The Red Cloud chief., 1910-09-22

justify Americas attitude in the Cuban mix.up.
Weyler was the best hated man 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.
Il wrote IT," he says. Ito give all the facts
about my conduct as general in chief, a conduct
admired not only by army officers, high and
low, who wrote me innumerable letters, but
by privates, who. on their return to the PENN.
sula, spoke Of me with an enthusiastic fer.
yor for which | can never thank them enough.
Various reasons prevented me from doing years
ago (when | could not have freed my mind
from n certain bias a work which | can now
do in perfect peace of mind, thanks to the
time that has passed, and which has soothed
the irritation due to the injustice I suffered at
the hands of some men.
Furthermore | did not wish to sadden Senior
Sagasta by retelllng the story of our colonial
disasters; neither did [ feel any pleasure in cen
surfing the illustrious Gen. Martinez Campos, my
predecessor In Cuba, however uncharitably he
acted toward me 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 atrocious
as his conduct was in many Instances, IL could
not very we'll be criticized in Spain by the Span.
ish government.
Had Weyler been endowed with the literary
genius of a Marriott or a Las Cazes, he could have
HlHUe a. oNiohD'' ~"'>
prosented his own actions in a much more favor
able light. Unfortunately his knowledge of the
writer's craft is as deficient as his fund OF lhior'
nation touching political economy, general MS
tory, national anad international poHtlcs Is
meager.
VIEWER Is not a diplomat; the slippery land
~ nuances and innuendos is to him terra incog'
r,to. q primitive brute, with rudimentary ethics.
though unHinchingly frank and straightforward.
he never ventures an assertion whlch cannot De
sl,pported by Documents; he never pays any at
tention to hearsay but quotes peoples letters IN
~extenso.
A fascinating type, after all, for the observer
n,ooaed with the sense of history; just imagine
what a Weyler would have developed into II ne
had not been born some 500 years too late; clad
In steel. he had been riding a caparisoned mount.
or. II he had been allowed to range over Europe
during the Thirty Years war;
General WeyIer's style Is very trying; even
hho uroc,amotIons yainly modelled after Napoleon
10 oratorical gems, rarely sound the note that
makes a people or an army VlDrate' MS reia'
tions of the Cuban campaign with all the iacIS'
figures. names recorded in hapha2ard iashioh
day by day, is well nigh unreadabIe'
But the documents he publishes in support OF
his thesis (some of them of a continental char'
octer and which must have been secured through
"1inIouatic means") make II well worth while
wading through an otherwise duh, shapeless anu
indigestible piece OF writihg'
First of all we are made 10 realize how nope
less the plight Of the Spanish commanders had
become in the island when Weyler TOOK the STU
at,on IN hand. the many generals who preceded
him had been losing ground from day to day:
their cables to the Spanish government gave
inflammation OF a pessimlstic character OF which
the public and the press were seldom apprised;
their confidential correspondence betrayed heart'
rending facts; more than once poor Gen. MART
nav Cannes had humbly confessed himself beat
o. while the cabinet led the Spanish nation to
belieye that the war was practically over.
Weyler himself. when placed In command OF
the Cuban army, was not even given what he was
entitled to, an honest account of the situation.
.When landed in Cuba" he writes. Il die
mot eyen suspect the terrible conditions that pre-
vailed in the island. l did not know anything