The Philipsburg mail. [volume] (Philipsburg, Mont.) 1887-current, 1898-02-25
in SPAIN
Hostilities May Be Precipitated by the
Populace Of Madrid.
HONOR" IMPUGNED
The Charges of Responsibility for Loss
Of the Battle ship Maine Indig-
nantly Resented.

Madrid, Feb. 23. Whatever regret |
and dismav may have been expressed |
! here on the first receipt Of the news |
of the loss of the Maine have been
converted into Indignation Of the most
passionate character at what are de-
clared to be the shameful aspersions
of the American press on Spanish
honor. People of every class Eere de-
nounce in the strongest fashion posi-
BILE the insinuation, not to say the di-
rect charges, on the part of the Amer
lean press, that the Spanish govern
ment or nation are in any way respon-
sible for t,lo disaster, which is as
cribed by the majority to an accident,
aud ~ solle to the work of Cubans.
anxious to embroil the United States
with this country. 1t does not seem
TO occur to them that the explosion
may have possibly been the work of
some fanaticaliy inclined Spanish pa
triot, who considered the presence III
the port of Havana of an American
battlc-ship flying the hated stars and
| stripes as an insult to his country.
When one bears in mind that most
) persons here are of the distinct Opin-
ion that the United States has been
guilty Of bad faith throughout the en-
tire Cuban trouble, and responsible
for the continuance Of the insurrec-
tion, which, they declare, would have
been long since ended without the
assistance which the rebels received
from America, it will readily be un
derstood that to passionate brooding
and proud people, such as the Span
e iards are. the presence OF the Maine
a in the port of Havana must have been
6 a source of intense eXasperation,
t which is quite likely to have led one
a or more of them to believe that they
t were serving their country by con-
n cocting develish plot for the destruc-
g tion of the ship.
o The reason why the people here pro-
fess such loud Indignation with regard
II to the suspicious entertained in the
n United States of foul play is because
d they consider the national honor i'm
}, pugned. They pride themselves on
Il their honor more than on anything
II else, and, ruined financially as we'll as
n still are fond of boasting that theil
n national honor is safe. Now the
is Soanlards have III their blood a sulti
ciently strong Moorish strain to enter
tain altogether oriental doctrines with
regrad to the sacred character of hos
piralitv. And the idea that they OF al
people cond he believed guilty o.
consiguing to shocking death almOs
the entire crew, numbering hundreds
Il of men, of a foreign cruiser enjoying
AZ the hospitality of one Of their port
has excited their ire to the boiling
pitch.
Should the United States government
i officially re-echo the charges of th
American press, or should even Presi
dent Mckinley place upon the Spanish
A. authorities the burden Of proving tha
the destruction of the Maine was du
to an accident, vou may take it fo
granted that a declaration of war will
follow at once from here withou
,d waiting for further action from Amer
lea. and that conservatives, liberals
Carlists, and even republicans viii
Of sink their political differences for th
ty nonce and unite together for the pur
~ pose of avenging the insult perpetrate'
~ by the United States at the expense 0
L. the national honor Of Spain.
le The excitement here is CROWN.
le hourly with the publication of the com
W ments of foreign newspapers. and es
80 pecially of the American press, abou
D. the matter, and all the cafes, restau
ty rants and clubs are filled with angr,
Id men discussing the situation. Fo
,s reasons best known to itself the govern
80 ment is making no effort to stop tn
* publication of these utterances of tn
"a journals here about the matter. and in
as deed, it is impossible to avoid the I'M
"a preston that the administration ha
=" made up its mind i'll favor of war, TO
p Sagasta and his cabinet realize that tn
is lop sided and half-hearted scheme 0
1e Cuban autonomy has proved hopeles
and costly fiasco, and that a war popu
d. lar with all classes here might mari
N not only failure, but likewise the in
er evltaple loss of the Antilles, and thu
g. preserve, if not the cabinet. at an,
IN rate the dynasty from being over
ne thrown.
I'd The correspondent in Havana of E
le Impartial takes the peculiar viev
be that the Maine was destroyed bv on
"a of her own crew, and sends this re
81 markable dispatch to his paper:
in ga painful sensation has been cause'
es here by the discovery that severa
er American newspaper correspondent
be are telegraphing that the explosion OF
u the Maine was caused by a torpedo O
el dynamite internal machine that wa
III maliciously placed against her bows
n. 1t is feared that this infamous allega
Id tion may be amplified in the dis
pe patches sent by steamers to Key West
or and thence telegraphed to the news
papers of the United States. Tht> ;
he stories are entirely false. 1t should b
pg remembered that the Names Gre,
700 were composite lot, consisting o
in Englishmen. Germans, negroes a.
Chinese, besides Americans. "