Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-08-03
THE GL0aifisD MAcHETe.
Actually. as Well al FigurativcIy. America,
Gift TO Cuba.

! 1T IL curious how the hlmbs
'machetc' that ! used to know "a
Familiarity in bygone days has been
brought into fame by this Cuban
revolution" said a former West In.
! dian planter. 1T reminds me Of tba
strange way In which the Civil Wa,
I in this country took Il grotesque song
about The land Of cotton, cinnarnon
seed. and sandy bottOm'-a song "a
burnt cork, banjo, and bones ana
made Of Il O war hymn that to mil
lions OF Americans ID stiiI sacred. The
history of this century includes
Dixie among its documents. And 10.
day the eyes of mankind are directed
70 the tableau OF Columbia arrnln,
Cuba for the battle. and, instead ~
'Voici le sabre Columbia sings Take
the machete'
Don't you know what 'nacheta,
l3H 1t Is an agricultural implement
something like the primitive cornknifs
OF this country, used where hand
labor rules to cut the corn stalks for
gathering into shocks, only the
'machete' Is heavier, sharper. a little
longer, and broader in proportion
broadening toward it's point. The cro,,
1t has TO reap is the sugar cane. which
in the West Indies at least is much
thicker and tougher than the thickest
eornstalb. and is toughest near the
the ground
However, the ordinary use Of
machete goes far beyond the mere
cutting of the cane crop The wild
shrubs and the withes, or ropy vines
which make the underbrush Of the
West Indies. are of tough fibre. In
the temperate zone underbrush is
something 81 an obstacle in getting
through the woods when one is in a
hurry, but 1t is an obstacle that can
be put aside with the hands at the
cost Of a few scratches and rents. In
the tropics undcrbrush is q much
more serious matter. as our soldiers
are likely to learn with some main
There the shrub that has taken only a
few years to grow commonly takes
much more than a few seconds. or
even minutes, to break, and the withes
have way of twisting themselves
together into hawsers Of many strands
and great strength. hanging in loose
biShts high and low from the bouehs
overhead. 1t is absurd to think of
stopping to break branches of shrubs
II you wish to move rapidly through a
tropical forest, and even if you have
plenty cf time and muscle to spare for
the exercise your patience is likely to
succumb under the cXasperating en-
braces OF those long timber 1ianas.'
SO for generations the machete has
f.A-Gn a
tons, from whom the rank and file Of
the Cuban insurgents have been
mainly recruited. They have used IL
to reap the crops. to clear the land for
fresh cultivation. and 10 help them
selves to an open pathway whenever
they wished TO make a short cut
through the bush. The last of those
uses must have become specially i'm
pHrtant in the guerrilla warfare of re-
cent years. At the same time those
Cubans who most readily Joined the
reVolutionists were just the class to
whom the machete was the most
natural weapon of offence and de-
fence ,..
You will find the maehete, oneupving
much the same place in their daily life
among the miami negroes Of Jamaica.
Il
there. They. too, have acquired a great
deal of skill in handling it, and in al
least one riot they have used it with
effect as weapon though
never in hand-to-hInd fight with armed
forces. Some years ago, and for all |
Know. even now. almost every other negro
10 ne met on country road in Jamaica
would be carrying i 'mashay' un-
iheathed. because they We're no more pro-
Vided with Scabhards than hoes or pick
axes would be. II was the peasants con-
slant companion, AMI might occasionally
De ms protection against 4 savage dog
or in some districts, a stray alligator.
or ne could use it to chop up a snake.
even i harmless, just on the general
that snake even if harmless
should always be chopped up. Not infre-
luently it has figured in the criminal
courts. when two negroes have fallen out
after 10 much conviviality a the roadside
rum ShOp.
One interesting thing about it is that
Columbia has armed Cuba with the ma
-hete in a commercial and literal sense
as We'll a. in i political and figurative
me. Tho machctes used throughout the
West Indies were formerly mostly of
English make; now they are American
The American manufacturers have fairly
beaten their competitors in this line as
n others, until now there are compara-
lively few. if any. English-made ma
'hetes sold in that part Of the world. 1t
: not likely that the Cuban patriots will
yer hew down Spanish soldiers with ma
'hetes, or ever have done 50 to any great
'Xtent; still there is certain poettcal
illness in the American-made machete as
he emblem of this Antillean war of in
ependence-a guerra al machete"