Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-06-03
D1sGRAcEFuL AND HuMILIATING.

| gresso. a newspaper published in Habana,
| has been received at Washington, and
| contains a review of the situation in this
| country which il at once a monument to
! Spanish journalistic enterprise, and a
! scathing commentary upon the deceit this
| government has practiced upon our peo-
| pie. Here is one interesting excerpt from
| the article:
Already our gallant fleet has lombard
| ed their city of Boston and driven the in
| habitants of that place into the interior,
| compelling them to flee for their lives.
| Next we will move upon New York and
no Yankee ships dare attack US, knowing
| full well their inability to cope with the
! formidable Spanish navy. Already there
| is tumult and instruction among the
Yankees because Of the failure of their
arms, and the people are blaming Presi-
| dent Mckinley. a military guard of 200
] soldiers surrounds his palace TO prevent
| an assassin from reaching him. He never
| goes out, and il is expected daily that
news will be sent out of his death, so in
! tensely enraged are the people because
| they see nothing but defeat in their war
| against Spain. Civil war is threatened
among the United States. and it may be
looked for at any moment The wealthy
Yankees of New York and Philadelphia
have barricaded their houses and armed
their servants, fearing both the attacks
of our forces and the mobs of their own
people"
And here is another:
1.-THE Philippines, which were at first
reported lost 10 us, have been regained,
it, indeed they were ever out of our
power or in danger of being lost. The
ships of the Yankee commander have
been destroyed, with great loss of life,
and the rebel forces have united with
all good Spanish citizens in driving the
foreigners from those islands, and have
reoreanized their government under an
equitable autonomy, such as exists in
Cuba to-day"
Could there be more convincing evil
dence than these excerpts afford of the
fact that every American newspaper-man
from Maine to Texas ought to hide his
diminished head?
While we have been hooking the Span
ish press as slow, a paper printed in a
province Of a Spanish Colonial possession
is getting the Invest sort of exclusive
news from the capital of this nation and
three of the largest cities in the North.
Perhaps the Boston papers may be cx-
citing news regarding that city printed
in El-Progresso for doubtless, they took
to the woods when the bombardment of
the Hub commenced, and have since been
published in some vast wilderness, some
boundless continuity of shade But Cor
the life of us, we cannot see any excuse
for the New York, Philadelphia, and
washington papers getting "scooped" as
they have been by their Habana contem-
porary. Nor for that matter can we see
any excuse for any paper in the United
States allowing itself 10 be "scooped' on
the Mem about the threatened civil war
in this country. The long and the short
of the whole matter is that 'the beat
is the most disgraceful and humiliatng
thing that ever happened to the Ameri-
can press.
Again, El-Progresso's article ought To
cause this government to blush like an
AURORA borealis over the deceit which, as
we have minated, ii is clear it has been
practicing on the unsuspecting masses
and innocent and confiding newspaper
correspondents. The article utterly dis
credits all the information the govern
ment has given out touching the cutting
Of cables by our navy, and the situation
i'm the Philippines. There can be no more
question that El-Progresso is in direct and
plenitudinous cable communication with
the principal cities of this country and
with Manila than there can be that the
picture IL draws of conditions existing
here and at Manila is absolutely correct
There can be no more doubt that FL
Progresso Is inspired TO tell the truth
the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth, than there is that 1t has developed
q stupendous genius for yellow journal
ism that renders Munchausenism pardon
able sophistication by comparison, and is
calculated to make Of its yellow contem-
poraries in the United States sympo-