Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1899-01-02
CERVERA.
Last Representative of the Heroic
Spaniards of Old.

Certainly that white haired old
hero, Cervera, who seems to be the
last representative of the ancient
glory of Spain, has good cause to rail
at Fortune. A more pathetic figure
has rarely been produced by the Fate
of Battles. The publication of letters
written by him when the war clouds
were gathering throws additional light
upon his interesting personality, as
we'll as upon the fatuous ignorance
and criminal negligence of the Span
ISL government which sent him to his
doom at Santiago.
Cervera had reached years and hon
ors when his nation Numbered into the
war which has we'll nigh cost her her
status as power. Whatever he
thought of the war itself, or the justice
or injustice of SPANS cause, this clear
headed old man knew we'll that it
could have only one ending-an end
ing fraught with disaster to his coun-
try. And he had the courage to lift
up his voice to his peoples rules and
say so. When Spain was finally COM
mitted to the conflict, Cervera devoted
his talents and un-Spanish hard sense
to an effort to make the inevitable dis
aster fall as lightly as possible. Fate
and the Spanish government willed it
so that his name is forever connected
with the final and crushing blow 10
Spain's sovereignty in the western
world.
In the light of what happened, sure
~ nothing is more pitiable than the
spectacle of Cervera, apparently the
only man in his country who had not
taken leave of his senses, pleading, ar
guing, begging with his superiors in
office not to expose his fleet to the de-
struction that must surely come upon
it. 1t must have taken a deal of moral
courage, too, for he lay himself open
to the imputation of cowardice. "Ad-
miral Cervera, says the Introductory
paragraph in La Epocha, which prints
his letters, pointed out the dangers
of a disastrous war with the United
States while it was still possible to
avoid it; he repeatedly reported the
deficiencies in the vessels under his
command; he persistently offered TO
come to Madrid to explain to the coun-
Gil of ministers the reasons why our
fleet was going to certain destruction;
he was forced to sail without war
plan, against his opinion and that Of
all the commanders of the fleet; many
of the elements indispensable to put
the ships in fair condition were not
supplied to him; the Colon sailed
without her turret artillery, and some
of the Bilbao cruisers with some of the
pieces and ammunition defective and
at least one of them with her speed
very much reduced on account of the
state of her bottom
Before leaving Spain Cervera wrote:
Il regret very much to have to sail
without having agreed upon some
plan, even on general lines, for which
purpose l repeatedly requested permits
sion to go to Madrid. From the bulk
of the kilograms received / think l see
that the government persists in the
idea of sending the little suuadron
(torpedo boat f1otilla) to Cuba. That
seems to me a very risky adventure,
which may cost us very dear, for the
loss of our fotilla and the defeat Of
our squadron in the Caribbean sea en-
tails a great danger for the Canaries,
and perhaps the bombardment OF our
coast cities. I do not mention the fate
of the island of Cuba, because have
anticinated it long ago.
Arrived at the Cape de Verdes, Ger
vera made further vigorous, but in
effectual, protest against being sent to
Cuba. He declared that the Vizcaya,
Oquendo and Maria Teresa were with
out needed artillery. "The main pow
er of these vessels" he wrote. lis prac-
tically useless on account of the bad
system of breech mechanism and the
bad quality of the cartridge cases. !"
When remonstrance could go no fur
Their, he wrote, prophetically and sad
ly: "But, after all, am glad the end
is coming"
Forced to proceed to Cuba, Cervera
did not shirk his duty, but entered in
to it with all his energy. He success
fully eluded our scouts and got safely
into Santiago harbor, feat which is
spoken of admiringly by every officer
in our navy. He was welcomed tu-
multuously at Santiago, but through
out the course of the street process
sions, jubilations, fetes and banQuets
with which he was greeted, the old
man walked with the ghost of disaster.
He was hero today, but there was a
tomorrow coming and he knew it. 1t
was not many weeks before the Span
iards of Santiago, oppressed and hun
gered by reason of Simpsons block
ade, changed their notes of praise to
words of execration. His men who
went ashore were spat upon in the