The herald., 1898-06-26

his sermons the topic that is in every ones
heart and mind, the war with Spain; also,
he has been quick to see that sermon
preached to the great multitude of readers
of The Herald is more widely circulated
than one delivered from the pulpit to con-
gregation. For this reason he has written
the following, which he entities Cutting
the Cables at Cienfuegos." 1t will be fol-
lowed by another, written especially for
this paper, on Hobsons heroic deed and
other thrilling events of the war.
TOLEDO, O., June 22.-(Special Corre-
spondence to The Herald) The cutting Of
the cables off Cienfuegos is deed that fires
the soul of the Christian as well
as the secular soldier. The injunc-
ton flight the good fight OF faith
showed that st. Paul thought there
was an analogy between the soldier and the
spiritual soldier. The Scripture lesson from
Isaiah lxiii, of the conqueror come from
Bozah, in Edom, revealed the prophet s
tact in drawing divine lessons from the
| transactions of the times. First, our navy
at Cienfuegos was far from home. Loved
ones and ordinary employments of peace
had been laid aside. Their country had
ceased to talk of producers and non-pro-
ducers. The proud were to be punished and
the helpless were to be freed. AS one of our
Sunday school periodicals recently SAID:
''Wipe the soldier out of history, and you
| have lowered mans estimate of human ma
ture and its possibilities. Our love of ease.
our fear of pain, our dread of death-these
are paltry things of human life which the
| soldier despises and turns his back upon.
| He has found greater motives in life than
these which entangle us, and we love him
| for the discovery. 1t reveals, we are fain
to believe, and perhaps not wrongly, un-
| dreamed-of possibilities in the most timid
| of u.s.
| And so, afar from home, our soldiers and
sailors have gone at the call of God. They
and the nations leaders have been follow
ing events from WHICH there has been no
honorable escape. This nation has been
forced to its position of war by moral recti-
tude and substantial honor We could not
have respected ourselves had we flinchad
| from the cries which starving patriots were
addressing to us from just across the mar
row sea. After the destruction of the Maine
we had to fight. The war was inevitable
| as the providence of God. We have no fixed
policy concerning the Philippines nor con-
corning Cuba. Lincoln had no fixed policy
concerning slavery in 1861. But God has.
| incidentally this Cienfuegos cable station,
| which looped Batabano and Havana on the
west and Santiago de Cuba on the east, was
| a link between Havana and Cadiz. 1t was
| not the mere cutting of an inch of wire
that was sought. 1t was separation of an
enemy's forces. 1t was an isolation of those
who were forcibly to be taught great les
son, and having been thrashed, to be saved
| to themselves and to civilization. And SO
| the Nashville, the Marblehead and the Win
dom sailed up towards the winding bay of
| Cienfuegos with the determination to cut
the cables. The three warships stood out
among the rolling waves 1000 yards from the
shore. The first rays of the rising sun re-
vealed the Spaniards to be fully alert, as
though they guessed the mission of the war
ships. AS Lieut.. Winslow started shore
ward with his six rowboats of marines, ac-
companied by two steam launches, you
could see the rife pits by the very water S
| edge. Rapid-firing guns and small can
| non on shore flashed in the morning sun
light Groups of cavalry raced up and
down a white path that led over the hill
to the city And yet the men rowed right
on up towards the shore though they knew
that its tall grass and underwood concealed
thousand Spaniards.
Once within hundred feet of the ca Bile
house and two hundred feet of the rifle
pits, at the command they threw out the
anchor and began graphing for the cabe
The water, penetrated by the bright morn
ing sunlight was clear as glass. From the
soft white sand at the bottom, the grap-
pling hooks plucked up the Shiny cable.
Then came the first shot from the shore.
The ping of bullet rushes over the heads
of the sailors and there is a splash in the
smooth waters beyond. With hatchet and
chisei and saw, slowly the sailor sewers the
cable that is across their boat Then they
search for a second cable.
AS Lieutenant Winslow tells the story:
"a hurricane of shells shrekegl and hisse1
above our heads and tore to fragments the
earth where the Spaniards were crouching
and hiding. Again and again the guns
roared from the ships. Again and again
great clouds of dust and debris flew skyward
on the shore. Another mighty crash from
the Nashville and the cable house flew into
the air, torn into numbe ress fragments.
Another crash from the Marblehsad and
the blockhouse was in ruins
"Then this iron storm from the sea
swung around and swept the hill side 1t
shattered the rocks and trees 1t plowed
great burrows in the soft sand. 1t drove
a throng of panc-stricktn men scurrying
to shelter Thea 1t lowered again like the
rays of mighty searchlight and raked
and rddled the rifle pits. What marks
manship! The terrible fire pouring in upon
the rifle pits passed only few feor above
the sailors working in the beats. Who but
Yankee gunners could CO that-would do
it--antr who but Yankee sailors would work
on like heroes under such a blast furnace
of destruction?
"All the time a heavy sea was rolling, and
the miscalculation of the fraction of an inch
or the fraction of a second would have
slaughtered the men in the boats. But there
cam0 u moments pause in the awful bel
lowing from he ships and that moment was
a fatal one
"Snap, snap, snap, from different points
came the fire of the Spanish rifles and eight
brave men sank down in the boats. Two
were dead and six were wounded
Thus the overhead protecting providence
dashes down all opposition to heroes every
where who toll for God. They cannot fail
till their work is done. And so the cables
were cut. There was the rowing back again
when the task was done. 1t was at the end
Of three awful hours. All the wo.ld was 10
know of their brave deed. They bore with
ibero the nrire of their MT ht v hi ve m mt