Show C 1 S1QRYOF AHERO Life of Antonio Maceo the Great Cuban Leader For the seventh time since the present pres-ent C nan revolution began General Antonio Maceo has been killed says the Chicaso TimesHerald The fact that he invariably comes to life more formidable than ever in no wise deters the enemy from Silling him again Well indeed might the Spaniards wish for the death of the irrepressible Maceo What checks has he not given them What victories has he not snatched from them 5 What pungent warfare has he not waged in their very strongholds At no time within the past two rears has there been a moment when Soain would not have paid 1 000000 pesos in sore straits as she is for his body dead or alive What mighty motive has moved Antonio Ma ceo in his relentless war on Spain A brief novice of the Cuban hero and liberator will suffice to answer the question The study of Maceo is as thrilling as that of any hero in the worldstruggle anY for liberty His uncompromising patriotism pa-triotism his implacable hatred of the enemy his selfsacrifice magnetism courage his rugged nature and his stern solemn purpose all these things drew men to him and held them with a force from which there was no escape This is the second Cuban revolution in which Maceo has been a conspicuous conspicu-ous figure In the ten years war he rose from the ranks to the grade of a majorgeneral Then as now he was a fearless fighter Then as now hew he-w s the desaair of the Spaniards But in this revolution Maceo went into the fight with l the experience of his first campaign reinforced by 16 years of study and preparation in the arts of war Maceo is the last of nine brothers who bled and died for Cuba And in him the spirit of the eight brothers and their dead father is concentrated Antonio was born in 1848 on the plantation plan-tation of his father Marcus Maceo near the little palmthatched village of Barajagua He worked for the family fam-ily driving the mules along the lonely mountain roads He saw the slaves tolling and keenly felt the shame of the Cubans degradation One day In 1868 Antonio returned from a trip to Hal gin bringing to his father the news > that the Cubans had uprisen and the island was in revolt By this time the family had increased to 11 nine sons and two daughters Young Antonio desired to fight for his country but Maceo the father prevailed upon him and his brothers to maintain a strict neutrality Yet the father deeply sympathized sym-pathized with the cause of the insurgents insur-gents and often lent them secret aid when he could Perhaps the Spaniards in some way learned this fact and it was that knowledge that gave to Cuba her greatest leader One day a band of Spanish guerrillas under the lead of Captain Campillo passed by the Cubans Cu-bans plantation Maceo and his elder sons were away upon a trip to Bara coa At nightfall when they returned they found their home a mass of blackened ruins The barns were burned the crops destroyed the mules horses and cattle stolen The mother with a broken arm was tied to a tree moaning from pain Six boys lay on the ground bleeding and senseless The two girls were hiding half dead in the bushes What should now withhold the Maceos from the conflict The next day the women of the Maceo household were laced in the hands of friends and the father assembled his sons together to-gether He required them all to register an oath never to lay down their arms until the Spaniards should be driven from the land and Cuba be free How well the sons have kept that oath has been seen in the record of blood and flame from one end of the island to the other At the time that Maceos plantation was destroyed General Maximo Gomez was lying with his forces in the mountains moun-tains of Santiago One day he was confronted by a tall gaunt man followed fol-lowed by half a dozen awkward boys The gaunt man volunteered his services serv-ices and those of his boys Can you fight asked the leader with a smile Perhaps was th6 reply Some time after a company of Spanish cavalry passed near the amp of Gomez They were cut to pieces by the guerillas of Gomez At the head of the rebels rode the Maceo awkward squad The father fath-er fell in this fight and within two months three of the sons had been slain in battle The remaining members mem-bers of the Maceo family seemed to bear charmed lives They fought recklessly reck-lessly Death first overtook Miguel then Julio fell under Spanish fire and Felipe and Thomas were disabled This I left Antonio alone His brotfier Jose was too young to join his brother in the field For the first year of his service serv-ice under Gomez Antonio fought like a lion In that space of time he was promoted from a common soldier to a sergeant and then became successively successive-ly lieutenant captain and major Soon after his last promotion he led a band of 300 against the upland town of Ti Arraba and capturing the forts drove the Spaniards to Santiago He was then given the straps of a colonel His career from this forward was one of glory Gomez advanced him in power I and the Spaniards began to dread his very name His engagements were all brilliant his victories farreaching I his losses slight He tortured the great I Campos at Ramos slaughtered the i combined forces of Campos and Vale i ra at Monte Ocuro utterly routed a force of 2500 Spaniards in the battle of Zarzal and at Santa Maria de Hal guin he charged and dismayed the Spanish line before the enemy could fire u shot In the last named action Calixto Garcia was in command and Maceo led the charge About this time Antonio Maceo first met his present enemy CaptainGen eral Valeriano Weyler Weyler had just been made a brigadiergeneral anO vas sent against the brave Antonio at Guaimaro The latter led the brigadier and his men into a ravine trap and slaughtered the Spaniards like sheep Weyler ran away leaving 500 of his men slain Soon thereafter Maceo attacked at-tacked with great success the San Quentine battalion and won a major generalship His promotion added fire to his ambition and he fought many bloody fights at Baragua at San Fel ipe Sabana Hato del Media Cayo Rey and Mirando At Cayo Rey Maceo was shot through the lungs but escaped es-caped and recovered After his recovery recov-ery Maceo adopted new methods of hurting the Spaniards His brother Jose had meanwhile grown up to manhood man-hood and joined Antonio Between them they conducted a campaign that bled Spain to the heart They marched through the country and left ruin ana desolation behind them I has been this ethod that has caused Spain her deepest sorrow in the present revolution revolu-tion ton In the midst of his wrecking expedition expedi-tion Maceo was pained to learn that the Cuban leaders had signed a treaty of peace with Spain He refused to accept the situation and continued his rounds of destruction But the back lone 01 ute reoemon was oroicen ann Maceo consented to put away his sword on condition that Spain should furnish him with a warship to carry him and his officers to Jamaica General Cam pos accented the offer and Maceo retired I re-tired But it was not to rest His tred I proud splnt was not broken and in his retironent he nurtured his scheme of vengeance He gave up his whole time to tha study of war He bought books of all kinds treating of war and devoured them After two months residence at Jamaica he landed in New York incognito He made his way to West Point and there became a hostler host-ler No one dreamed that the ready and willing darkskinned laboring man with the burning eyes was thy hero of the Spanish revolution Th cadets liked him andwould have worshipped j > < e < > I him had they known his history But he was secretly the most attentive student stu-dent at the academy and eagerly devoured de-voured all the books the students gave Mm Leaving West Point he returned to New York and sailed for Costa Rica with a library of books about war For ten years he studied and dreamed and trained his veteran companions In 1888 he began to plot the prevent revolution revo-lution Going to Santiago disguised asa as-a muleteer he was becoming active when Spain learned of his presence and he was forced to flee He returned to Costa Rica and there opened correspondence cor-respondence with the leading Cuban patriots In other parts of the world General Gomez in San Domingo joined him and in a short time Cuban juntas were organized in almost all the big cities of the United States Early in 1895 the plot matured and the news was flashed over the wires to all parts of the earth that the Cubans had risen Maceo was still in Costa Rica In February Feb-ruary Antonio Maceo and his brother accompanied by 16 veterans sailed for Cuba They landed near Baracoa a locality every foot of which was familiar fa-miliar to the general They were intercepted inter-cepted by Spanish guerrillas and fought bravely for two days and nights Some of the patriots were killed and Maceo was shot through the hat He left his companions and wandered off by himself For two weeks he lived in the woods on a diet of plantains and other tropical fruit One day he stumbled stum-bled on a band of Insurgents led by Rabi He was captured and brought before the leader Who are you he was asked One who will fight to death for Cuba libre he replied Your name Antonio Maceo Rabi would not at first believe that the ragged and hungry tramp was the great chieftain but soon Maceo was recognized and was hailed with delight de-light Within a few weeks Maceo had recruited an army of 1000 men and was once more on the track of the Spaniards He met the forces of Spain at Yataras Flllipinas Cristo and Jara benca and routed them Maceo has been the most striking figure in the revolution Laughing at Weylers trochas he has desolated the island and has dyed its soil with the blood of the oppressors He crossed the Canto river and whipped Valdez at Chapana Holguin and Moscones He pushed further west and defeated Eschagne at Puerto Padre Leaving a train of ruin behind him he broke the trocha at Jucaro routed the enemy en-emy at Maltiempo Coliseo Paso Real and Vlimete and at last won his way Into Pinar del Rio Many times has he been reported killed only to be resurrected resur-rected in some gory tale of defeat for the Spanish arms Everyone who loves liberty and whose sympathies are with the Cubans hbpes that the story of his death Is a baseless rumor And a baseless base-less rumor doubtless i will prove to be The man who has been several times killed cannot be spared There is no one to take the place of Antonio Maceo Maceo with his blazing eye heavy brow and bulldog jaw skilled in strategy and fearless In attack the picturesque dauntless champion of the cause of suffering Cuba |