Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-02-18

DERHAPS it was decreed by Fate that
II should become hlibuster in the
of Cuban liberty: at any rate,
| Unexpectedly projected into the
situation when it filled with disaster
and Encouragement, and the future of the -;
Pearl of Antilles seemed darker than any asss.sss
of the black days that had gone before.
Cuba her freedom to Jose ssS~zsf
Marti than to any other man; for it was s8.sa
his brain that conceived and planned the sl4A
War of Independence, and, after he had ~
given his life for his country, it the $500
organization he had built up in years of
labor that furnished the means with which go
to carry the conflict.
Driven from his island home at the end -
of the Ten Years War; he took refuge in -.
New York, and Immediately began to plan
and work out movement. His chief
adviser and one of the few who pos
sessed his full confidence during the long
years of his unselfsh labor his old
friend, Horatio S. Rubens, who subse-
quently became general counsel for the
revolutionists Marti's indomitable spirit -
took no notice of things that would have dis
heartened any but extraordinary man. - II
Though he lacked for time the support
of even his own countrymen, result of -
their successive reverses, he kept at work .~rz
until he had created far reaching and ex- -
ceedingly effective organization Cuban
clubs secretly established in New D~r
York, Chicago, Charleston, New Orleans, -.
Tampa, Jacksonville, Key West and every -;
other city where there Cuban colony.
The members of these clubs, which were
composed chiefly of cgarmakers, regularly
contributed ten per cent. of their wages to
the revolutionary fund. With the money
thus provided Marti bought and am
munition which struggled into Cuba in small guam
titles and hidden away until he ready to strike, and
had perfected his plans in other ways. Though filled
with the fire and fervor of the inspired patriot he
in way impatient: so long as he making progress
he was satisfied, and he worked slowly and system
atically.
were made for the launching of the revolution in
January. 1895, when three vessels, which had been
chartered for the expedition loaded with arms to
sail from Fernandina, Florida One to 60 to Santo
Domingo and pick up General Maxine Gomez, the
Commander in Chief and his staff while another went
to Costa RIGA for Lieutenant General Antonio Maceo,
who to be second in command and his party. The
third Ship with Mart board, to proceed to Key
West, where it to be joined by large party of
Cuban exiles The three vessels to make landing
simultaneously at the eastern end of the island where
the concealed.
Mart had moved SO secretly that he supposed one
outside his organization had any nkng of his plans;
but there leak somewhere through which the
project became known at Washington. When the first
ship put out from Fernandna it seized by
cutter and the other vessels prevented from sail
ing Undaunted by this disaster, Marti Santo
Domingo on liner and persuaded Gomez to go ahead
with the plan Maceo was summoned from Costa Rica,
and the delayed expedition much smaller IN numbers
than it intended to be- but with less courage,
landed from little fishing oop near the city of San
tago, close to the point at which the first large body of
American troops were landed three years later to
plete the conquest OF Spain IN Cuba
The rebellious natives anXiously awaiting the
call arms and the revolutionary forces quickly
organized first in Santiago Province, and then in Cana
guey and Santa Clara Mart lived long enough to
the movement he had inauguraed we'll under way but
it the greatest tragedy of the war that he did not
witness the realization of his es dream
Knowing nothing of fear and dsdainul of caution he
constantly exposed himself to danger spite of all that
Gomez and his officers could do to restrain him. When
far in advance of the main body of troops he killed
by small force of Spanards at Dos Rios, in Santiago
Province May Is, 1895 AS in the of Maceo,
who was killed near Havana eighteen months later his
death almost accidental, and it sometime be-