Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1907-05-23
TO SHIP BODY HOME.
TO BE TAKEN TO MEADvILLE.
The Case of Egsign Alfred T. BriSbin,
U. s. NJ, Closed = Death Stops
Official Action.
wELLKNowN IN SOCIAL CIRCLE

Inc Dody OF ESHslEh A1iISu l. bA1s-
bin, u. ;. IN, who committed sui
eide on Monday last on board the
cruiser Tacoma at Guantanamo, Cuba,
will be shipped TO his home at
Meadyille, Pa, Commander Tappan,
of the Tacoma, having cabled 10 the
Navy Department at Washington to
this effect.
After being in communication with
the parents of Ensign Brisbin at Belle
fonte, Pa, orders were cabled late
Yesterday TO Commander Tappan to
have the dead officers body prepared
for shipment to his home. As it is an
unwritten regulation in both the army
and navy not to bury with full mill
tary honcrs an officer who has COM
mitted suicide, Commander Tappan
made special request that the officers
and men of the Tacoma be permitted
to hold services over the body aboard
ship before its departure, and this has
been granted. The body will prob
ably be sent by rail to Havana for
shipment to the United States.
With the publication of a statement
from the office of the Secretary of War
reciting the substance of the official
report of Col. Charles l.. Bullard. it
is probable the clash of the bluejackets
of the Tacoma with the Santiago po-
lice will become a closed incident.
This statement may appear today. The
death of Ensign Bri shin, who was the
only officer implicated, has caused
the Navy Department to suspend fur
Their proceedings in his case, and if it
shall appear that any of the bluejack-
cts deserve court-martial that will
follow in the regular course of events,
ha
matter.
Whether Ensign Brisbin accepting
IN invitation to join the bluejackets
who were drinking in Santiago cafe
and his subsequent action in coming
to their rescue when they became in
volved in the imbroglio with the
police called for official proceedings
against that officer will always re-
main an open question, but the re-
port of Colonel Bullard shows that at
least one and probably more blue
jackets who gave no provocation for
arrest suffered at the hands of the
Santiago police. The police, it app
pears, failed to discriminate between
boisterous bluejackets and those who
were making their way. quietly to the
boat landing.
If Secretary Taft decides to direct
the attention of the provisional gov
ernment of Cuba to the conduct of the
lntiago police in their reckless use
Of arms, this will be done through the
regular channels, so that in the last
instance the local officials of that city
would be called upon to discipline
the police in the way they see fit.
1t is unlikely that the suggestion that
no bluejackets shall hereafter be
4 H. -. fNtrAs 1cR,f
with the permission of the provision
al Governor, will be adopted. The
Navy Department is not inclined to
establish such precedent. At the
same time the treatment accorded the
bluejackets of the Des Moines at San
tiago several months ago and the
trouble of those of the Tacoma will
probably result in American men-of-
war boycotting that port for some
time TO come. 1t is said that even
the American officers have not been
given cards to the Santiago clubs re-
Gently. In Havana the bluejackets
seldom get into trouble.
Ensign Brisbin was we'll and favor
ably known. here, not .only. because he
was graduated from the Naval Acad-
emy, but because of his visits here
after graduation and his social rela-
tions with families of the Naval Acad-
envy, and it was rumored at one tiTne
that the late Ensign Brisbin was en-
gagged to a daughter of one of the
prominent officers at the Naval Acad-
emy. The death of the young officer
under such peculiarly sad circum-
stances has cast a gloom over his
naval friends here and throughout the
country.