Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-08-02
FIGHT OF Ell CANEY.
HOW OUR TROOPS DROVE THE SPAN
lSH FROM THEIR TRENCHES,

Honore Laine, a Correspondent, Finds the
Bodies of General vara del Rey and
His Aids-valuable Papers Discovered
and Taken to Headquarters.
Under date Of July 2, writing from
the front, Mr.. W. r. Hearst, editor in
chief of the New York Journal, de-
scribes the second days fight at Ell Ca
ney, near Santiago, as follows:
The fierce struggle to drive the Span
iards from the last intrenchments around
Santiago continued all day, but with
far less fury and a much smaller loss of
life than on Friday. In my dispatch Of
last night | told OF the guidance which
The Journal correspondent, Honore
Laine, had given to me to Caney. From
there Laine pitched into the heart of the
firing line. Tonight he returned here
with his handsome face aglow with en-
thusiasm. Among the dead and wound
ed on the battlefield he had found, by
the index finger of a Spanish prisoner,
the body Of the general who had COM
manded the forces of the enemy about
Caney OH the day before.
Amid the tall weeds and wire grass
Laine had found the dead bodies of Gem
eral Vara del Rey; his brother, near by,
desperately wounded; two of his three
aids and two other officers dead beside
him, and even their horses and mules
killed in the same deadly hail. They
were close to a high cactus fence, be-
hind which they were evidently seeking
shelter when caught by a volley from
the American line. abandoned Oh the
fieldl' cried Laine triumphantly. Ode
serted by his men of the crack Battalion
CONSTRUCTION" he added with fine scorn.
Lame was unaffectedly happy as he
held up to our gaze valuable papers
which he had himself taken from the
pockets of the Spanish commander.
They told of the Spanish Notifications,
troops and plans, and were turned over
to General Garcia. The originals will
be saved for The Journal. Lame beam
ed the joy that he felt as he tapped his
camera and exclaimed, IT have here a
photograph Of him just as the vultures
were flying from his body"
Laine is a daring correspondent, al
ways alert to the demands of his news
paper, but before that-before every
other consideration-he is a Cuban SOL
dier. Of massive frame and classical
face, he is a type to command admira-
ton everywhere, but in the saddle, girt
with the trappings of a trooper, the
barrel of his rifle catching the rays Of
the soft Cuban moon, he seems to have
but ridden directly from the pages of
Scott or Stevenson.
Laine loves war-he is unhampered
by dreams Of home comfort or release
from the desperate hardships which our
troops have encountered in this rain
sodden, fever stricken jungle of south
Cuba. Lame has done nothing else
than make war for so many months that
it is his normal existence. He revels in
its barbarities and extracts genuine
pleasure from the most trying hard
ships it enforces. AS he reported on the
condition Of Creelman and asked for
news from Edward Marshall's cotside,
he spoke of joining the column of Gar.
cha in their march to cut off Pando's
column and with an equanimity that
held no thought of danger for himself.
Laine had much to tell. He had rid
den over all of the battlefield about Ca
ney. In addition to finding the body of
General Vera del Rey he had learned
from the Spanish prisoners that Com
mander Romero of the famous Civil
Guard Of Spain was desperately wound
ed. He had seen the boys Of the Seven
ty-first New York discover and fairly
riddle a sharpshooter perched high in a
spreading mango tree. He had witnessed
the firing of Spanish guerrillas OH Shat
ter's headquarters early in the day, and
at dusk had reported to Shafter the
death of General Vera del Rey. These
things he told in matter of fact fashion,
but when next he spoke his eyes lighted
with intense interest.
"In the blockhouse where I was with
you yesterday, "he said, "we found this
morning a few Spaniards. They were
popping away, doing some damage and
giving much trouble. found a Spanish
prisoner and told him to go to the block
house and tell those inside that the
Americans were about to fire a dyna-
mite gun at them and they had best
surrender. Forty of them came out, and
the Americans kindly turned them over
to me for the Cubans."
His eyes flashed. "And what did you
do with them?" He shifted contemptu-
ously, 1--WE cut their heads off Ct
course. And yet behind this amour of
vengeance, bred in the bone by a century
Of suffering, the Cuban is tender and
gentle. One seldom finds a mar of more
generous and gracious impulses than
this same Laine. His hour has come,
and he is lost in the almost savage en-.
joyment Of it.
The fighting today has been rather
intermittent. Our forces are securing
themselves more firmly in their in.
trenchments. The boom Of big field
pieces in the Spanish lines emphasizes
anew u weakness in artillery.
But troops have received their
baptism of fire, ard no army of Span
iards can dislodge them from the ground
they have won or stay their steady
march toward Santiago itself.