The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1913-05-22

up. Speeding down the bay in
binding snowstorm, Johnny. man
aged to Lose three tug boats crowd
ed with Deputy United States mar
shals and reporters, although it seems
one of them got within hailing dis
tance long enough to inquire wheth-
er Garcia was aboard
ASK the cook" was O'Brien's re-
ply, roared through megaphone.
The next day General Garcia and
| nearly hundred Cuban patriots
we're picked up we'll off Atlantic City,
but the news Of Dynamite Johnny's
venture had been flashed abroad, and
it was well known that the Span
iards would patrol the Cuban coast
with renewed vigilance.
Doubling on his tracks, taking
course which carried the Bermuda
we'll out of the way of routes more
usually travelled, O'Brien finally
sighted the Cuban shore. A treach-
erous native pilot tried to betray him
in to a Spanish trap by misnaming a
lighthouse, but the 1rish-Amerlcan
was too shrewed to be fooled. Civ
ing five waiting Spanish gunboats
wide berth, he headed for the rem
devious, and within a few hours had
landed the men, arms and stores.
Tears stood in General Garcia's
eyes as he pressed O'Brien's hand be-
lore parting. A prisoner in the Span
ish dungeon at Ceuta, off the coast
of Morocco, he had never expected
to live to see the land of his birth
again. After his escape from prison
and his journey to the United States,
many men had promised to convey
him safely to the island. OBrlen
alone had made good. 1t is a way
he has.
Dodging the gunboats again and
making a Central American port,
CAPTAIN Johnny took aboard a cargo
of bananas and headed for Philadel-
nhia. But there he ran afoul OF
the Federal authorities, for he was
indicted for filibustering. Later in
New York, the Jury disagreelng,
Johnny was released, but the indict-
ment was held over his head for
several years, a gentle reminder as
it we're, for him to ''be good"
AS if such document could scare
an O'Brien!
Far from being good and placed
on his mettle by President Cleveland S
second neutrality proclamation, Dy-
Mantle Johnny with vengeance
went about shipping aid and arms
to Cuba. Pinkerton detectives en-
rloyed by the Spanish government,
secret service operatives and special
treasury agents in the employ of the
United States swarmed upon O'Brl-
ems trail and shadowed the viclnage
of his home near New York without
once rufiing his sunny disposition,
although once, it is recorded, Mrs.
O'Brien scalded a sleuth whom she
canght peeping through the closed
shutters of her window.
But Johnny came and went as ne
pleased, lodging the men upon MS
trail with the same ease that he was
wont to display in evading Spanish
eunboats in Cuban waters. Thus he
conceived and executed the brilliant
coup of buying the Laurada, thou
sand-ton steamship, and the ocean
going tug Dauntless, and within three
months, landing upon Cuban shores
thousands upon thousands of modern
rifles, tons of dynamite, field pieces
galore, and millions of rounds OF
cartridges-all this right under the
very noses of the watching spies
and gunboats.
Indicted the second time for fill
clustering, clever counsel secured
Captain O'Brien's acquittal at Jack
sonville, thus leaving him free to
land Frederick Funston in Cuba, CIV
ing the latter an opportunity for ex-
periences in the field which were des-
tined to help him toward brigadier
generals post in the United States
army.
Then came other successful ex-
peditions, including the one when one
of the celebrated newly invented
Sims-Dudley dynamite guns was load
ed. Each expedition was full Of
thrills, fraught with peril ashore and
ahoat, but space will not allow more
than the briefest mention of some of
the most dramatic experiences of Dy-
Mantle Johnny.
While running a blockade in that
famous filibustering vessel, the Three