The herald., 1898-05-08
MUSIC IN BATTLE
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N @NE E@M MA q g HE u q q g g q NHE@M
The city Of Las Tunas in Cuba was taken
by the Cuban insurgents in 1896 after 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. Every one Of them made strong
resistance. For forty-eight hours there
was fighting in the streets. in the houses
and about the walls. The city crumbled to
pieces as cannon and dynamite guns
pounded down the defended 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 strongly
dramatic.
The last Of the forts was a huge stone
tower overtopping the surrounding stone
wall. 1t was defended by garrison Of $50
soldiers, many of whom had fled from
their homes in the city for the protection
of the forts. Among them was a man
named Mendez, a surgeon and lieutenant
colonel in the Spanish army, who owned
house across the wide street from the
stone fort. During the engagement the
Cuban officer commanding the battery
ordered that a gun should be brought into
the abandoned house of Mendez to play
through the window on vulnerable part
of the fort.
The house of Mendez was one Of the
finest in the city, almost palace-for Men
dez was rich man. 1t was built of white
bricks; the interior was finished with the
| finest woods and the furnishings were ex-
quisite.
A band of shouting men burst down the
door and dragged up the marble steps and
into the great, wide parlor twelve-pound
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 gum
BY this time the room was filled with Gu
bans, who swept aside the frail chairs. the
light tables and the jars along the walls.
The pictures were torn from their hang
ings for fear they might fall at the can
nonading and the soldiers put their feet
through the middle Of them. The furni-
ture the bric-a-brac and the decorations
were destroyed They were tossed aside.
kicked out Of the way as things Of no ac-
count, broken, smashed and trampled on.
There must be room for the fight; there
must be 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
yAI VNl..
vases sprang from the mantels and went
to pieces on the floor; the glass in the
mahogany bookcases ratified or was shat
tered with the shock. The wind was blow
ing 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 it's furnishings.
The Cubans quickly braced the gun by
driving spikes in the floor and while
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 the floor to escape 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
house, huddled on the floor, could hear the
| lve-pound dynamite shells drop and ex-
plode 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 it's balls through the
gaping wall.
The wind blew stronger and the smoke in
the room was like thick veil that lifted
and fell and spun round in big, slow rings,
so that 1t was alternate light and darkness
for the men.
In the midst of this storm of powder
smoke man rose up from the floor and
staggered across the room. 1t was Barney
Bueno, captain of infantry, big, fine,
dashing fellow. He was an educated Gu
ban of the better class, a graduate Of the
polytechnic school of Troy N. Y, an ac-
complished musician and singer.
Barney had been drinking too frequently
at 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 happi-
ness and the desire to fight. He began to
sing loudly Cuban air, roaring above the
roar of the guns in the room. He clutched
a rifle and ran to the window, but there
was no opening for him. and the men
pushed him back. He fell, back, brandish-
ing the gun and knocking down glassware.
the vases and the delicate bric-a-brac from
the mantels. 1t made a tinking, shatter-
ing noise that sounded well with those
beautiful guns. Barney shouted in his
ecstasy and looked about for an occupa-
ton. He could not sit down; he could not
be still. He felt large contempt for his
comrades on the floor. He desired an &C.
cupation, 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
piano stool. Then. being very bad on his
legs because of the drink, he began feeling
for something to help him to his feet. He
found 1.-THE leg of a piano-and as he
raised himself up he was stung frantic by
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 sere-
nades 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