New Britain Herald Newspaper, February 15, 1923, Page 2

NEW BRITAI BOX OF CARTRIDGES AND WAR ON SPAIN Newspaperman Explains Why “Maine” Was Sent to Havana the S Twenty ve years ago tonight Maine™” was sunk in 8 Thousands upen thous, ave otten times won why the battleship was ever Havans, In a special sto PINE BALSAM i/ it 52 rVviving newspaper correspondent With reported the disaster for the New Menthol and Eucal York “Herald,"” reveals the 25 1 secret s & remarkably " combines in # form 1§ SAN - TOX ! 1 sent to \ waters. people who I8 now ' of ory of Mr, Reott Mississippi “Bun Miss, follow Stephenson's American history, ow being used in our publie ocours this paragraph there were publie lemonstrations of ill will toward Am- | Therefore the battleship | was ordered to Havana as an intimation that Americans would be protected by their government.' The Maine was not sent to Havana as an intimation that Americans | protected by ment,! She was sent there because of a misinterpreted cable message which 4 newspaper correspondent in Havana sent to his paper in New York, All the correspondent wanted was a |cartridges, A battleship was sent in- stend, The battleship was blown up in Havana sued and @ geography of the world was changed resuit “The writer was In Havana at the time of the Maine disaster, reported that immortal horror to the identical | newspaper whose assistant cable edi- {tor had misinterpreted that message about cartridges and makes this Feb- ruary 15th—the 25th anniversary of the tragedy—the occasion for setting history right. In Ammonium hloride = Buralypius, In case wnid bronchinl affection slmost instant relief. € ontal or other opium derivative for children as for grows The Dickinson Drug Co. 109-171 MAIN STREET coughs, ¢ we Malsam giy At s no merphine in w safe | » Havang would be Extra Special Prices on Very Smart Beautifully Tailored Im- ported Mixture 'he reason this revealing chapter has not been written before is this: FOR WOMEN The correspondent who had sent the |cable was one of my most valued |friends. Under seal of confidence he | had told me the entire story. He had planned to write it himself but thought it inadvisable to do so until some years had intervened. 1 asked |and obtained his permission to make Suitable for every month in the year. Beginning at $19.75 E Hartford. which I had been asked to prepare describing the scenes at Havana on the night of the Maine's destruction, |but the reference did not attract the attention it deserved. More with the idea of supplying my friend with data {than employing it myself, 1 had, as opportunity served, asked the several actors in the drama each of whom 1 |intimately knew, the parts they had played. Then the man for whom these notes were intended, came back | from Havana, where he had been sta- |tioned as correspondent for the A | ciated Press, and suddenly died. I felt that his death released the story to me, but just at that time I was | plunged into ‘war work as publicity | manager for the United States Ship- ping Board and the episode was for- | gotten until the calendar brought it's | reminder that the twenty-fifth anni- | versary of the disaster comes around on this February 15th. Here is the full story: In February, 1898 “It was early in February, 1898, Morans'. | (hat I received orders from my news- | paper, the New York Herald, to pro- Pearl | ceed to Havana and relieve John R. | Caldwell, in charge of the Herald's at | Havana bureau. Caldwell was an ex- | ceedingly capable newspaper man but { Radio scts and supplies st Morams' | \omenow had come into disfavor with e [the then owner of the Herald, the late Meet me at Schmarr's for dinner.-—| jumes Gordon Bennett, who had ca- saut. ibled from Paris a curt order to make Miss May Glynn of North Stanley | {he change. street and Miss Agnes Birmingham — Hayana at that time was a trou- oft South Main stret, both well known|joug city. The relations between this nurses, are confined to their home|.ountry and Spain were strained to by iliness. the breaking point. Riots were fre- "“Toot Tootsie,” vocal, quent and every American in Havana FeRavt. felt that his life was in danger at all Sonoras at C. L. Pierce & Co.—advt. |times. Caldwell realized it and sought to arm himself. But there was & strict edict against the sale of fire: | arms, one chiefly directed against Cu- | bans, for the island was tlhren In a | blaze of insurrection. “So, unable to equip {the means of self-defer | wrote to the Herald and as; | revolver be sent to him. One was | purchased immediately and shipped. But when it arrived there were no cartridges and the correspondent could no more purchase cartridges than he could purchase revolvers, Meanwhile the situation was growing | worse. Instead of writing for car- tridges, he cabled. “The Herald and its Havana corre- spondent employed a private code, This was necessary because of the strict censorship exercised in Havana | by the Spanish. And as it happened the Herald man, Fred Burgin, who was in charge of the code and of the | Havana cable news, was home sick when this message came clicking into the Herald office one night: ‘Camera I received, but no plates. Please hurry by next’steamer. John R. Caldwell, “The full name of ‘John R. Cald- well’ signified that the message meant more than the words indicated and that the office would have to puzze it out. Had Burgin been on duty he would have instantly understood that the revolver had arrived but no car- |tridges. But Nemesis was {around that night. A young assist- |ant got the message and turning to the code book, translaged it to mean | that the American consulate had been attacked | “Fireworks ensued. An attack on {our consulate in Havana was a spark to set off the long-brewing trouble Two Home Talent Plays “The Old Peabody Pew" “Mrs, Jenkins Brilliant Tdca” MMI “It Pays to buy Our Kind.” T TR A R City Items Whiteman's Orchestra in Mr. Gal- lagher and Mr. Shean. Victor record, No. 19007. C. L. Pierce and Co.—advt. | Rev. A, C. T. Steege of Walnut street is visiting in New York sity. Piano tuning, $3.00, at —advt. Edward McNamara of 12 street reported to the police latey terday afternoon, thtat his overco Wwas stolen at the Y. M. C. A, at Morans'. Fresh eggs 51c doz. Russell Bros. —advt. himself with Caldwell ked that a il i RELIABLE DENTAL WOoRK In using the word “reliable” wa feel cer- tain that we arc not overdoing the term. Our reliability is a na- tural offspring of ex- perience and ability, “Modern Methods only” Dr.W. L. Smith Dentist 213 MAINS T, Phone 2810, Spain's DR. C. W. VIVIAN Tooth Extractions Oral Surgery Dental X-Rays arbor, war with Spain en- considerable part of the |, a passing reference to it in an article | and The " at Spain The poom, and way to get fur- Ameries N » closed between was office Was I hour cable thers possibl ther news that night g0l its Washington Bureau on the and directed that every man the story, John D Long was then the secretary of the navy, The word that the American consulate in Havana had been attack- ¢l was telephoned to him by the Herald's Washington bureau. There was a4 rapid telephonic conference with the state department and the White House and about 11 eo'cloek & wire was sent to Rear Admiral Monts gomery Wicard, commanding the North Atlantio fleet, off Dry Tortugas, to detach a vessel of his command and send it to Ha- vana forthwith, the reason being that an eminently trustworthy correspond- ent of ‘an important cabled the report of an attack upen the American consulate, “After the lapse of all these years 1 cannot recall whether it was lieutens |ant, now Rear Admiral N, I, Usher, or lieutenant, now Rear Admiral Al- bert Gleaves, whose torpedo boat con- veyed the message from the Koy West Naval station to the flagship New York, Whichever it was, the message reached the admiral wbout midnight, phene be hustied out on |and directly thereafter a signal was made for the commanding officer of |the Maine to report on board, Ordered To Procecd To Havana, “In a conversation 1 had with Cap- thelr BOVEFN- |44, gigsbee some years later, he de- visit to the Admiral Si- scribed that midnight | flagship, his orders from {card to proceed to Havana at once, {the admiral adding that he did not v | box of | ynow what conditions he would find |upon his arrival, He did not hamper the Maine's commander with any in- | structions, leaving all to his discre- “Captain Sigsbee returned to . his ship, gave the necessary orders for spreading fires under the bollers and [to got under way as soon as possible | Awnings were rolled up and sent be- {low, and awning stanchions whi {might have interfered with gun fire, were removed, along with their ridge |ropes, Guns e not loaded for un- der the high discipline that is main- Itained in the navy, every one could have been two or three minutes after [the ringing of the gong, calling the crew to ‘general quarters,” which | means that upon the sounding of that signal everyone jumps to his appoint- place, the men detailed to the mag- ines springing to their stations and sending up ammunition for the guns, |the gun crews loading with cqual celerity. he Maine Underway. “Now with the Maine underway and churning her way to the harbor where her destruction s destined to in- volve two nations in war, let us leave |the doomed battleship for a moment and take up the na Inglaterra Hotel in Hav “It was at an v hour in the forenoon when a messenger from the cable office knocked on the door of Mr, Caldwell's room and handed him a cablégram. Tt was from the Herald and read: ‘Rush story you bulletined on Cuban cane crop—we want it for main section.’ “Not having seént any bulletins on the Cuban cane crop, Mr. Caldwell realized at once that this was a gode message, and turning to his code book found the first part of it conveyed the tidings that ‘A United States man-o'- war has been ordered to Havana,' He was puzzled for a moment over the rest, for there was nothing in the code hook anyway resembling it. Then it flashed upon him that the use of the words ‘main section’ was empioy- ed to tell him the name of the vessel that had been ordered to Havana, otherwise the Maine, we will allow you $10.00 on the tric Washer made. everything we claim it to be. It has an oiling system all its * Requires no oiling for 5 years TEL. 230 Methodist Church Friday Evening Children 25¢ ‘ ‘ 52 MAIN ST. 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Prompt and expert service, LINTON BROTHERS DAILY HERALD, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1023, | on board, There was no risk that the Try PISO'S COIIGII“‘.“?“% e e “Directly acrosa the hall was the room of the former Confederate gen- eral, Fita Hugh Lee, then United States consul general to Havana, The | correspondent met the general in the hallway, ‘The battleship Malne,' the corregpondent said, ‘is on her way to Havana,' * ‘Impossible,’ General 1ge replied, government would never segd a warship here uniess I asked for one, and that I have not dome! “At that moment came the thud ef |guns, Hurrying to the balcony the two saw the Maine entering the har- bor and bulbs of white smoke drift- ing from her saluting battery, My Opinion of the Explosion, | “As a newspaper correspondent who | reported the blowing up of the Maine |and as one who remained in Havana !:lum\: the sittings of the American Naval Court of Inquiry, a body whose verdict was that the Maine had heen |destroyed as the result of an outside lexplosion, 1 have frequently been |asked my opinion as to the causc, “That thle court of inquiry was con- vinced the Maine had been blown up | by % mine planted by the Spaniards in | Havana harbor, I have never doubt- ed. That they did not say so in so many words was doubtless due th | reasons other than those centaned in thi facts which they considered, | Here they-are: | "“The relations between America ahd | $pain had been strained to the break- |ing point, It was at this moment of |severe tension that an American bat- | tleship entered the harbor. At her lanchorage inside the harbor she |commanded the entire situation, there not being a single Spanish gun that could be brought to bear against her, all of these being in batteries that overlooked the sea approaches, “A Spanish pilot brought the Maine into the harbor and designated the buoy to which she was to make fast. If, under the circumstances, the Spaniards had not laid a mine under that predetermined buoy in order to dominate any foreign warship making fast to it, they would have been in- | eredibly shortsighted. “There has been much talk of an {inside explosion. But the keel of the | Maine was found to be within 18 |inches of the surface. No inside ex- | plosion could have ‘driven that part of the underbody upwards. “The reference to the finding of the Main’s keel so near the surface of the water recalls another bit of unwrit-) ten history. “On the heels of the disaster all correspondents stationed in Havana began receiving more or less frantic cables from their home offices telling (them how imperative it was for the | American public to be informed at able, once avhether the Miine had been |blown up by a Spanish mine, or | whether, as Spain was tontending, she {come to her undeing through the ex- plosion of one of her own magazines. | “Day by day these messages be- |came more urgent. But what were (the correspondents to do? Pending the arrival oY the American naval | court, the Spaniards bad established a cordon around the wreck. and no |one was allowed near it, The court of inquiry, headed by the late Rear Admiral Sampson, arrived on the lighthouse tender Fern, and began its hearings on board that vessel. But |that did not help the harried corres- ; pondents, none of whom were allowed On 3 Universal Electric Washer regular price of the best Elec- own and peculiar to itself. No after being installed, except the 92 WEST MAIN ST. correspondents would not ha ven- tured to have obtained some inkling of the cause, But they were econ- fronted with obstacles impessible fo overcome, “Sueh was the situation when there came one night & hurried knock o my hotel room door, the hour being dbout 10 o'clock, Even after the lapee of all these years, I do not feel free to reveal the name of this eall- er, But I might say that he was an officer attached to the flagship New York and that he had been sent to Havans to superintend the work of the divers engaged in examining the wreek, 1 had been shipmates with this offieer before leaving the navy to take up newspaper work, and we were warm friends, As he hurrled into the room I saw he was intensely excited, He first swore me to segrecy, exact- ing a promise that 1 would not reveal the source of my information, and then without any moge ade, told in one breath what all the world was on tip toe to know, Experts Go Over the Wreck “!The keel of the Maine,' he said, stepping to the door and closing it, and speaking low and fast, ‘Is within 18 inches of the surface, We found it there tonight, Mr, Powelson was with me and he has positively identi. fied the keel plates,' “Wilfred Van Ness Powelson was one of the constructors who had bullt the Maine and had been summoned as an expert to go over the wreck, 1 knew his reputation as a highly com- petent and thorough-going officer and I knew any information my caller gave me, could be entirely depended upon, “Here was the biggest plece of news that could have enamatced out of Ha- vana at that time, the answer to the urgent question which editors were cabling to their- Havana correspond- ents, The fact that the Maine's keel had been hoven up until it was within eighteen inches of the surface meant only one thing, that the battleship had been blown up by a .mine placed be- neath the keel and had not been de- stroyed by one of her own magazines. Tt meant war. “But how was this pretentipus news to be gotten past the Spanish censor? The rule of closing the cable office at 9 p. m. had been changed and the office was open at all times, But Madrid and Washington were keeping it busy and there was very little that correspondents were allowed to send, that little being subjected to the clos- est scrutiny by the censors. T had a dispatch boat in the harbor, which had been used for the carrying of dis- patches to the telegraph office at Key West but she could render no help in this emergency, for by the rules of the port, no vessel could leave between the hours of sunset and sunrise. “There was nothing in the secret code book by which this information about the Maine's keel could be con- veyed, and while on my way to the censor's office I evolved several mes- sages to deceive him, and yet be clear tot he editor for whom it was intend- ed, but rejected them all as unsuit- The one I finally sumbitted read as follows: / ‘‘In important story which will be filed from dispatch boat in Key West tomorrow, please note that main story is mine.' 4 ““The censor, a Spanish colonel, and whose knowledge of English was dis- Avoid pastes that ' cleanse harshly Your dentist will tell you that the safe paste to use is one that does not in- jure the enamel. For once scratched, decay sets in, Then pain, expense and unsightly teeth follow. You can see that you must select your tooth paste carefully. Here is a safe paste— dentists approve it The makers of the famons Listerine have included in Listerine Tooth Paste, the delightful new dentifrice, a perfect polishing agent. Itis enough to remove tartar, discolora- tion, etc., but not hard enough to mar or scratch the precious enamel. Every dayitdoes its cleansing work —safely! LISTERINE Tooth :.:‘te that’s at the price Cast of Broadway Principals Wedillmttoimpmaonm’&'tyu Will SAVE money by using our Uy LIGHTS (ELECTRIC) - HERBERT L. MILLS HARDWARE appointingly complete, read the mes. sage attentively, and then inguired if I thought it*mecessary to pay high cable tolls in order to claim credit for a dispatch that had not yet been sent, I endeavored to assure him that un- less 1 took this precaution the dis- patch might be credited to someone else in the bureau, Whereupon the colong! grinned, sald I could tell that to some of the American marines and added that he didn't like the use of the word ‘mine' anyway, and that the editor might add an ‘e’ to the word ‘main,’ and reach some wholly erron- eous conclusion, that is, erroneous from the Spanish viewpoint, “I proffered. this altogether too ‘adrolt colonel a cigar and took a turn down the corridor, in an effort to think up something else. T knew this particular censor would be going off duty at 11 o'clock, and T was trying to be ready for the next one, “From the hotel news stand that day I had bought a copy of ‘Life’ and had gead theréln Kipling's poem ‘The Destroyers.’ T thought that might help, and going back to.the hotel, got the copy, and when/ the relief censor came on, presented him with this: “‘American colony in iawana much interested in Kipling's poem Destroyers, appearing in current issue of Life. Naval contingent assert tech- nical accuracy of last verse impossible to improve upon".” A Poem from Lifc, “After reading that tribute to Kip- ling’s poem, the censor asked me if I had a copy of Life with me. I told him I did not. Whereupon he summoned an orderly and told him to go to the hotel and get one. 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