OCR Text |
Show B$ Last Taps on the Maine B r-piHAT WAS a startlingly dramatic and pathe- B I J tc picture that Admiral SIgsby drew of the B' last hour of tho Maine. Taps were sound- B ed, the signal for sleep and peace, and in half an I hour tho peace of tho grave, the hush of eternity, had come to the fighting crew of that fighting ship, and with tho crew, tho great ship itself had found its grave. In a foreign port, the guest of a power which was supposed to be a protecting Bf one, taps were sounded which meant sleep and B peace; the echoes brought back the trumphet call Bl to sleep, and then came the assassination of ship Bl and crew. It is not much satisfaction that rep- Bj) aration was enforced, for that was nothing to the B brave men in their final sleep in the ooze; the only B real satisfaction is in the thought that the cruel BBf arm of Spain was broken forever in her island BBr possessions, and a long suffering people were Br I B1 kt . . iHbBBflBBSBBBB&SH&SfiSBBfififiBKi made free. In that thought, the sounding of the last taps on the Maine, which tne ecnoes took up and carried far inland, was a promise of peace to the fair laud, a promise that the pestilence should be driven away, a promise of schc "o, a promise of bread to the starving, a promise ot that peace which comes when a people are free, and where every opportunity of a fair land Is open to them all. In( that thought one 'can be reconciled to the sacrifice of the brave men and the brave ship, if such a sacrifice was necessary. If the people are not yet fitted! to be free, that is no matter, the time was ripe to strike down their oppressors. And yet it was most pitiable. Had death come in battle, with trumpets sounding and great guns roaring, with tho flag above them on which to fix their dying eyes, they would have passed on with smiles upon their faces; for they had consecrated con-secrated their lives to that end, if necessary; but the foul assassin's blow to strike them in their sleep, that) was infamous. The last sound they heard was tho signal for sleep and peace. Sweet be their sleep and may the soft mantle of everlasting peace wrap them round. |