The Monmouth inquirer., 1898-08-25

Aguinaldos Field Headquarters.
made. The wild life which he and his
followers live, is entirely foreign to
our ideas of civilization, and it is evil
dent that great chang ges must be wrought
In the islands before their government
is committed to his. charge Our illus
tration shows the field headquarters OF
the insurgents chieftain, who is liable
at any moment to turn from an ALI to
an open enemy.
The withdrawal to the mountains OF
the Cuban insurgents under General
Garcia, and the protest he has entered
against the failure to invite him tC
the surrender ceremonies at Santiago
are not a matter of surprise to the
American authorities, for it has been
evident for weeks past that the lines
between the Americans and the insur-
gents have been steadily gro'lne
broader and more distinct. There are
two reasons for this--first that the
Cubans have failed to make themselves
of much use to our army as allies, most
of their information, as there is sad
reason to know, being misleading; and.
second, the evident preference OF most
of the insurgents to beg and roam aim
Iessly about rather than go to Work
with a will as soon as they had CO.
operation and help conquer the enemy.
When the American forces first landed
at Baiquira and saw a thousand or
more Cubans march by in rags and
bare feet, the natural impulse was to
pity their condition and to endeavoI
to relieve it. Nearly all of the COM
missionary stores landed the first two
days went to the insurgents, while our
own army took the chance of being
entirely without food if the landing
of stores could not for any reason be
continued Clothing, too, was handed
over to them with much generosity.
Before our troops had been on shore
week it was no unfrequent sight to see
a Cuban soldier or pacifico wearing at
least one piece of of the clothing of an
American soldier-overcoat blouse or
trousers and often an entire bed-roll,
as we'll, with poucho. What they failed
to get by begging they picked up along
the mountain trails over which the
men marched.
All of the insurgents in Santiago pro-
vince are black, and the majority of
them ignorant. 1t is said by those
familiar with Cuba that they are the
poorest element among the Cuban
forces, and that intelligence and in
dustry are to be found among the in
surgents in the other provinces But
there is certainly a lack of those two
qualities among the thousands who
have been seen in their homes and on
the march The settled opinion of our
army officers is that the Cuban black
is inferior to the colored man OF
America and that he is less capable
of rising to the opportunity now before
him than was the negro In America
when the emancipation proclamation
was issued. The negro of the United
States at that time was the working
force of the South and he was born
and raised to labor; the Cuban black
is evidently reared to nOmadic life
and has little desire for settled con-
ditions. He builds his shack of bamboo
canes, palms and grasses on the road
side, gathers mangOeS and cOcanuts for
the family meal, and there his labor
ends Even in that the women and
children share the burden, while the
man sharpens his machete.
The Spanish custom is to loot and
destroy whatever they capture and the
Cubans do the same. That, however,
has been neither the purpose nor the
policy of our army. But the most deli
cate problem which General Shafter
has had to solve has been how to recon-
cile the insurgents. 1t had only a
trivial Importance at Caney, but when
Santiago fell the fork in the road had
been reached and one way or the other
had to be chosen. The Spaniards In
their peace negotiations constantly
dwelt on what would happen TO San
tiago and its people after our soldiers
and the Cubans entered it, and 1t was
/ largely the early assurance to the
Archbishop of Santiago, to the foreign
consuls and to the property owners that
order would 3e maintained and that
J the troops except tor a patrol guard
would be kept out of tie city, that lead
to such strong pressure from within
Spanish lines for surrender
4 The worst horrors of war often have
been after beseiged city has been
capitulated, but in the case OF this city
it can be said, with honor to the
American army, that every storekeeper
who had stock on hand opened mis-
store for business on surrender day,
and that no more orderly or peaceful
period could be desired. 1t was known
that Garcia would protest as he has
done, but Gen. Shafter and the Wash
ington authorities unquestionably took
The right course in assuming that II a