Show TIlE CUBAN REBELS THEY ARC A BLOODTHIRSTY LOT OP PATRIOTS Their llalrn or Their tlpprets Iona Leads Them 10 Adopt tle 1101 beam weapons ul tear Unolfn 10 Cnlllas nn14 IIKHKIs nowespon In peace or warlike war-like the machete I which thin Cubans 1 ii I now are using In It their fight for liberty 1 m I lib-erty livery country coun-try has a sword of I Ill own but Cuba I IlL Is I tho one plat ll9 W9J whoso only sword I and only Instrument Instru-ment of war buns been her reaping hook or cane Knife If she farces herself from Spain the most decisive part of the work mutt be done with the machete ma-chete A Now York Cuban In giving his Mtlmnto of the chance of tho Cuban Cu-ban said that the conflict hinged very largely on how many of the people In cane fields had good machetes There Is I not one Cuban In u hundred who knows how to use a gun says tho St Ixiuls Toil Dispatch Tho lilandcr have been denied the use of firearm so long that those who had fallen Into possession of guns In the battle of tho ten year rebellion often throw them down when they got Into batllo and toIled to-Iled chiefly upon their cano knlvei Tho battle of llalrn In which so many Spinlsh head were cut off and which wa Ibo bloodiest In Cuban history was won by cano knives over thin belt American Springfield rifles In the hands of tho Spaniards Tho Span lards now have n Alto of 43 caliber and of their own make Cuban loader have bought Itemlngton and Motcr rifles of tho samo caliber so that they can uio all ammunition captured from the Spaniards They ore making every effort ef-fort to encourage their countrymen In tho me of nuns but have not neglected to mugglo n great many cano knives Into the Island Moro than n month ago Spain declared tho cane knife a weapon of war Anti contraband good lemony England and tho United Stales furnish Cuba with all her cano knives and Spains declaration making them contraband Is ono ot tho InterestIng Interest-Ing diplomatic questions that Secretary Secre-tary Uresham Is now trying to ndjust will that country Tho best cono knives are malt In America and before be-fore and since the uprising on tho Island there hns been n great demand for them Hostile tho cano crop In Cubit Is I now being harvested and < 1 Spain feel that sho can rub tho uprising moro easily If stun can cripple tho harvest har-vest Tho mother country tins not only taken this opportunity to deprive Cuba of tho ono weapon and utensil that Ia I nceetsary both In war anti peace but sho bias sent an agent to tho United State to buy cano knives or machetes as they aro called In Spanish with which to train her own Cuban array Hut the protpect that tho Spanish soldiers sold-iers I will learn to lisa thl weapon Is I not half ro promising lIa that tho Cubans Cu-bans will learn how to use rifle A reporter was recently shown In n lltllo hop Jut what a Cuban cano knlfo will lo In the hand of n Cuban who know how to use one Tho dry head of n nillock that had been butchered sumo days before l wa placed before him Now ad tho Cuban I will split hnt held open between the horn with ono itroko as If It were as much but tr Thli ho did Tho Cuban said he had cut off horscc beads In battle nail < 1 had moro than onco seen tho ghatt by I sight of men spill 1 down from head to foot wIth such n weapon In the na lonnl muioum In Madrid are a mini her of gun barrel cut In two by lbeaa nlveo Tho groat execution of tho nacheto lieu In tho wonderful iklll In handling It Thero are three chasers of these knives Tho Oral is I nothing more nor lean I than n word twentyeight inches In length rondo of tho very Let American spring steel and Incased In a leather icabbard It look like an ordinary morel but 10 I much heavier U Is I worn by Cuban officer and gentlemen gentle-men Tho next la I an overseer machete ma-chete Cry llcxlble and with a flight stroke It will sever a man head from tho body Hut tho broad beaky six teen IncIu knlfo It I Cuba peculiar weapon of offense and detente and her principal t agricultural and < 1 domestic Implement It Is I tuner 1 for nearly ocr > service for which wo use a knife an ax n cleaver a pruning hook or a scythe Parents are cleared with them and they aro about the only tool In a butcher shop Nowhere else In Span Ith America to I the machete so generally gener-ally used Nearl tho whole of Cuba is I ilovotod to tho cultivation of ratio and tobacco and every talk of these crops to I harvested 1 with the machete front skill In handling them Is I tho result An army ot tho matt skillful fencing ulster uls-ter In Now York or Paris could not stand up before an equal number uf Cuban oano cutter In ono of the engagements en-gagements n few days ago whon a detachment de-tachment of Spanish cnvulry charged upon the Cuban In the open oa the onslaught on-slaught was made the Cuban are n ported to hive caught the Spanish sober In orquetllla or forked sticks sail then cut men off their home as II they wore nothing more than stalks ol grat heo regular cane knUes on aeeoiint of their peculiar shape cannot can-not be worn In a scabbard They must be worn hinging exposed from tho trunk and the fact that they can thus be worn at all denote that the wearer la one of very careful habit for the blade in I always kept as harp as the very beat pare can be made Absolte ly every male Cuban male near one It U Ills most highly valued piece I of proPerty and ho will do almost anything any-thing to secure a good machete In th e I 1 mountains of aouthwentprn Cuba he heat he-at home with hits machete He would not give It for the bt American rifle or revolver The undergrowth It I too dense for anything but the passage of he machete through tho brush He rim his footpath and waits to spring np oA a Spaniard and behead him And one U I nothing that a Spanlnrd dread to much In Cuba as the work of these halves Their stroke II I the stroke ol death In nearly every Instance Cuba Cu-ba In New York My that Spanish soldiers need not hope to attain much proficiency In the use of a weapon that the Cubans hare been brought up upon rr more than a century The Cubans can however maintain only guerilla warfare with such weapons and win hant lo hand battles Hut they are so devoted to tho machete that some ol I hem will tell you It will In same way achieve for them their liberty |