Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-03
Continued from page g

special officer at the station arrest him on a
charge of vagrancy-or on general princl-
pies, it made no difference which. The pris-
oner was carefully searched at the police sta
ton, and his room was also ransacked. If
anything was found to indicate that he
might be detective, he was convicted of
vagrancy without ceremony or delay and
sent to the rockpile or the turpentine farm
for thirty to ninety days, without the option
of fine. In aggravated cases conspiracy
charges were framed up against the de-
tectives, the proof was promptly produced
in abundance, and they were sent away for
as long as six months, at very hard labor.
If there be any who profess to feel shocked
by frank statement of these methods, let
them remember that the Cubans were fight
ing an enemy that was still living in the
Dark Ages in its principles of governing its
colonies, an enemy that resorted unhesi-
tatingly to bribery and murder by wholesale,
and one from whose brutality all Cubans had
suffered, directly or indirectly. They were
fighting, too, with the fury of desperation in
what they believed to be a final effort to
achieve their freedom; for they realized that
if this revolution was suppressed it would be
followed by a policy of determination SO
complete that new generation must come
up before the fires of liberty could again be
lighted.
Though it NAV seem that Fritot's way of
dealing with the men who were sent to spy
on him was high handed and unlawful, he
was in reality generous with them; for he
had but to raise his hand, and any of the de-
tectives, or all of them, would have been
lynched in five minutes. No fear of punish
ment deferred him from going to this ex-
IRENE; for public sentiment would have
unanimously approved the lynchings. 1t is
supposed that "all is fair in love and war
and if the Cubans sometimes went beyond
the letter of the written law, it can never be
truthfully claimed that they were nearly SO
lawless, SO treacherouS, or so murderOuS as
the SpaniardS.
JAMES FLOYD, a Jacksonville pilot who
, had a masters license, was placed in COM
mand of the Dauntless, and in a day or two
she left Brunswick and proceeded leisurely
down the coast to the mouth of the Satilla
River, sixty miles north of Jacksonville, os-
tensibly in search of a wreck. Under her
coastwise license she could go anywhere
without regard to the custom house regula-
tons governing ships bound for foreign
parts. Floyd was negro; but in every
thing except his skin he was white, as well as
clever and ShreWd.
AS soon as Rubens telegraphed us that the
DauntleSS had been purchased, Things began
to move rapidly. Two-thirds of the arms
were ordered to New York at once; the
other third, which filled two cars, was
shipped to Jacksonville by express. The
Laurada, which was reported to be going to
Jamaica for fruit, left Philadelphia with in
structions to proceed to Barnegat Light.
forty miles south of New York, and await
orders The arms she was to carry were
brought down on the Bridgeport boat and
allowed to remain in the vessel when the rest
of her cargo was unloaded.
Late in the afternoon, followed as usual by
two detectives, | went to New York and
drifted aimlcssly about for two or three
hours Soon after dark | was lounging
around City Hall Park, when carriage,
which | had ordered to meet me at that par
ticular spot at that precise moment, in
which were DR.. Castillo and General Carlos
Roloff, Secretary of War in the revolutionary
Government, drove up. jumped in, and
we were driven away before the sleuths had
time to think. There was no other olsen
gagged carriage in sight, and before they
could find one we were out of sight
We were driven, at lively gait and by a
roundabout route, to the Bridgeport Line
wharf, and the big swinging doors were
closed and locked as soon as we were inside.
There had been no attempt at secrecy in
shipping the arms from Bridgeport; but the
detectives who had been assigned to keep a