Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1910-09-24

justify Americas attitude in the Cuban mix-up.
Weyler was the best hated in Cuba when
the government of his nation finally recalled him.
This book will cause him to be cursed the length
and breadth of the peninsula.
q wrote it," he SAYS ito give all the facts
about my conduct general in chief. conduct
admired not only by army officers, high and
low, who wrote innumerable letters, but
by privates, who, their to the PENN
sula spoke of with enthusiastic fer
vor for which 1 can never thank them enough.
Various reasons prevented from doing years
ago (when l could have freed my mind
from certain bias) work which now
do in perfect peace of mind, thanks to the
time that has passed. and which has soothed
the irritation due to the injustice suffered at
the hands of some
Furthermore did not wish to sadden Senior
Sagasta by retelling the story of colonial
disasters; neither did I feel any pleasure in cen
surfing the ilustrious Gen. Martinez Campos, my
predecessor in Cuba, however uncharitably he
acted toward after his return to the capital"
A perusal of the book fails to prove that Wey
Ter kept his promise to treat the subject with
perfect moderation; the generals blood is still
boiling, and with some justification for atroc1ous
| as his conduct in many instances, 1t could
not very well be criticized in Spain by the Span
| ish government
genius of Marriott Las Cazes he could have
made a much stronger against Spain and
presented his actions in a much more favor
able light. Unfortunately his knowledge of the
writer's craft is deficient his fund of infor-
nation touching political economy, general his
tory, national anad international politics is
meager.
Weyler is not a diplomat; the slippery land
of nuances and innuendos is to him terra incog-
nita: a primitive brute with rudimentary ethics,
though unfinchingly frank and straightforward.
he never ventures assertion which cannot be
supported by documents; he pays any at
tention to hearsay but quotes peoples letters in
extenso
fascinating type. after ALL for the observer
blessed with the of history; just imagine
what Weyler would have developed into if he
had not been born 500 years too late; clad
in Steel he had been riding caparisoned mount,
or, if he had been allowed to range over Europe
during the Thirty Years wari
General Wey1ers style is very trying; even
| his proclannations vainy modelled after Napoleon
rs oratorica1 gems, rarely sound the note that
makes q people vibrate- His rela
lions of the Cuban campaign with all the facts,
figures, names recorded in haphazard fashion
day by day, is well nigh unreliable.
But the documents he publishes in support of
his thesis (some of them of a confidential char
acter and which must have been secured through
. diplomatic means') make it well worth while
, wading through an otherwise dull. shapeless and
fndigestible piece of writing.
First all made to realize how hope
less the plight the Spanish commanders had
r become the island when Weyier took the stu
r alton in hand; the many generals who preceded
t him had been losing ground from day day.
information of a pessimistic character of which
the public and the press were seldom apprised
their confidential correspondence betrayed heart
rending facts; than poor Cen Marti-
| neg Campos had humbly confessed himself beat
en- while the cabinet led the Spanish nation to
believe that ne war practically
weyler himself. when placed in command of
the Cuban army, not even given what he was
| entitled to- an honest account of the situation
when 1 landed in Cuba he writes. Il did
not even suspect the terrible conditions that pre-
vailed In the island 1 did not know anything