The evening times., 1898-05-25
sin wai,ing for N.w..

On occasions Ike the present. one
mans opinion is about as good or bad
as anosher's. If the naval authorities
telling 1t, and of course they are Jus
titled in suppressing the news. Every
body else is reduced to the necessity of
guessing, with some little grain OF
probability to guess on. We entirely
lack confidence in the Spanish admiral.
who has viciously disappointed our ex-
pectations more than once. Otherwise
we should be more convinced by the
argumentsthat he could not discharge
his supplies and take on coal at Santi-
ago and get out of that harbor before
Friday night, by which time Schley's
scouts would surely run up on him.
On this hypothesis there was strong
opinion last night that Sampson and
Schley had Cervera and his Cape Verde
squadron bottled up at Santiago. The
President is said to have received some
pleasing dispatches at midnight. II
they were confirmatOry of this sur
mise, why then, of course. new and
exciting war chapter is to open before
many days. Leaving Santiago and
Ceryera to be wiped out by some of
our ships, the remainder under Admiral
Sampson may be expected to undertake
the long-deferred job of bombarding
the defenses of Havana, while an army
of invasion co-operates from the land
side 1t Is assumed that. with the
Spanish squadron eliminated from the
situation, no time will be lost in in
yesting Havana, the reduction of which
place may be hastened by Blanco's
knowledge that all hope of help from
Spain has been cut off.
All this, of course, is upon the hy-
pothesis that Cervera Is boxed in and
has not given his pursuers the slip
again. If the latter should chance to
De the case, there would not be quite
as much sunshine in the situation. II
Cervefa could join forces with the Ca
first-class battleship Pelayo. the COM
bined Spanish naval strength would be
something to count with. and the siege
of Havana might be postponed again.
Let us hope that such a disappoint-
ment Is not in store for us.
Meanwhile, the whole West Indian
world appears to have deserted its or
dinary avocations and taken exclusively
to lying about naval engagements or
Cuba and off anywhere. Perhaps the
most ably comprehensive and reckless
liars are to be found around Cape Hal
tien, although some pretty fair work in
that line has been done in Jamaica. To
these and other mendacious and many
colored sensational;sts we owe the tales
that the New York and Texas had gone
to the bottom with eleven hundred men;
also that they had not, but that all the
Spanish squadron had been sunk. 1t is
they who hear the terrific cannonading
in the Windward Passage night and
morning. 1t is some of them VINO daily
canoe it from Turtle Island to Port de
Paix with yarns of blood and battle
comes out of the wool of their Haitien
auditors. 1,.-..-
If there really should be a battle
some day. our friends in the Antilles
will be disgusted to catch themselves
telling the truth for once: but they will
have the satisfaction of knowing that
they will not be believed in advance Of
the fullest official corroboration. So it
will be seen that what with an increas-
ingly severe press censorship. and the
recent order forbidding the presence of
dispatch boats with the fleet.
our chances for securing early news Of
naval movements in the Atlantic or
Caribbean are slim indeed.