Cuba Part 20

The city of Cuba, next in commercial importance to Havana, is Matanzas.

It is beautifully situated on the north coast, about seventy miles from Havana, and has a population of about fifty thousand. The climate is fine, and Matanzas is considered the healthiest city on the island. With proper drainage (something that has. .h.i.therto been almost unknown in Cuba as are all other sanitary arrangements) yellow fever and malaria would be almost unknown. If it should ever come under American enterprise, the city would develop into a superb pleasure resort and be a fatal rival to the Florida towns. We cannot forbear to mention the Caves of Bellamar.

These are not far from Matanzas and are subterranean caverns, of which there are a number in Cuba. The walls and roofs are covered with stalact.i.tes of every conceivable hue and shape, and forming pictures of beauty far beyond anything conceived of, even in the Arabian Nights.

The most modern city of importance is Cienfuegos (as its name signifies, the City of a Hundred Fires). It has a population of about twenty-six thousand and its harbor is one of the best on the southern coast, with a depth of 27 feet at the anchorage, and from 14 to 16 feet at the wharves.

Cardenas is a seaport on the north coast about 135 miles east of Havana.

Its population is about the same as Cienfuegos. In the rainy season, its climate is distinctly bad and its sanitary conditions worse. It has some large manufactories, and carries on a flourishing trade.

Santiago de Cuba, on the southeastern coast, is the second city of size in Cuba (60,000 inhabitants), and the one on which all American eyes have been fixed, for it is there that our brave Sampson bottled up Cervera's illusive fleet, and on its suburbs a fierce battle was fought, July 1, 2 and 3, between the American troops under General Shafter and the Spanish army under General Linares, resulting in the defeat of the latter and the subsequent surrender of the city to the United States'

forces on Sunday, July 17.

It is very difficult, by the way, to find the entrance to the harbor of Santiago. Approaching it from the sea, nothing is seen but lofty mountains. When quite near, two mountains seem to suddenly part, and a channel only 180 yards wide, but of good depth, is revealed.

It is the oldest city in America, many years older than St. Augustine, having been founded by Velasquez in 1514, and is exceedingly quaint and mediaeval.

Its chief fortifications are the Castillo of La Socapa and the Morro Castle, the largest and most picturesque of the three of that name. The latter was built about 1640, and is a fine specimen of the feudal "donjon keep" with battlemented walls, moats, drawbridge, portcullis and all the other paraphernalia of the days of romance. The harbor itself, around which so much interest has cl.u.s.tered, is naturally one of the finest in the world, but no pains has been taken to improve it, the funds appropriated for that purpose having been stolen by the Spanish engineers and officials.

Santiago is Spanish for St. James, who is the special patron saint of Spain, on account of a myth that he once made a journey to that country.

Cuba, in short, is one of the most beautiful and fertile countries on the face of the globe, but man, in the shape of brutal Spain, has done everything he could, to ruin the gifts Nature so lavishly bestowed.

Let us hope and believe, as surely we have every reason to do, that upon the "Pearl of the Antilles," the sun of prosperity will rise, driving away the gloomy shadows of oppression, and that the dawn will be not long postponed.

CHAPTER XVI.

WHAT WILL THE FUTURE BE?

It is unnecessary to refer except in a brief manner to the Spanish-American war, as the struggle is at the present time of writing only in its inception, and no one can tell how long it will last or what reverses each side may experience before peace is declared.

One thing is certain, however. The result is not problematical. It is a.s.sured. The United States will be victorious in the end, be that end near or distant, and Cuba must and shall be free.

If ever there was a war that was entered into purely from motives of humanity and with no thought whatever of conquest, it is this one. The entire people of the United States were agreed that their purpose was a holy one, and instantly the call of the President was responded to from all parts of the country. Sectional differences, such as they were, vanished like mist before the sun. There was no Easterner, no Westerner, no Northerner, no Southerner, but "Americans all."

We are proud of our army and navy, and justly so. Dewey destroyed a large fleet, without the loss of a man, a feat unprecedented in the annals of warfare, ancient or modern. Sampson bottled up Cervera's fleet in the harbor of Santiago, after the wily admiral had attempted a diplomacy which was nothing more nor less than absurd, and when Cervera, on the eve of the surrender of the city, attempted to escape from his self-const.i.tuted trap, his four armored cruisers and two torpedo boat destroyers were literally riddled and sunk outside the harbor by the skilful gunners of the American fleet. Hobson, in sinking the Merrimac, displayed a heroism that has never been surpa.s.sed. And on land, General Shafter's achievements have been brilliant in the extreme.

It is interesting here to examine for a moment the att.i.tude of other countries toward us since the declaration of war with Spain.

Of course they all declared neutrality.

At first France apparently was very bitter against us, declaring that it was a war of aggression and one that was unjustified. We think we have already shown in these pages how unwarrantable such an accusation was.

There was a reason for France's feeling, outside of the fact that her people, like Spain's, belong to the Latin race, and that reason was that a large proportion of Spanish bonds was held in France. Even the best of us do not bear with equanimity anything which depletes our pockets. But it was not long before a great change took place both in press and public and a wave of French sympathy turned toward us. This is as it should be and was inevitable. There could be no lasting rancor between us and our sister republic, the country who gave us Lafayette and presented us with the Statue of Liberty.

The press of Germany has unquestionably said some very harsh things.

But we are confident that the feeling is confined to the press and does not represent the ma.s.s of the people. We do know that it is in no way representative of the German government, which from the very beginning has showed itself most friendly to us. The ties between Germany and the United States are too strong ever to be severed, with the thousands and thousands of Germans in this country who rank among our very best citizens.

Russia, who from time immemorial has been our friend and given us her moral support in all our troubles, has treated us with the utmost cordiality.

But the pleasantest thing of all has been the att.i.tude of Great Britain, our once mother country. She has stood by us through thick and thin, hurling defiance in the face of the world in her championship of us, and rejoicing in our victories almost as if they were her own. This has done more to bring the two great English-speaking nations together than anything else could possibly have done, and will probably have far reaching consequences in the future.

The Marquis of Lansdowne, the British Secretary of State of War, in a recent speech, thus expressed himself:

"There could be no more inspiring ideal than an understanding between two nations sprung from the same race and having so many common interests, nations which, together, are predominant in the world's commerce and industry.

"Is there anything preposterous in the hope that these two nations should be found--I will not say in a hard and fast alliance of offense and defense, but closely connected in their diplomacy, absolutely frank and unreserved in their international councils, and ready wherever the affairs of the world are threatened with disturbance to throw their influence into the same scale?

"Depend upon it, these are no mere idle dreams or hazy aspirations. The change which has come over the sentiment of each country toward the other during the last year or two is almost immeasurable. One can scarcely believe they are the same United States with whom, only two years ago, we were on the verge of a serious quarrel.

"The change is not an ephemeral understanding between diplomatists, but a genuine desire of the two peoples to be friends, and therefore it cannot be laughed out of existence by the sort of comments we have lately heard."

There is a poem which we cannot forbear to quote here, it is so fine in itself and so expressive of the existing situation. The author is Richard Mansfield, the eminent actor:

THE EAGLE'S SONG.

BY RICHARD MANSFIELD.

The Lioness whelped, and the st.u.r.dy cub Was seized by an eagle and carried up And homed for a while in an eagle's nest, And slept for a while on an eagle's breast, And the eagle taught it the eagle's song: "To be staunch and valiant and free and strong!"

The Lion whelp sprang from the eerie nest, From the lofty crag where the queen birds rest; He fought the King on the spreading plain, And drove him back o'er the foaming main.

He held the land as a thrifty chief, And reared his cattle and reaped his sheaf, Nor sought the help of a foreign hand, Yet welcomed all to his own free land!

Two were the sons that the country bore To the Northern lakes and the Southern sh.o.r.e, And Chivalry dwelt with the Southern son, And Industry lived with the Northern one.

Tears for the time when they broke and fought!

Tears was the price of the union wrought!

And the land was red in a sea of blood, Where brother for brother had swelled the flood!

And now that the two are one again, Behold on their shield the word "Refrain!"

And the lion cubs twain sing the eagle's song, "To be staunch and valiant and free and strong!"

For the eagle's beak and the lion's paw, And the lion's fangs and the eagle's claw, And the eagle's swoop and the lion's might, And the lion's leap and the eagle's sight, Shall guard the flag with the word "Refrain!"

Now that the two are one again!

Here's to a cheer for the Yankee ships!

And "Well done, Sam," from the mother's lips!

War is unquestionably a terrible thing. As General Sherman put it, "war is h.e.l.l." But there are other terrible and yet necessary things, also, such as the operations of surgery and the infliction of the death penalty.

War is justifiable, when waged, as the present one unquestionably is, from purely unselfish motives, simply from a determination to rescue a people whose sufferings had become unbearable to them and to the lookers-on. The United States, by its action, has set a lesson for the rest of the world, which the latter will not be slow to learn and for which future generations will bless the name of America.

n.o.bly are we following out the precepts of our forefathers, who declared in one of the most magnificent doc.u.ments ever framed:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are inst.i.tuted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to inst.i.tute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."

We fought for these principles, in our own interests, a century and a quarter ago; in the interests of others, we are fighting for them to-day.

A question which has been universally asked is this: Can the Cubans, if they obtain freedom, govern themselves, or will not a free Cuba become a second Hayti with all the horrors of that island?