The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-05-13
DYNAMITE BON BONS.
Amusing Incidents Reported From
Havana by Correspondents.

Key West, May 13.-Witih the seat of
war transferred pro tenn from Cuba to
the Philippines and possibly also to
Porto Rico, and the Canaries, there is
many a long wait for the dozens of
special correspondents who have no
tugs at their disposal and nothing to
do but await the arrival of the mail
steamers and sean the horizon with
glasses for war vessels coming in with
prizes, The long line of chairs on the
shady side of one hotel veranda in
town has come to be known as Lotus
row, and the war face has taken rank
among the watchers with the bicycle
face and the trolley face in
cooler and less trout leSOTne chimes.
Blue tropic skies, white dusty streets
under a blazing sun and hypnotic vistas
of feathery palm fronts and banana
trees against the cloudless horizon all
tend to somnOlent Iaziness and cigar
cites and cooling drinks, and of course,
stories.
Now that news no longer has to run
the gauntlet from Havana, albeit the
censor is American naval officer at
this end of the line, some stories may
be freely told that We're contraband of
print While the actors We're still in
reach of Blanco's arm. AS matter of
fact, there was a very fair amount of
smuggling and blockade breaking in
news and other things while Havana
was still accessible to the correspond
ents and these tales, once told in whis- |
pers are coming out on the shady side !
"reminiscences
the ante-blockade days.
The Havana custom authorities and |
such agents were an easy lot at best. |
They seldom called a bluff that was /
made with a good front, and things |
that went on under their noses almost |
daily would have cost half the force /
their jobs had the facts ever gotten to /
the palace. The writer landed in Ha- |
vana some months ago with a bundle |
of kilograms in his pocket that ought !
to have put him in Cabanas. They |
were addressed to another correspond |
ent who was too much under the ban |
to receive mail or kilograms in his own |
name at Havana.
The carrying of the bundle of mes
SageS from Key West was merely a !
friendly office that half a dozen other
correspondents had often done before.
To have concealed the papers on ones
person would have been a confession
of conscious guilt in case of discovery;
so the bearer simply folded the mes
sageS lengthwiSe and stuffed them into
the big department envelope that held /
his passports. The officials received |
the passports along with the messages
but never questioned their contents.
That incident was mild, however, COM
pared with the exploit of another and
more radical correspondent, who being
in full sympathy with the Havana jun
ia, undertook to convey them about 80
pounds of dynamite at a time when !
they needed it badly and when lines of
flibustering were drawn unusually
close He simply put this explosive in
ers and put in a layer of big chocolate
creams over oiled paper on top. The
special agent at the gangway of the |
steamer knew him and when he started
down the ladder to the shore boat said |
to him, jokingly: whats that you've
got You have got dynamite?"
scribe pulling back the i i'd TaRe some
up to Biah haf, The aStute agent took
the dynamite went ashore.
Letters, letters from the woods" as the
insurgent lines are vaguely termed in Ha-
vana, were almost as dangerous as dyna-
mite; but they were pressed through the
newspaper men who went into the field
returned during Weyler's regime with
being, official documents for the junta in
New York There We're three Spanish Of
Sagua La Grande. and he had reason to
think they had marked him and We're go
Just before the train stopped he called
his Cuban servant, and, taking a bundle of
h with the ark srP fes f6e then n to
Blanks meaning a laundry with a very
with the bundle. which had the ins1rgent
letters safe inside it and when. three min
gage were rigidly searched, there was |
54hnd 7e fn ni T Put Couple i OF very
obliging Cuban friends for just such emer-
Another of the correspondents who is
close in touch with the Cubans and has
done ne. more for them T,- than any other news
how he helped a Spanish captain to cap
ture Cuban standard. which exploit
made the captain major forthwith and
landed him on Weyler'S staff at the pal
ace. The standard was made to order by
the Cuban junta in Havana and the cor
and the captain took it out
with them one night. with a small detach-
nent of Spanish cavalry from Matanzas.
Coming to a good, dark place in the road
he two conspirators raised a war yell and
dashed ahead, emptying two Mausers and
four SiX-shOOters into the bushes. The
cavalry escort punched itself in the mid
lei of the road and commenced shooting in
general way at the scenery. That is
llways tactful move made by the Span
sh when they think they are attacked.
After many rounds of ammunitiOnS had
been used, the captain came dashfng up
With the Cuban standard on a short sec
ion of a broken staff. The affair was |
,hronicled a Spanish victory and the
of the gallant captain followed
n due course. The intrinsic value of the
standard was about $3.50 in labor and ma
erial. and for it the Cuban junta receiv-
ID pass to carry $50 pounds of medicine
through the Spanish lines
OF all the methods of smuggling through
he custom house. however, one of the
most unique was recorded in Havana by
letter from Gomez not long before the
blockade was inaugurated. It reads
Many thanks for the cavalry trumpet
rom our friends in New York. can
afely say it is one of the sweetest instru-
nents in the world. We hope to hear it
down as soon we get the jelly boiled 4
tut of it,
1t had come in a consignment of pre-
A First Glass Train