
additional regiments. Most of them were
stationed in the Prado The last time l
saw the Prado filed with soldiers was the
night in April before Consul General Lee
and the Americans left. The volunteers
were being drilled then.
The troops which were ordered in by Gen.
Arolas bivouacked on the sidewalks in front
of the houses. They cooked their suppers
and then squltted around in squads with
the freedom of barrack life. The people
within the houses. chiefly family groups
took no apparent notice of their presence.
Domestic affairs were not disturbed. Clear
ly, nothing extraordinary expected.
The usual number of persons were walking
on the PradO or moving through the Parque
Central. The cafes in that vicinity had not
so many officers and some of those who
were in their accustomed places were not
in uniform. The colonel who was i'll COM
i hos