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Leading Questions of Races and Crimes

The Blacks as Soldiers and in Caricatures--Preoccupation on Both Sides in Cuba with the United States--Habits of Exaggeration--Governor-General Weyler Interviewed and Defends his Policy--Too Much Attention to Wild Stories--Brutalities of Bandits--The Machete the Sword of Cuba. REPRESENTATIONS of blacks as the rebels-in-chief and cane-burning demons with forked toe-nails, as they are constantly caricatured in the dreadful Spanish sheets alleged to be humorous, are not consistent with the professions of General Weyler, who has invited the distinction of treating black men with consideration. Negro soldiers are often on guard at the gates of the government palace, and I have seen black workingmen, with personal errands, presenting themselves in their workday clothes at the door of the governor's reception room, and quickly admitted.

When General Weyler was asked what his policy towards the negroes was, he said, "Just the same as to others." He was not favorable to discrimination as to color, and when engaged in the war of 1868-1878 his cavalry escort was of black men, a fact, he said, "showing his esteem for them as soldiers." The combatants on both sides in Cuba are surprisingly preoccupied with the United States, dwelling in conversation upon the peculiarities of the people and the purposes of the nation. The Spaniards are not, as a rule, prepossessed in our favor, but irritated by the impression that we are a perpetual menace. They suspect when they do not know, that an American is a sympathizer with the Cuban rebellion, and if one of our people is strong in his Spanish talk, it occurs to the average Spaniard that he is doing it with some selfish and probably deceptive and hostile design. The Spaniards are angered by the intense interest the Cubans take in what is going on in the United States. It is not permitted to give space in the journals of Havana to the proceedings of the American Congress that relate to the condition of the Island. One day there came, by way of Tampa and Key West, a Savannah paper, containing a column of information about one of the resolutions and discussions in the Senate of the United States. I was attempting to send by cable signed editorials elucidating Cuban matters, and proposed a reference to the contents of the Savannah paper, and to state the misapprehensions that all parties in Cuba entertained as to the true intent and meaning of what was going on at Washington. I should not have expected to be allowed to print such incendiary matter as this was from the government standpoint in a Havana paper, but could not see the harm of sending it by wire for purposes of journalism in New York; and it did not occur to me there would be objection to the discharge of a high explosive at that distance from Havana, but there was. My disquisition did not depart from the "Pearl of the Antilles," and was lost to the North American world.

There is something touching and pathetic in the credulity of the Cubans regarding the matters most vital to them. I say Cubans without qualification, for they are all--with such rare exceptions, that we do not need to note them--against the continuation of the rule of Spain. Their distinctions are in degrees of desperation. The present generation at least, has grown up in an atmosphere of rebellion, and politics means conspiracy. They have not lived generously on the news of the day, as the Americans and Englishmen and Frenchmen do, also the Germans, Austrians and Italians in a lesser degree, and their faculty of discrimination is not trained. The space that should be occupied exclusively by facts is largely reserved for fancies. I was present when some shocking news was told by an eye-witness, who had been personally engaged in a bloody affair, and there were those at hand filled with excitement, asking leading questions, when a cool gentleman, an American, with perfect command of the Spanish language interposed, saying: "Let us get this story as it is; do not try to get him to tell it any worse than it is; it is bad enough." Nothing can be stated too wild to find believers, and exaggerations are heaped upon each other until the truth is lost even in outline. A romance that the Spanish minister had used money to get up a riot in Washington found ready believers; so will the wild fancy that Senator Sherman was once in the slave trade! There were full particulars one day of a furious engagement near Havana. There had been a heavy government train, so the tale was told, on the way through the disputed country, attacked and captured by Maceo, when a Spanish column came along and the insurgents retired with cartridges and other spoil, but left thirty wounded in the hospital, all of whom were murdered! All the details any one could desire were furnished. There was no train, no fight, no murder--nothing at all! "Perfectly trustworthy" correspondence by secret lines of communication arrive stating highly important matters altogether imaginary. There is so much confidential information, "highly unimportant if true," that the human understanding is bewildered, and a great deal of it finds its way into print. The Cuban stories are rather more fantastic than the Spanish official reports. This is the result of military repression, with its smouldering hates and rivalries and jealousies, and the elaborate hypocrisies, the sinister finesse of malignant politeness--a part of the penalty of tyranny. It is the Cuban custom when stating the grievances that caused the war, to neglect the more substantial grounds of dissatisfaction with the Spanish form of government, and tell of personal affronts and outrages, and both sides are free in charging against antagonists the supreme crime of barbarous and fiendish treatment of women. General Weyler has, above all been assailed with accusations of brutalities that are incredible. It would be indelicate to hint the class of crimes that one is assured have more than anything else distinguished his career, and the Cubans are surprised if you dare to doubt the authenticity of their animosity. They go on to implicate entire Spanish regiments in criminalities so hideous that to the sober understanding they seem preposterous; and yet are insisted upon to the last detail of infamy. Consideration for human nature invites incredulity.