Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1900-11-28
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. ADMIRAL OERVERA AT HOME. !

Z ADMIRAL 0ERVERA AT HOME !
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AZ low tide Shiny mud fat, thanked
with green meadows; a slugrish
creek. winding through the mud ike
Mvulet after . shower; q saa. wolll
% The back, above which rises q col.
!e0u>om OF low, Arab-lke houses. with
ners and there . belfry, a tower. and
0aeSS a Moslem minaret. Such Is
Foerto Real, In Spain, the home of AID
MIRA Cervera, as / saw it from 1hs
low deck of wabbling, nondescrtps
CRAFT one winter afternoon. A soldier
c&rected me to the Admiral's resi-
oemce, In Santo Domingo street, a
modest, unpretentpus house, with
plain white walls rising from the edge
OF the narrow sidewalk.
Tome right IN, sir; you are wei.
come. The Admiral Don Pascual il
away, but come in; viii 90 and
fetch a light"
The youth then allowed me into the
Admhraps study, a cozy ltttle room
with f1atITop desk at one end. a book
case filled with books, and pictures ON
the walls, mostly photographs of
ships and naval officers, among them
q group OF the Admiral and hds Of
Ulcers, taken when prisoners at Anna.
polls. He brought a large square box
containing photographs = removing
the cover, the first picture was the
familiar one of Lieut.. Hobson. Hold.
Ing 1T up, the boy laughed.
Funny, wasn't 1t?" he sadd. lyon
fellows blew us out Of the water, and
then rescued us, clothed and fed us,
and treated us royalty"
1 spent "a pleasant hour with the
trusted servant. On my return several
days later / was ushered into thu
study, where the Admiral received me.
With an air that this settled the OBJ
jedt of my visit he began to ask ma
questions as though we had been old
friends. First he wanted to know the
meaning of an English word he had
found in an English periodical, saying
that he read English, but did NOD
speak 1T, for the pronunciation wan
loo difffcuE. He asked me to recon-
mend him q good English dictionary,
zone not to heavy 20 carry about"
and then, turning 70 the desk, b
reached for a red-covered book which
shone conspdciously among the som.
bre brown and black volumes. By the
way he chuckled, one might have
thought that % was one af Mark
1wain's stories. But ut was only q
copy of Senator Lodges History Of
THE Spanish-Amer1can War; He said
with another chuckle that the 'htAA
tory was full of inaccuracies, and,
ike Lieut.. Hobson's account of the
sinking of the Merrimac, must be %
the American people a pretty novel.
1 asked him if he had any idea of the
prominence of the man who wrote the
book. He did not, nor did he appear
TO take any particular offence at any
of Senator Lodges statements. simply
combining himself to saying that the
book w'as all wrong, and worthless al
history. / told him then that was q
reason why he should write ain ac-
count of HRS personal experiences, that
we might get at the truth, but hs
shook his head.
did the fact that Admiral Samp-
son was away from the blockadina
fleet on the morning of July 8 Ia
nuence you in selecting the time to
leave antiago harl or?" l asked.
Nothing influenced me-" he an
Wered. My orders, telegraphed from
Havana, were to leave Immediately, I
received them ON the I'd and prepared
NO obey them"
He argued with me THAT such eveuk,
were common in war, especially where
uhere were volunteer troops, but he
seemed to blame our authorities fo0
not making any kind of an attempt ia
punish the men responsible for Thu
act AS for my own treatment. {"
said he, We who were sent to Anna.
polls were treated more as comrades
than as prisoners. while those who
were sent to Norfolk were treated
strictly as prsoneIs-of- war. Then
There were those who were sent to
Portsmouth; they we're not treated
at all. but put in wooden sheds and
allowed to look out for Themselves
The American officer in command
there was lax, and evidently didn't
UNDER 'aiFI lris duty. l was allowed 70
visit the place, and when l saw The
conditions, I mildly called the atten-
Uon OF your government ITO them, and
was very much gratified latter to learn
OF the removal of the officer
When | ted him that we didn't IN
tend. to take Cuta, he exclaimed,
"Whatl You have been after Cuba
Tor half a century. You helped Lopez
FIT out his first expedition. a I'D nearly
every man in his outfit was an Anna.
rdcan. And what have you got to say
about the Maine disaoter nd that
farce of an investigation? if your
president did not want t'4e ~,T. why
did he allow that ais an excn ? You
tried us by your own CONT, Y nr own
witnesses and your own a;:arneys,
allowing us no defence. We wanted
the Investigation carried on by an In.
ternational board, but you wouldn't
allow 1t. and then condemned u.s."
Evidently the Admiral, like al
Spamdards, was earnest In his belief
that the Maine had not been blown
up by the hand Of his own people. He
scorned the idea that Cuba would be
anything but part of the United
States and agreed with me that Cuba
would become second Hayti and
Santo Domingo If left to herself. As
I ventured ITO remark that Cuba would
not have been lost to Spain had 1t not
been for General Weyler, he WINGED
uneasely, saying:
"Oh, you would have had the island