The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1910-09-23

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.
7 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 me innumerable letters but
by pr1vates, who, on their return to the penin-
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 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 suffered at
the hands of some men.
Furthermore did not wish to sadden Senior
Sagasta BY retelling 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"
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. it could
not very well be criticized in Spain by the Span
ish government.
Had Weyler been endowed with the literary
genius OF Marriott or a Las Cazes. he could have
presented his own actions in a much more favor
eble light. Unfortunately his knowledge of the
writer's craft is as deficient his fund of inforl
nation touching political economy, general his
tory. national anad international politics is
meagef.
Weyler is not a diplomat; the slippery land
of nuances and innuendos is to him terra incog-
nita: primitive brute, with rudimentary ethics,
though unfinchingly frank and straightforward,
he never ventures an assertion which cannot be
supported by documents; he never pays any at
tention to hearsay but quotes peoples letters in.
extenso
A fascinating type, after all. for the observer
blessed with the sense of history; just imagine
what Weyler would have developed into II he
had not been born some 500 years too late; clad
In steel, he had been riding caparisoned mount.
or II he had been allowed to range over Europe
during the Thirty Years war!
General Weyler's style is very trying even
his proclamations vainly modelled after Napoleon
IFS oratorical gems. rarely sound the note that
makes people or an army vibrate. His rela-
lions OF the Cuban campaign with all the facts.
figures. names recorded In haphazard fashion
day BY day. Is wen nigh unreliable.
But the documents he publishes in support of
: his thesis (some of them of confidential char
acter and which must have been secured through
diplomatic means") make 1t well worth while
wading through otherwise dull. shapeless and
indigestibe piece of writing
First of all we are made to realize how hope
less the plight of the Spanish commanders had
become in the island when Weyler took the situ
alton in hand: the many generals who preceded
him had been losing ground from day to day:
their cables to the Spanish government gave
information of a pessimistic character OF which
the public and the press were seldom appraised;
their confidential correspondence betrayed heart
rending facts; more than once poor Gen. Marti-
neg campos had hunibly confessed himself beat
en-, while the cabinet led the Spanish nation to
believe 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
'sWhen landed ia Cuba.e he writes Il did