The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-08-18
ONE NIGHT OF JOY IN MADRID.
The City Went wild over False
Report of Victory by Cervera,

The City Went wild over "A False
Report of Victory by Cervera.
From the Chautauqua Ass ambly Herald.
John D. Batchelder, who was a student
at the Universi of Madrid at the time
of the Spanish-Ame rican war, lectured in
the Amphithoate July II, on the scenes
he then witnessed in the Spanish capital
city. In part he said:
Il have never seen a body of men so
utterly without scruple and reckls So as
the Journalists Of Madrid. Although Il was
July, Madrid was still packed to overflow
ing with eager b. oxen hearted citizens,
who chung desp2ra tely to hope and to
he center of the country where they
could soonest obtain rews If 1t farrell we'll
or i'll with their beloved hard-pressed ma
ton The university was closed but the
students sin remained about. rejoicing
the hear of Madrid boardir house keep
trs. Men tainted not Sc dom in the the
res. The character Of the dramas was
sadly changed. Early in the year you
could hardly enter an entertainment hall
in Madrid without listening to some cpl
gram. some lampoon, at the expense of
America, but the actors were now silent
as to the question that absorbed all mems
minds.
dependency, is the reflex, the intoxicating
revulsion CT feeling, which the first happy.
UnIuthful tidines brought from the bat
lie of Santiago. Scarce to be imagined the
t. eacf erous, unwise mechina ions of
government and pr, IS which, N desperate
straits, 1t is true, endeavored to break
the news Ct this inglorious defeat to the
al eady hUmi lated nation through the
unsuccessful medium of fiat e and de-
ception and downright lying
For twentyfour hours entire Madrid,
&c eyed and credulous as a oh Id where
her love of country is concerned, was W Id
with frantic, unexpected joy. Madrid lives
at night, and Il was lale in the aft rnoon
before the newshoys set up the glad cry
of victory for Spain. They pushed into
the cafes in hord s. carrying in their
aims great loads of the Nacional the
most conservative journal in Madrid, and
highly tinctured with governmental in
fiuenoe. The great street echoed with the
iubilant ring of cheers and shame re-
lieved.
THE recorded victory seemed indeed
eloriously complete for Spain. Cervera
had broken through the impnsoning line
Of American ships. He was well out of
the Bay of Santiago and into the ocean.
He had foundered two men-ofwar i'm this
glorious transit and rendered many 9th
tFS uSeleSS, anu the remnant tnat
ed of the American feet was now follow
ing after tie rapidly disappearing Span
lard headed by the Texas and the Brook
Ign, which alone remained intact.
Madrid never slept that glorious night
The thea ers ragged. All that night and all
the next day the opsn square Ct the Puer-
to del Sol was bl-cked by the writing,
conglomerate mass of excited nStriotism
incarnate. Here men Of openly aNarchis-
tic tendencies embraced the most strictly
conservative. Priests actually touched
hands with laymen; nay, with the tiny
Protestant clique, which assembled under
the awning of the Cafe of the Orifn
Madrid is built in the form of a cart
wheel, with one great square forming its
hub, into which the various innumerable
avenues from all quar- ers converge like
spokes. This great central square is the
far-famed Puerto del Sol, and hither a
mob, once formed in any part of the city
Immediately proceeds From this central
butte butte its foa r..
my balcony overhung the famous
square Suddenly we saw a great scram-
blirg of the throng toward the center as
the newsboys ran in among the crowd,
their unsteady intoned cries drowned by
the deafe ming welcome Of the populace at
the thought of news which they no longer
feared
Suddenly as we looked the cries of re-
joicing became walls of despair and the
great square became strangely still as the
journals and their fatal mes sage passed
from group to group.
1--WE rushed down 10 buy the Liberal
The enormous ironical headlines parodied
the exultant untruthful leaders OF the day
before. Days of mourning for Spain. The
Colombo foundered Cervera wounded
The crowd below drank in the unwelcome
intelligence, and its meaning followed
slower sinking deep and sorrowfully into
the depth of their reluctant souls Spain
defea ed. The fleet she had bcasted scat
tered in pieces over the Atlantic. II all
came to the disappointed and deceived
PATRIOTS as too horrible 10 be true, out
of nature, aside from the law of the uni
verse, and men went sadly to their homes
leaving the great square emptied and de-
serted.
but most grievously deep into the
heart OF Spain penetrated the death of the
great naval hero, La Zaga However rep
resentative the Admiral Cervera may have