The record-union., 1898-07-25
MUSIC IN BATTLE.

Ny the CuDan insurgents III IooO
aiter a fierce siege of two days and
Two nights. 1t was strongly fortified
by large garrison of Spaniards and
contained twenty-one forts scattered
about in different parts of the city.
livery one of them made strong re-
sistance. For forty-eight hours there
was hghting in the streets, in the
houses and about the walls The city
crumbled to pieces as cannon and
dynamite guns pounded down the de-
tended houses and made breaches in
the forts
During the short, fierce struggle that
preceded the surrender of the last of
these forts an incident occurred strong
ly dramatic.
The last of the forts was a huge
stone tower overtopping the surround
ing stone wall. 1t was defended by
garrison Of 100 soldiers, many of whom
had fed from their homes in the city
Tor the protection of the forts. Among
them was a man named Mendez,
surgeon and Lieutenant Colonel in the
Spanish army, who owned house
across the wide street from the stone
fort. During the engagement the Gu
ban officer commanding the battery or
dered that a gun should be brought
into the abandoned house Of Mendez
to play through the window on a vul-
nerable part of the fort.
The house Of MendeZ was one Of the
finest in the city, almost a palace-for
Mendez was a rich man. 1t was built
of white bricks; the interior was fin
ished with the finest woods and the
furnishings were exquisite.
A band of shouting men burst down
- i N1ca
steps and into the great, wide parlor a
twelve-poun Hotchkiss gun. The
heavy wheels rolled across the hard
wood floor to one of the two high
windows that faced the fort; then the
men seized the crowbars and made a
breach from the window sill down low
enough to receive the muzzle of the
gun. BY this time the room was filled
with Cubans, who swept aside the fraiI
chairs, the light tables and the jars
along the walls. The pictures We're
torn from their hangings for fear they
might fall at the cannonading and the
soldiers put their feet through the mid.
die of them The furniture, the brio
a-brac and the decorations were de-
stroyed They were tossed aside,
kicked out of the way as things of no
account, broken, smashed and trampled
on. There must be room for the fight;
there must be a free space.
But the room was only half cleared
when the Hotchkiss gun opened fire
on the fort At the first recoil Of the
big gun the muzzle leaped back from
the wall for want of proper bracing,
and the house trembled as with an
earthquake Fine vases sprang from
the mantels and went to pieces on the
floor; the glass in the mahogany rat
tied or was shattered with the shock.
The wind was blowing from the fort
toward the windows Of the house and
the smoke drifted back and filed the
room. There was no time to rid the
room of the rest of its furnishings.
The Cubans quickly braced the gun
by driving spikes in the floor and while
q squad stayed to load and fire others
took up their positions with rifles at
the second window and picked off the
heads at the openings in the fort; the
rest sprawled fiat on hthe floor to es-
cape the Mauser bullets that were now
screaming in their ears. The men at
the Hotchkiss gun fired slowly and
carefully; the rest of the battery out
side took up the fire with the cannons
and the dynamite gun. The Cubans
in the house, huddled on the floor, could
hear the five-pound dynamite shells
drop and explode inside the fort and
see occasionally, through the breach in
their own wall, the havoc they created.
The return from the fort was directed
mainly at the house and at the gun
that spat its balls through the gaping
wall.
The wind blew stronger and the
smoke in the room was like a thick veil
III IN
big slow rings, so that it was alternate
light and darkness for the men.
In the midst of this storm of powder
smoke a man rose up from the floor
and staggered across the room 1t
was Barney Bueno, a Captain of in
fantry. big, fine, dashing fellow. He
was an educated Cuban of the better
class, a graduate of the polytechnic
school Of Troy, y. Y, an accomplished
musician and singer
Barney had been drinking too fire.
quently at a bottle he had found in
one of the rooms, and the liquor had
just begun to seep into his brain.
The joy of battle seized upon him. He
was happy now; he was mad with hap
piness and the desre to fight. He began
to sing loudly Cuban air, roaring
above the roar Of the guns in the room
he cIutcheC a r1fie ana ran 10 the WIN
dow, but there was no opening for him
and the men pushed him back He fell
back. brandishing the gun and knock
ing down glassware, the vases and the
delicate bric-a-brac from the mantes
1t made a tinkling, shattering noise
that sounded we'll with those beautiful
guns. Barney shouted in his ecstasy
and looked about for an occupation. He
could not sit down: he could not be
still He felt a large contempt for his
comrades on the floor. He desired ar
occupation, something to do.
He staggered blindly about in the big
room-for the choking powder-smoke
made him seem in thick darkness-and
fell over a piano stool. Then, being
very bad on his legs because Of the
drink. he began feeling for something
to help him to his feet. lie found it
himself up he was stung frantic by a
splendid thought.
He would play the piano! He would
make music for the fight. He would
accompany the drumming guns with
beautiful waltzes and jolly ditties, with
marches and serenades and national
anthems. He would play for his brave
men In the breaches, for the men at his
feet. for the groaning wounded and
for the dying. He would play through
the powder smoke and the noises; loud
ly. wildly, beautifully would he play. til
a,-ay, the enemy couId hear him anf