The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-08-06
From the New York Press.

! From the New York Press.
Perhaps the saddest and the most
heroic story of the war. as far as
| Spain is concerned, was enacted some
days ago in the military prison of Bar
celona, twelve soldiers and the most
promising young poet Spain has pro-
duced for fifty years being the chief
! performers.
As the smoke of the Mausers cleared
away and the provost general threw
a blanket over the lifeless form of Don
Jose Rizal the genius of freedom
buried her head and the muses. wept.
But the court-martial declared that JUS
tice had been done and that the honor
OF Spain was the richer for the life
ended and the heart broken. Aye, it
was an affair of the heart as we'll as
of politics, for the priest who attended
Don Jose at the ditch had laid the
poets hand into that Of a lovely girl
ten minutes before the curtain rose
upon the last act of the drama of his
life.
Don Jose, the notable victim of a war
which seems to demand more civilian
than military blood, belonged to one
Of the proudest old families of Cas-
tile. Though scarcely thirty years old,
his name was familiar to the Spanish
speaking peoples the world over. The
younger generation and the women
generally loved him as one of their
most gifted lyric poets: the world Of
science and letters looked upon him as
an inventor and historian of wonder
ful promise. Rich, healthy, energetic
and enthusiastic, he was allowed to
put into his literary work the best that
was in him. Possessing ample means
Tor prosecuting his scientific inyesti-
cations, he pushed them to the utmost
length
WROTE IN FREEDOMS CAUSE.
The Rizals have always owned large
estates in the Philippines, a country
Don Jose loved. Two years ago he set
out for the islands to make them his
nome and to study native conditions
and folk lore among that poor, down.
trodden race. His heart went out to
them. Every true poet feels for the
oppressed; that is in the nature of
poetry. Don Jose, a veritable child as
to politics, seems to have let his heart
run away with his head. What he felt
Tor the natives what he had seen Of
the conditions under which they
sroaned, he put on paper, and his Tyre
only too generously responded to the
rich impulse of freedom that swayed
him. He wrote perhaps a dozen poems
setting forth the justice of the islands
demands and calling upon them to de-
fend their ideals.
These poems, conceived in the warmth
or freedom hungry heart found
ready echo among those to whom they
were addressed. The natives, without
literature, sadly in need of an intel
lectual leader began to look upon Don
Jose as their national poet. His songs.
written in an easy style, became in an
Incredibly short space of time the
property of the common people. They
were sung at all their meetings, the
women sang them in the fields, the men
on their hunting and fishing trips and
especially when they entered upon the
Warpath. What the poet had intended
for an expression of his own Justice
loving soul became a battle cry wholly
without effort on his part, and, indeed
without his knowledge.
SNATCHED FROM LOVES PATH.
On April l, just a month before Ad-
miral Dewey steamed into Manila har-
bor Don Jose was arrested at the in
stance of Governor General Augusti,
at the moment when he embarked with
a party of friends for the island of
lloilo to celebrate his betrothal with |
Senorita Louise Taufers, a daughter
of the former consul general of the |
German empire, F. b. Taufers.
ltizal, his intended wife his new rel |
atives and friends We're dumbfoundeC |
The poet was unaware of having done |
anything unlawful. He could easily |
prove that he had no connection with |
the insurgents; that, in fact he was SO |
thorough novice in matters political |
that he hardly knew the different par
ties by name.
No matter-Augusti had his orders |
Rial offered his extensive estates as
security He was laughed at These
estates had already been confscated.
Consul Feneral Taufers offered bail to
any amount 1t was refused. After
a short season of incarceration, Don
Jose was carried to the man-of- war
Cortil!a and was sent TO Spain.
AT Barcelona court-martial forth
with assembled to sit upon the case.
The crime charged against Don Jose
was high treason
The proceedings were short and 20
the point. When Don Jose had con-
fessed that certain poems attributed
TO him were products of his pen, "he
was already a dead man."
lt seems almost beyond belief that,
at the end of the nineteenth century,
a man should be executed for his opin-
ions' hut such was the governments
intention from the start, Rizal's fam-
lily and the family Of his bride exerted
themselves vainly in his behalf. A re-
spite until Don Joses bride and sis
ters had arrived from Manila was all
their efforts yielded.
MARRIAGE BEFORE EXECUTION.