Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-01-17
Spain's Fresh Menace.

Apparently there is some surprise that
the mob in Havana should have been led
by officers of the army. General Garvichs,
representing General Blanco, approaching
Major Fuentes, who was at the head of
the rioters, exclaimed, You have dishon-
ored the army" and then he "snatched
several decorations from the breast of that
officer"
But think moment. The Spanish army
in Cuba is the army which General Weyler
drilled and commanded. During eighteen
months he impressed his views upon it.
1t heard from him that the insurgents in
arms were merely a vicious, ignorant rab-
BILE of bandtti, and their sympathiZng
friends within the Spanish lines a horde
of sneaks and incapables, fit only to be
herded like cattle and starved to death.
Under his orders it raided hospitals and
maltreated the defenseless. He grew to be
more skillful with the torch than with the
sword, and far more destructive. In
word, the Spanish army in Cuba under
General Weyler became an inhuman in
strument of destruction. The Cubans.
armed or unarmed, had no rights which a
Spanish soldier should think of respect
ing.
General Blanco succeeded to the COM
mand of this army, and under a trick
change of policy, as transparent as insin-
cere, started upon new lines The ban
ditti'' were transformed by official order
into "erring brethren no longer to be
given over when caught to slaughter, but
henceforth to be approached in spirit Of
Cancellation, and reasoned with. The pc
seta, cunningly invested, was to take the
place of fire and sword. Spanish officers
were detailed not to ride out at the head
of a command and try to find the enemy
and lure him into a fight, but with their
pockets filled with cash were transformed
into vulgar bribers and sent out to try to
buy up the enemy at so much the head
The mission was hideous in itself-objec-
tionable even to the former lieutenants of
General Weyler-but it was likewise at
tended with the risk of death by the igno-
miny of the rope. Notice was publicly
given by the insurgents that all such
Spanish agents found within the insur-
gents lines would be proceeded against
as spies. One officer of distinction, Col
onel Ruiz, lost his life while endeavoring
to carry out such mission.
Really, it is not surprising that Spanish
officers in such circumstances should lose
control of themselves and publicly revolt
against such a commander and such a
poiicy- 1heS are SIMPLY showing their
training. Having been employed as
butchers and incendiaries for nearly
two years against a people ticketed as
without the pale of human rights, they
are naturally furious at the new COM
mander and all that he represents. While
they remain in the island they want to be
employed in the way they prefer-in the
Weylerian way. They prefer the work of
raiding hospitals. of herding and guarding
pacificc:s, of trying the effect of a well-fed
torch on a hut or cane field That is
the kind of business for them. Autonomy,
erring brethren and all that sort of thing
strikes on their ears like cant. Then want
Weyier and all that their hero stood for
Actaeon's fate may be Blanco's. He
stands in danger of being devoured by
his own dogs of war