The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-05-30

When Shakespeare feels the earth long
ing and returns from Kirvachan for an
other earth life to write again the TRACE
dies and comedies of nations, he will
find no material richer in burlesque and
comedy. with the tragedy of high senti-
ment mercilessly played upon in the
game of statecraft and the pathos of
lives sacrificed, than is this serio-comic
war whose echoes still float across the
Pacific and waken the means of the be-
reaved of our land. Rich as is the brief
history, its gem is In the culmina ton of
the scheme to pay the so-ealled Cuban
soldiers for their services in gaining the
exemption of their island from Spanish
domination and its conversion into a
satrapy of the United States. The key
to the comedy lies in the pious disavowal
by the president of a war for conquest
as criminal aggression and the reso-
luton of congress declaring that the peo-
pie of Cuba are and of right should be free
and Independent. From this pretense of
high and humanitarian purpose flow all
the events that, growing more and more
complicated, lead up to the crowning
farce.
BY the time the war with Spain closed,
the right of the people of Cuba to be free
and Independent became clouded with
doubt as to their capacity to utilize that
freedom and independence according to
Anglo-SaXon ideas. With this change
came the problem Of what to do with the
Cuban soldiery, ''invincible in peace in
visible in war" Three million dollars
were set apart as sort of donation in
acknowledgment of their services In
kicking up the rumpus with Spain that
produced the much needed opportunity
for a diversion to set the people of the
United States to thinking of something
beside money problems. The Cuban
generals" demanded twenty million dol
lars, but. being beggars, they could not
be chOosers Then followed the long
confabs with Gomez; the break with his
generals; the decision of our governor
general that the Cuban soldiers arms
should be surrendered, with compltca-
ton between that official and our re-
markable secretary of war; the making
out of the roll of the Cuban army in
which process the shrinkage in the num-
Der of the patriots was comical; and all
eliminating in the farce so graphically
portrayed In the press dispatch from
Havana
How splendidly the whole affair lends
Itself to Shakespeare's genius The pay
master of the United States and his
clerks and guards. with the bags of gold
and silver, repairing to the point desig-
mated for the Cuban soldiers to bring
and surrender their arms and receive
the munificent SIS doled out to them as
the price of their virtual admission that
Cuba was not free nor her people indie
pendent; Col. Randall, U. 8. A. present
as the commissioner of these United
States; the Cuban Riveras, appointed civ
II governor, there in state to receive the
arms; the representative or Gomez there
to authenticate the bargain his chief had
made; the squad of our soldiers present
to prevent rush Of the Cuban soldiers
for the bags of gold and silver, and. ON
the side, the group of Cuban irreconcila-
bles who refused to be party to the farce
Nothing seems to be lacking
But there was. The most Important
factor in. the entire play, the Cuban
soldier, with his musket and accoutre-
ments. was not there. Nor did he como
Finally came solitary man of color
clad In Cuban uniform, attended bv all
the American spectators" SO chronicles
the Veracious press agent. but investiga-
ton of the rolls showed he was merely
camp follower, and he went away empty
handed. The wait grew wearisome. The
Cuban generals" stood by and twisted
their mustaches" and sneered, the only
spectators who could enjoy the rare hu-