| Show THE NEW alne MAI E if enough different causes of the maine disaster have boon been advanced in the past fourteen years to sink a flet t of battleships battle ships but tile the latest oue one is considered pau pau sible we are assured ly by many naval officers in washington toil and Is tile the r result egut of long investigation by the one who bilings it forward still le be is no sure enough to put his name to the story tho we learn that lie was a naval officer in the war with spain and the naval officers naho ft ho endorse it also alio take refuge behind the veil of anonymity so that the great disaster that plunged two nations into 1 war is not yet of i its ts astery ms tery so many links in the chain of evidence are missing that the man who aho framed this theory prefers to throw his hypothesis po thesis into the form of fiction and lays the tbt scene of his nar rathe in a spanish cafe in new york where an aged agea Spa spaniard grows confidential and tells him after a few minutes acquaintance what nhat lie he had never before breathed in mortal cars in tile the new boik sun where the story appears this aged loyalist who ls is supposed to have been in the secret service of 0 governor general it at havana is i as saying tle le ie bellion had beon going on for a long on time lime things were not nat happening in at allias all as we wanted them the labels gocpt dept getting gettic arms and aluni tiou tion from froin houi your country and informs forma in tion from froin inside the city about our plans the governor general was ayas afraid of spies lie ile even distrusted tho the guard at the palace sometimes consul general lee and your agents ever thing to your govern ent anil and worse morse than that all your newspaper men who came down sent home stories that made us appear cruel t ly cruel we were nvere not we set a task to do by ern ment and were nere doing it that was all we were doing atas fast as possible but you made it hard tor for us when your newspapers came to the place and we me got our dispatches from our agents in your country governor governor general blanco would be very angry I 1 have often heard him taik tak to his staff about it and the colonels who arrived florn the country would come in and lie he would tell them the latest rumor and they would go out and cross the plaza swearing sometimes until they had passed the church with the old tree and even een be beyond ond the governor general used to say that your government let us alone but your people did not they all against us all on account of our sug suar and tobacco and we thought your government ought to restrain them but it either did not or could not every one except the plotting re rebels hated all ol 01 you and consul generah general iee and the rest of your people who were in havana did not have pleasant times altho we were polite to them and then that winter at last camp came the news that your consul had sent for a war vessel to anchor in our harbor governor r general blanco did not seem to be angry he was very grave I 1 was there in it the room when lie he read the dispatch to the chief of artillery he was very angry and talked a great deal but the governor bo governor vernor general lal sat very quiet and thought 11 he e seemed to be thinking while lie he was avas busy in his office that i and was unusually quiet while he for dinner and in the evening altho there many officers at dinner and military far men and civilians came and went all the evening and tar far into the night the next morning lie he had a larger meeting of officers than usual and after they had gone lie he took his staff into aa inner room and told them his plan I 1 overheard ovir beard it it I 1 know what 1 I am talking about and every word 1 la s true ile he said that an american ship of war would be in the harbor in a few days that your nation and ours were at peace and that she must be treated with every courtesy and every one accorded the utmost politeness that nothing must happen to the ship or to an any y oc 0 your people under any circumstances that our government did not wa want nt war and that we could not engage in one with you and handle tile the diebels too ile he said it very earnestly oer 01 er and over again but he said he knew well that when the ship had been moored in the harbor it if anything happened that angered your people or offended her captain it would go hard with the city your captain sigsbee he said was a very grim man a man of great politeness but afraid ot of nothing ile ho might at any moment send one of his officers ashore with a note saying U unless alc s s yo you u rel release e as e a such a man or r refrain ef r a in fr from 0 m e executing xe u ti g such h another 0 th e r b because a e he is a citizen of my ou acl cus othe c country n tr y 0 or r do n not do 0 this or that within an hour I 1 will wil open fire on the places and the forts my guns ara are loaded and ready that is what he will say said the governor general that is why lie he is sent down here and their fleet la Is waiting just across jit at key west our palace will be destroyed our forts shot into from the rear there will be pines almes and disorder the rebels will jump out of every house and the city will ill be untenable and it Is isi 1 I who will be blamed akiho alcho I 1 can riot fiot stop the ship from coming many plans propos proposed eil by the staff ancie turned down and in the end blanco banco suggested that they be ready when the captain sent such a note to wi bilte ite him that hla 1119 acuest was refused and that at the flash of his first gun which would be a declaration of war aar a mine ua under the warship war ship would woud be touched off II if the maines balne captain did not try to bully the spaniards no blow would be and no harm could conic come from planting the mine one of the leamons for planting the mine was avas the position of the maine it could shell the city but tile the guns at the fortress could not return the fire because because the battleship battle ship was directly between the harbor defenses and the principal part of the town so the milne would be havanas only defense tile the preparation of it is here described an old od boiler of a donkey engine was used it was prepared in the fortress and was taken out on a lighter at night ostensibly to be pl placed aced outside the harbors mouth but ut was intentionally tipped overboard near the mooring picked out tor for the ship they knew the exact place when they got certain lights in range I 1 was not on the lighter but I 1 knew all about it that same ni night and the wires were taken to a point on the city side of the harbor to a house from a window of which you could see a signal from the palace that was done so that it the wires were anere picked up tip accidentally they would not lead to any govern mant building it was a precaution but it was a mistake as we ave all knew afterward the wires were in a 1 cable I 1 saw it myself because my brother in law lived in the house bouse that was another mistake because he tui ned out to bo be in league with the rebels the box sat on a table near the window winan willan do AN that looked on the water my brother in law was not wicked but only weak ile he beli believed eNed what the schemers told him lie he is dead too the author of the story defends the spanish authorities by saying that they did not intend to harra harm the americans ANIt without hout provocation and that tile the honor of blanco and his staff was safe in any event while the rebels knew no such word as honor lie he continues then the maine came I 1 never shall forgea liow how brave she looked with your lag flag standing out stiffly in flit northeast trade winds and the sun gleaming on her steel and brass as she steamed slowly into the harbor and picked up tip tile the mooring which was reserved for her and the sleeping mine was down in the mud below her captain sigsbee was accorded every for formality malit Y and courtesy lie he and his officers came and went every day but the crew never came on shore shorb in that the captain was wise it was much better so it was in the latter part of january that the ship arrived and for nearly three weeks she swung at her mooring and things went on in havana much as before except that eliat the crowd at the landing through which captain sigsbee had to push his way every day got denser and their looks got blacker the anger of our people increased at the arrogance of your government in sending the ship As tor for the rebels they glowered at the captain because he did nothing they believed that when hen the maine was wa sent sho was co mingto help them but we went right on cm with our work concentrating them conquering them putting down the rebellion confining suspects executing traitors and the maine had been in the harbor for days an and d iio a 0 other ships came no men wore were landed nothing was done the rebels felt sure that the crew were vere all republicans and would help a republic if the captain would only let them come ashore they believed that your country would lend its whole strength to h help el p th their ef r 1 losing asi n g e cause your pe people 0 ale c could 0 til d b be e a aroused r they were near to a complete surrender when the maine came and aad every day it was harder for them to hold out they could not last much longer yet your people deemed seemed contented to send only the maine alaine which did nothing and so they made a plot which was to result it in arousing your people to fight us the aged spaniard in the story goes on to say that his brother in law became so enthusiastic ata at a rebel meeting that lie he lost liis his self control and let the secret out the rebels rebel s thought of a grand plan if it had only worked it was to let the maine drift a few feet fact away from the mine and then press the key cover the battleship with avith a geyser of mud enrage sigsbee stir all Ar america precipitate war between the united states and spain and emerge as free cuba so that very night they touched oft off the mine but misjudged the position of the ship the world knows the rests rest literary digest |
