The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-07-21

II is an axiom of war that no man goes
out looking for defeat without finding it.
There was not ray of hope on the Span
ish horizon. They went out to run, not
to fight. Theirs was the determination of
despair, not courage. not daring.
They started in silence. and aboard
every ship there was gloom and forbode
ing.
They issued no rations that Sunday
morning; what matters it TO man about
to die whether his stomach is full or not?
In the pangs of death the pangs of hun
ger are not felt. They were making the
desperate venture under protest and by
orders they counted arbitrary and unjust.
They realized they were being sacrificed
upon the altar of selfish ambition. They
were sent to death because a government
dared not do its duty in defiance of a
people Is it any wonder they went re-
iuctantly?
Such was the condition of the Spanish
crews as their ships steamed to the har-
Dor entrance. The gunners sulked at their
cannon, the stokerS moped in the stoke
hole
tain's strong boxes were opened and the
men They took the money, but even that
didn't rouse them. Then came the order:
open the wine and spirit stores!"
The brandy was served out. It acted on
the strained nerves and empty stomachs
OF the men like electricity. The dull ache
of despair gave place to the frenzy Of
intoxication. The ship came out shooting
as fast as they could serve the guns.
The officers for the most part kept their
heads; they chose the course to the west
ward, and then began that awful running
of the gauntlet that was not 20 cease un-
til the last Of the Spanish ships was piled
on the rocks a hopeless wreck.
There was wild plan in the mannouvre
purpose to sink the Brooklyn, and then
run away from the slower battleships.
There was shadowy possibility that sober
crews and expert gunners might have
accomplished this. Had every man on
board that Spanish fleet been responsive
to the will Of the man who planned the
escape, had every ship done its full duty
as part Of the same organization, some
of them might have won away.
AS ii was, whenever a stoker Taxed in
his shoveling, whenever a rum-crazed
gunner fired his piece without half point
ing it, the shaky fabric Of a possible es-
cape was made still more unsubstantial
With the first shot from the American
fleet began the orgy on the doomed craft.
The rum, first served by the stewards
free to everybody. Barrels of it were
~, 4
and mans allowance was the amount he
could swallow.
1t served the purpose the officers de-
signed. There was no more reluctance,
no hanging back from dangerous posts.
The Spanish sailors entered into the full
spirit of the race TO death. They swore,
they sang, they clouted each other, but
they stood by their guns.
Nothing was sacred to them. They
damned their officers, their government,
their queen, but as long as they stood TO
their guns they were not interfered with.
The Spanish ships vomited fire and iron
from every gun. There was no saving
of ammunition. There could be no waste
where the whole cargo was bound for the
bottom.
Some Of the men began to be stupid
drunk in spite of the hell of excitement
in which they worked. When one of
these dropped his sponge or rolled from
his position the nearest officer shot him
down.
Wilder and wilder the sarturnale grew,
The men. flaming faced, disappearing,
swilling the frey liquor, laughed the
by the blazing sun, the Amer
lean shells or their own officers wea-
pons.
They tore their clothes from their
bodies ond dancd around their guns
naked slipping in the blood. The others
aored when one would rise from the
deck smeared with red from head TO
foot.
The sense OF fear was at last elimin-
ated. While their ships were being
shattered and riven under them these
mad men fought on.
a fragment of she'll from the Brooklyn
struck a cask of Santiago rum, shatter-
ing the barrel slaves. Like famished
swine about a feed trough the reserve
crews of the guns fell to the deck and
caught the wasting liquor in their mouths
and even tapped it up from the planks.
When they had drunk their fill they were
driven away 10 relieve thtir companions
and give them a chance at the rum.
And all the time the American shells
were slaughtering them. On the Vizcaya
a single shot, striking astern and ricoch-
citing the full length of the ship. man
gled eighty men, and still the Spaniards
fought
There was a certain order about II in
spite Of the drunkenness and relaxation.
The men swore az their officers. but ,hey
stood at their guns and ammunition
and worked Ike devils between drinks.