The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-04-17
back. feeling that 1 mad not struck for
uS'' NO DESIRE no KILL.

NO DESIRE TO KILL
Would you like 70 kin spaniard2"
But no, senor / would not for the world
kill any one: but figure 10 yourself, when
you ride against an enemy. that is a diff
ferent thing. You strike for Cuba and you
think only of Cuba. / have struck with the
machete, but 1t was not as il l had hurt
any one. They fell, but you know il was
for Cuba and I would not hurt any one"
Another brave woman, who did not ngnt
in the ranks, but who gave up all TO Wnlch
her gentle breeding had accustomed her,
has given to the cause of liberty her truess
and best. She, too, was a beautiful, refned
woman. That devil VIEWER who has made
the name of Spanard cursed for all time,
sent her to a penal settlement after having
subjected her 10 the vilest Of cruelties. rms
brave Cuban womans name is Nine. Her
nandez. Her husband was Dr: Francesca
Hernandez. who acted once as Maceos stan
surgeon. She accompanied the army as Il
nurse and rode with the staff of the fight
ing Maceo through some of the hottest pat
ties OF the revolution.
She sat her horse calmly in all KINDS OF
fighting, ready TO gallop through fire, be u
ever so heavy, to the side of any wounded
man. Men tell how she sat on the heid
with Spaniards shooting at her while she
held in her lap the head of a wounded man
and minstered to him as carefully as If she
were in the safest of places. She spoke OF
her acts rarely. and then only in response
to close questions. She, too, did not think
it at "A II strange that Cuban woman should
face toll and death for the freedom of the
island. TO the direct question of Grover
Flint, who met her once, whether she felt
fear when the bullets were flying thick, she
answered: ''Ah. no. senior. l feel no fear,
because 1 know that one falls only when
the time comes: so you see l couldn't feel
frightened, and it does not matter whether
the firing is near or far away; Then | have
my duties to attend to- which makes
difference. The first time j was under fire
did feel strange fascination and interest
and then somebody was wounded near me,
a ND i N
Nine Hernandez told of one case of I'M
speakable Spanish sayagery. This is her
story:
General Maceo and our staff camped with
very good and kind family at Lomo del
Cato. There was an old man and his young
married daughter. who had lately become
a mother She was a very sweet woman,
and her husband. ] think, was with the in
surgents. After we left, the Spaniards
came and our scouts brought i'll stories
from the country people of what they did
there.
EXAMPLE OF CRUELTY.
''Thev entered the house of our kind
friends. sacked it and cut the old man down
with machetes. They killed an old negro
servant and two mulatto farm
hands and left their bodies by
the road unburied. The daughter
was in the room when they killed her father,
and she tried to rush between them and
the old man. They cut her about the right
arm, which she raised before her face, and
wounded her with thrusts of bayonetS The
wet nurse ran to the door and held up the
little baby before her, begging for mercy
A soldier standing outside put his rifle TO
the infants head and shot the poor little
thing dead. The daughter refused to
be cared fo, by a Spanish surgeon, but
they put her in shed near by for they
had fired the house and the regimental sur
geon ordered quicklime put on her wounds.
She died from shock and pain. This is the
story the peasants tell in Lomo del Cato.
boar all he 81 I
believe they are all true, though ii seems
incredible that people could act so nova
DAVIS"
The brave and kind woman rode at
Maceo's side almost always. She slept at
night in hammock slung between two
trees or under the porch OF some cottage
like the soldiers. In five of the btterest
battles of the whole revolution she was in
the front. cheering the men with her BRAY
cry and coming to the wounded with her
mercy.
Her capture by the Spaniards was marked
with scenes that make a strange commen-
tary on her gentle statement that lit seems
incredible that people should act so now
adays."
Dr. Hernandez, at the point of death from
consumption, had been carried by his wife
and two negro attendants, all unarmed to
hospital in Managua, when Spanish forces
under Colonel Orozzo appeared. Nine. Her
nandez hoisted a white flag with a red
cross, but the Spanish brutes fired on the
house, killing one attendant and wounding
another She advanced to meet the SOL
tltIS, DcSSluS the communicate TO cease
firing and announced her husbands name
and rank. Colonel OrozZo dismounted and
entered the house. and DR.. Hernandez tried
TO rise and greet him. The murderous cow
ard drew his revolver and sent a bullet
through the sick mans brain.
The soldiers tore Mrs. Hernandez from
her husbands body. hacked the corpse
with machetes and set fire to the building
They shackled her arms and drove her
ahead Of them all that day At Sancti
Spiritus (hardly an appropriate name for a
Spaniards STRONGHOLD they put her into Il
common prison with male criminals. Then
the butcher Weyler sentenced her to in
definite imprisonment in a penal settle
ment
SO is the stony road to Cubas freedom
trodden and made holy with the bleeding
feet of the women. So have they borne
the cross, so have they toiled and wept and
prayed and suffered. So as through divine
tears, shall their glory shine through his
tory-the women Of Cuba.