Show HISTORY OF antoniod 1 MACEO wonderful career of the dead cuban leader the last of a family of eleven brothers who die in the service of liberty they were all terrors to the spanish oppressor the fol lowine history of the great funeral and leader antonio maceo was published in ane boston herald and is perhaps the best yet written of alie cuban patriot it was written and published just prior the last report of death aeo jtb antonio maceo in the gloomy gorges of the cande iaria in pinar del kio cuba there is a mm for whose head the spanish gov would pay a million apesos pesos As he site under the rain scaled roof ot his miserable mie erable but his caunt face standing oat clearly in the tire licht his clothes tagged and torn by the jungle thorns and the four gilt stars on his coat faded and by sun and storm there is apparently very little about him that would cause a spaniard to rive a dollar for either his life or death all around him in toe flickering dark is the champing of horbes the cleam of high pommel led beaddles and the occasional clank of buckle and bit under the edge of the trees in long quiet lines like windows lie the cubana half of them are barefooted and half of them are bound with bloody rags half of them bo in hospitals though no hospitals exist you can see the gleam of chite bandages all along the line but even the sickest and most dangerously wounded in their fevered dreams will cling to their machetes hospitals not if they know it not lune ae they have an arm to wield or a ltd to stand on oat under the palms in hou ettes abo star sown skies egand the mentrie een trie silent and alert the man at the fire riles to hie feet turns up the of his old faded hat and peera earnestly down the dark wooded ridges of the mountains towards the east where other camp fires are gleaming then you mey eee why it is that the spanish government would pay a million pesos for the death of thia man it is antonio maceo you may know him by the fierce eyes by the heavy browa by the broad shoulders by the square bulldog jaw just such men it was who stood with shield and backler in the arenas among wild bearta in he olden days and sneered at cianno and nero and the caesars at jeome the camp fires to the east are those of the spaniards along the trocha and aa maceo watches them bis lips curl with contempt they are hie hereditary enemies he has ought them from his boyhood aad will fight until he amsa or cuba is free why not the blood of his family stains the islands from end to end he is the las survivor kelenze Ke venze perhaps many times ere this bowscer bo revengeful feel ans hare been glutted with blood many he has ridden rough shod shambles with dead and dying the feeling in hia breast ie a londing for liberty liberty uro eternal spirit of the mind that arture and time cannot conquer twenty eight beare ago antonio ma his tn brothers swore never to their arms until cuba was free antonio the eld estis now the eole fight itier survivor his brothers were all killed or permanently injured in battle la marcus lived in a little palm thatched village of barajagua Bara jagua with fats wife mariana and bis little son antonio he owned a comfortable plantation and kept pack mules for hire sue mules were driven aloni alie lonely rods by antonio in this way the boy made trips to baracca baracoa Bara coa to santiago and even to Il olguin lie baw the claves toiling their lives aay in ibbe fields fettered and lashed by overseers red and yellow spanish flag ll the for aged townsand came to understand it as aa emblem oi cruelty and breed young antonio naturally began to dream of the and wherefores why should one people with dissimilar sand dissimilar lives be forced leq pay tribute to a kinc and people who for them and who fat upon bad god given any nation u right to a to another nation we discovered you and you are oura give us so much of your riches and be thankful that we allow you to live maceo could not understand all this no more could his father marcus 1 n dmd i me and almost with the regu errity of the eare other children came to the macefe until there were bons eons stair stepping down from antonio the eldest a young man of 20 to joso the youngest but little more than a babe in arms then one early autumn day in antonio returned to bis fathers plantation from baracca baracoa with the information tbt the cubans had rebelled maceo ibbe fattier being a careful man at once advised bia family to remain strictly neutral antonio chafed under this re but so did bis younger brothers efrom time to time news of the war reached abo little plantation at lyas the macos ma cos secretly exulted over the success of their countrymen in abe field and it may have been that the spaniards obtained an inkling ot their nU niente at any rate spanish epics to annoy them and more than once they were threatened the revolution had been in proe rees f months nd wild over a disasters when there appeared at the maceo plantation a band of spanish guerrillas guerillas gu erillas led by cant campillo senor maceo and hie obder sons were away with a mule train in the direction oi baracca baracoa Bara coa they returned at nightfall As tho mules with their tinkling belle and heavy pack saddles turned a bend in the road and the plantation came into view a horrifying eight met the gaze of maceo and his suns where his home had been there was nothing but a ing heap of ashes and embers ilia barns were burned bis crops destroyed his cheep horses and cattle driven off but where are the of hia family but in the jangle a woman father and sons rush in the direction of the voice six young boys lie on the ground bound bleeding and senseless the gray haired mother stands tied to a tree moaning with a broken arm two young girls cower weeping and half dead in the bashes on the following day the female members ot the maceo family being in the hands of friends the father called his eons about him and exacted from each a amise that they would never lay down their arena until the spanish invader was driven out and cuba was free A few days later maximo gomz out in the mountains of santiago with bis small and devoted fol lowine was confronted by a gaunt haggard man behind whom were half a dozen tall awkward boys little did gomez know that in this gathering of raw recruits there stood his future lieuten ant general they were so green so turn backward that gomez smiled as they walked away from his hut he had asked them if they could fight they emeled and said perhaps per naps boon afterward near st aueustin como spanish troops were riding leisurely along with an ammunition train bound for guantanamo around the bend of the road in front swept a flying body of horsemen with their machetes glittering in the ann they were guerillas of gomez and at their head rode the awkward squad of the maceol but how aney did fight right into the heart of the spanish troops they drove pell uell cutting slashing and striking right and left when the ficht was ended the elder maceo lay dead on the ground before the expiration of two months manuel fermin and justice maceo had been killed in battle raphael was so cut up by wounds that to as an in costa rica for eix months after the death of justice the remaining of the maceo family deemed to bear charmed lives the awkward squad or rather the survivors had become the foremost lighters under gomez the next death to occur was that of miguel he was killed by a bayonet thrust at the capture of uno vitas A short time subsequently julto was delict elict dead in that bloody affair at nuevo mundo felipe and were badly wounded that they became helpless cripples in san Domi cROf then almost at the end of the long 10 years war marcus was killed in a gallant machet charge leaving antonio of all the awkward equal of tighter still in the field hie brother jose waa still to young to join his relatives in the field the survival of antonio maceo was a good thing for cuba it was a survival of the fittest doubt the aged and bereaved mother of the maceol biding in the forests with hundreds of ether cuban refugees echoed in her heart the worda ot the italian poetess dead one ot them shot in the sea the east and one of them shot in the westby the sea both both boys when you sit at be least and are wanting a song for dear caba freel let none look at nie when antonio maceo airet struck for freedom he was 21 beare old he had areat natural aptitude as a soldier and but little education but greek roots and latin verbs do not count tor much in fighting for the liberty of a country military genius like that of the poets ie lorn not manufactured it did not take long for awkwardness ward ness to rub off his bravery was absolutely dauntless during bis first twelve months of he received sixteen of the twenty one severe that marked his body at the close of the ten years war with greet taciturnity and apprent appa ent he combined a magnetism that drew men within a year he had been promoted through the various brades of sergeant lieutenant ard captain to that of major soon after receiving this honor maceo was ordered to capture the upland town of di amba only men be made a headlong attack on the fort and anter a desperate engagement sue io the spaniard inter santiago for this brilliant he received the moulder etrata ota colonel the more power accorded by gomez in maceo the effective became the fighting of the cabana macefe following was a blindly devoted one sod hia men would follow wherever he might lead soon after receiving the title of colonel in 1870 maceo had b brush with martinez campos with men he fiercely attacked the sli general at alamos chaipos by tar the ablest general ever bent by to cuba held hie ground and the fighting raged at intervale tor 30 days scarcely a day passed that maceo did not charge ana harass the trompa near monte he was fiercely attacked by gen valery at the head 0 1000 spaniards with only men he made a stand in a strong position near chabas against the forcee oi valero and bampos maceo baw that he would lirtha to before doing so however lie the spaniards into a tavo I then raised his cry of al machete I 1 the slaughter terrible after macefe retreat campus returned to santiago with only 1 of his former forces he wai met by balmaceda the captain general jhc eald derisively oh vou pretend that all the glor was on our side that may be eo bul the loesel were on our aide aleo doea bour excellency re ported campos that cotton bullet i waa 0 o offended at the lepri mand that he soon afterwards after warda returned to spain since joining the cuban army maceo had grown to like war in hia own way he was studying it night and day all hia awkwardness and timidity had worn off he was now a commander of men subjugating all tender instincts and subjecting mind and body to abo severest discipline dici pline from the raw youthful mule driver he had become a stern and unyielding military leader His dreams oi free cuba were growing brighter day by day the next notable ti of maceo was in the battle ot barzal zarzal where 2500 spaniards wore utterly routed later on at the battle of santa maria deholguin he charged the spanish line at the head oi his picked followers and many were cut down before they could fire a shot I 1 gen calixto garcia was in command but maceo led the malliete mac liete charge the spaniards left dead on alia field it was at this juncture of his military career that maceo met the present captain general of cuba valeriano weyler the latter had been made a brigadier and at the battle of guaimara guaimaro Gu aimaro was sent against maceo maceo had placed hie men with the keenest sense of strategy across a steep ravine in some heavy brush the spaniards came tumbling and running up to the edge of the ravine and there they were slaughtered 1 ke sheep weyler fled leaving dead on the field he never stopped to look back until he was safe within the spanish lines at puerto principe soon afterward with men maceo attacked the san quentin battalion 1000 strong under the commack of col boyer the spaniards lost men aad would have been annihilated had it not been for the timely arrival of tirso with re enforce ments for these brilliant acts maceo was made a major general it seemed as if this new honor put additional epurs on his heels in rapid he engaged the in a series of brilliant and bloody fights at san felice jaragua baragua Bar agua hato del medio sabana mirando and Ca it was in the latter battle that antonio maceo had one of the narrowest escapes from death that ho ever bad in the midst of the fight and with the guns rattling around him in quick volleys ho saw the spanish colonel in command out in front of his troops cheering them in nn instant maceo had drawn his machete and rushed forward to encounter the spanish commander in a sword combat the latter saw the cuban lead er sword in defiance at that moment maceo received a rille bullet through hie lungs he reeled in the saddle and would have fallen had it not been for col pacheco who caught him as he fell at the same limo col rodriquez perceiving macefe perilous plight made a gallant clarce and under a sweeping tire the spaniards were checked and under the rolling curtain of smoke ool pacheco carried maceo to a place of safety for three months in the mountains maceo fought a battle fr bis life with but meagre attendance and slim chances for recovery atlant hia natura py rue red constitution triumphed but his roaring and trumpetlike trumpet like voice bad vanished even to the present day his voice does not possess half the compass it formerly did once in the saddle agaba maceo began lo 10 adopt new methods of crippling spain he began to destroy spanish property and to burn spanish plantations in company with aisi brother jose now grown to manhood and guerrillas he invaded the guantanamo district leaving behind hi ia a blazing waste on every hand he spread desolation with and sword he was the first tu adopt tho tactic that have so seriously crippled bhain during the war while be was in tha midst of hie fiery crusade the cuban and spanish leaders met at banzon and signed a treaty of peace the news came to maceo as he was preparing to invade holquin the messenger was authorized to procure his eiff nature to the treaty tell them said mace in reply that I 1 will never sign auy compact with spain other than a compact for the freedom of cuba 1 will not submit so antonio maceo kept oo 00 fighting he not only fought but he called a council of war at jaragua baragua Bar agua and issued the famous document known aa the de Bai agua after issing this document the undaunted leader ajaib took the field it soon became evident however that the backbone of the war bad been broken ten cuare of starvation and exposure in 11 sorts of bad broken the spirit of all but maceo unable to obtain supplies he was re deuced to complete want then the capitulation pitula tion came he wrote man tince campos a haughty letter in which he agreed to lay down his aims bis forces and submit to exile on the condition that a spanish man of war be placed at bis disposal diEp osal to convey hilland bis officers to JaniA ica this offer was readily accepted by campbe as he better than any ee realized the of catchine cate hine maceo in a country where he knew very tree and bypath by path maceo disbanded bis men in the early dawn under a big tree near quanta name anis tree is still standing and ia known is atiee there wen men among that who bad fough under maceo fur almost 10 years they were raegen and un hempt aud halt starved but they bad a together in the brunt of many a bard fought battle and it was no wonder that tears we in the eyes of many AS they bide tue lr leader goodbye good bye for them it wae a return to the thickened of buried their ruined for hijii it was exile forever to a coultry and cuba detill in chains no ehte thought him yet those who saw him on that day eay that be never indicated by word or the iron bad entered bis foul he counseled |