The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-11-05
Uuearthing The NJ Mia Plot

did you ever know why it was that
| the attempted burning OF Manila and
massacre of all the white people in the
city, which was TO have occurred on the
night of February % was not success
ful?" asked a former California officer
| OF g number Of Minnesota officers and
| newspaper men at the Press Club the
other night Every one knew that the
attempt had proved a failure, but no one
knew exactly why. An the American
and European residents Of the city owe
their lives TO two incidents, so small as
| 10 be almost accidents continued the
! officer. and you Minnesota men are par
| ticularly fortunate in having escaped, for.
| being the armed police force Of the city.
| the natives were particularly anxious 10
/ get rid of you. / was in an official posi-
/ sion in the city. so that l know what I
am talking about, for my Information
| comes directly from General Hughes, pro-
vost marshal general OF the city. and
Others who were in a position TO know
everything that was going on" And then
he told this story:
Among the men on special service in
| the city was Lieutenant Hanna Of the
I Montana regiment. a nephew of Senator
Hanna Of Ohio. Lieutenant Hanna was on
secret service work. and one day reported
to General Hughes that he had captured
number of natives, priests and Span
iards. and had taken from them a number
of documents which seemed to be written
in cipher. The men had been captured IN
the house of a man supposed TO be n
Spanish colonel of cavalry. At the time
of this capture Lieutenant Hanna had
seen this colonel tear up a laundry bill
and throw it into water-closet. He
thought this was a queer act at such a
he no Ivy
and took it to General Hughes with the
documents found on the prisoners.
A close inspection Of the documents
showed that they were written in cipher.
and could not be read by any on> ar the
provost generals office. Then a casual
glance at the laundry bill showed that II
was key to the cipher After this dis
eovery was made, il was an easy mat
ter to read the cipher dispatches. They
proved to be complete details OF the at
tack on the city. which was planned for
February p They gave the details OF
the proposed attack on the city from the
outside. and gave Instructions to the sup
posed Spanish colonel of cavalry in regard
70 the planned uprising within the city
One of the dispatches stated that Aguin-
aldo would take breakfast in the palace
in the walled city the morning after the
attack.
1t was discovered from the dispatches
that the supposed colonel OF Spanish cav
airy was none other than a secretary 70
Aguinaldo OF course. a discovery OF all
the details OF the plans for the attack
on the city from the outside. and for the
uprising of the natives within the city, /
was of great value to the American Off I
GERS. for 1t gave them chance 10 prepare /
for this trouble, and gave them Informal 4
tiOp If aNaCflv whore ba f+a1I, 20,
come from. All that was missing was the 4
exact date of the attack. although II was
known approximately when il was 10 oc-
cur
The second incident which nipped the
scheme in the bud was even more pecu-
liar. One day a native woman carrying
a large basket of soap sought entrance
into the city, through the lines guarded
by the Nebraska regiment. She approach
ed a Nebraska outpost and asked permits
sion to pass. The permission was given.
for all the natives were allowed 10 20 IN
and out as they pleased, but the men az
he outpost said that they must have
some of the soap, as it was a commodity
hat they were greatly in need of, and
II that time could not obtain The w1-
nan protested, but the men insisted and
iually captured a half-doZen bars out Of
he basket. They paid the woman for II.
,ut insisted on having It,
The soap was distributed among the
men, and in breaking bar IN two - d.
de It with cOmrade. soldier dscOv- !
red a note inside the cake. II was writ
en- in Spanish. and was at once deliver
d TO the provost marshal. II proved 70 I {
e a list Of the men in the city who were / {
t the head Of the uprising. These men
we're at once put under arrest and held I
n custody until after the uprising on he I
light of February 22-San Francisco Cor
espondence St Paul Pioneer Press. :