The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1898-02-25
More Evidence to Prove That
the Maine Disaster Was an
Act of Treachery.
Believed by Many That the
Younger Spanish Officers
HatChed the Plot.
Said Only a Submarine Mine
Could Produce Such Tre-
mendOuS Results.

HAVANA, via Key West, Feb. a.
The situation, which may be changed
at any moment by fresh discoveries,
may be summed up substantially as
follows:
The divers having discovered cases of
brown hexagonal powder for the 10
inch guns unexploded and believing,
also, that others unexploded will be
found in the 10-inch maya zine on the
starboard side forward, the conviction
grows that this magazine did not blow
up. If this be so, and many have in
sisted from the first that it is, the
further conviction is forced that the
explosion which wrecked the Maine
came from the outside on the port bow.
Ono thing seems certain, if the Maine
was blown up by an outside agency,
the agent was a mine and not a tor
pedo. as no torpedo known could have
produced such tremendous results.
Believe Younger Officers Guilty.
The highest American officials here
are confident that General Blanco and
the other high Spanish officials had no
kno ledge, direct or indirect, of the
conception or execution of a plot to
blow up the Maine, if such plot ex-
listed, but they believe the Junior Span
ish officers, who, from the nature of
THU. s, are more conversant with mod
err ;plosives than their elders and
supporters, were at the bottom of the
disaster, if there was any outside
agency. It is pointed out that it would
not be impossible to plant mine of
wet and dry gun cotton near where a
foreign war vessel was directed to an
ohor, such mine communicating with
an electric battery on shore.
First to Anchor There.
1t is regarded as an interesting point
that the Maine, for the first Tune dur
ing her stay in the harbor, lay at the
particular spot where she was at the
time of the catastrophe, and. it is said,
though not officially verified, that the
Maine was the first foreign war vessel
moored to this particular buoy since
the troubles in Cuba grew acute.
All stories as to lax discipline ON the
Maine are without a shadow of truth.
On the contrary, Captain Sigsbee was
complained of by some for the rigidity
of his rules and the strictness with
which he enforced them. Moreover,
the Maine has been in commission for
years and never had a serious accident
until anchored in this quiet harbor.
Submarine Mines said to Eek st.
An American officer of rank sufficient
to entitle him to take command of a
ship is authority for the statement that
o Spanish naval officer some time ago
sold to the Washington state depart
ment map of Havana harbor showing
submarine mines. The Spanish resi-.
dents deny this statement and say that
the mines exist only in imagination.
The Cubans, on the other hand, claim
that there are mine galleries under the
harbor leading from subterranean pas
sages known to have existed for years
between Fort Cabanas and Moro castle
and this port.
General Blanco, on the night of the
Iarinas in the corridor of the palace.
When he heard the explosion he
jumped from his chair, exclaiming:
cat last they have put shell into the
palace"
Censorship Very Strict.
The censorship is very strict, and,
according to a recent order all dis.
patches must be submitted in Spanish
as we'll as English. This doubles the
trouble of the correspondents and
quadruples delay. The means of COM
munication in Havana, large city, are
rather primitive, and the work of visit
ing ships in the harbor Is tedious. At
the palace during the hours when
Lieutenant Colonel Mendez, the censor,
IL present, there can always be found a
long line of newspaper men anxiously
awaiting his approval or disapproval of
theirma and his afixing of the of
fetal stamp as well as all proofs of
daily newspapers published here, and
matter for newspapers in Spain that
H.