The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 28, 1898, Page 2

o < THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, THURSDAY, J}PRTL 28, 1898. TIGHTENING THE CORDON AROUND CUBAN COASTS » While the Blockade Is Becoming More Effective the Condition of the Poor People of Ha- vana Is Pitiable. Copyrighted, 1898, by James Gordon Bennett. ON BOARD HERALD-CALL DISPA " '‘H BOAT . ALBERT F. DEW ., WITH BLOCKARING SQUADRON OFF NORTH COAST Since the capture of the Pana- importance has happened off the Cuban Irawn tighter about the beleaguered island, a genius indeed to thread his way through my sort of craft and make port between de Cuba. eral fishing smacks were night, but in every case were released pture would mean forfeiture of all ing schooners have been captured and may carry instructions against any OF CUBA (via K nothir ma coa and the Pin of block r del ed up veral coastwise tra n order that they officers whose capture was reported to ay were taken aboard the flagship and then rele; to return to Havana unier a flag of truce, x I attempted to learn more of this inci- dent, but found that Admiral Sampson had given instructions that it should not b: discussed. From him, however, I learned that the Spanish officers ca d a communication to General Blanco frcn the admiral. I was y erday permitted to glance at a letter that has muggled from Havana to a gentleman aboard one of the ships g the coast. In it the writer said the Spanish ari. , officers in their determination to fight to the bitter end. patroll and men were se N . tiem expressed any doubt of whut the end must inevitably will be content, it was said, if the Yankees secure a vie- bousht. They talk of Cuba as surely .ost to S,ain, and ng for their return to take up an ccupation more profit- been soldie g in Cuba. Although this lette. -as writ- prev.ous to the time of the departure from Havana whom I interviewed aboard the English steamer Lu- told the same story of suffering and distress among d that the first effect of the blockade, which as to cut off all charity. -Those who had g dos and poor people generally foresaw the vach of that time when hunger would menace them and ding every resourc abl. of John ciliz.e, the w the poc had ju been near ¢ al cessation of business. Only the t doing business and by orders from ing in small amounts ly. Foraging par- y morning, and large herds of cattle which Rio, Havana and Matanzas provinces were ordered driven in toward Havana, where they will no- be kept closely ~unrrded by soldiers when allowed to graze. All information 1ing the insurgents had been shut off. Havana papers were censored mc carefully than ever. "t was imn ssible to know what was going on in the ew._tern pro- vinces. Morro C continues testing its guns, and last night the batteries on each de of the harbor awoke the echoes all around the galf by firing testine charges. However, the Sjaniards of Havana have not shown their teeth, the only shots fired from Morro or neigh- boring batteries have been blank, of a sub-caliber nature. This aboard a ship that for five days R R R R R R R R R R R e R S R LR s stated on the authority of an officer or at most the practice has been R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R PR has hugged the Havana shores. + D e e e R e e R R R R R e | from ship to ship would have ! the New York steamed quick- | was doing on the west side. All this time the Cincin- nati had remained out of .the action. One can readily im- agine the distress and impa- [tience of Captain Chester and his enthusiastic crew at not being allowed to take a hand in this first engagement - of the war with the Spanish. Presently Captain Chester signaled for |permission to engage |and it was granted by 'the flagship. The Cincinnati, in less time than it takes to- write it, steamed up to within 2000 yards, broadside on, and. be- gan to let fly with her guns at the batteries. The New | York was just giving the sig- |nal to retire when one defi~ |ant shot was fired from Rubal [ Cava. | that battery was cver |to tire. One of the big |guns on the Puritan |fired back. Itwasthe |best shot of the day. It struck the battery just where the gun |was, tore its way into the ecarthworks and exploded, doing grecat | destruction. Captain R. J. Machugh, an artillery officer of the British Army who was a spectator of the engagement from the Her- |ald-Call boat, said it was one | of the best shots he had ever | seen made. Having practically demol- |ished the Spanish batteries, |ment. the ships stood out to sea. Not a shell made an almost perfect tri-|ly in and circled around to|struck one of them, angle. |the westward toward Point but there had been | 3 X i Tist notern of tlLle.Rubal Cava, while the Puri- three narrow misses Cincinnati was the| Herald-Call dispatch| boat Sommers Smith, under tan swung to starboard to en—i gage the Maya batteries. | Those Mava batteries were | N-;more formidable, and the fire| " ! com-=|from them was more fre- over the ship,” a shell had on the New York. ‘The Spanish fired a shrap- il once. which had burst | It was the last shot| The fact that the Spaniards failed to strike such a large target as the New York, tow- ering, as she does, like a house out of the water, was evidence that they are not good marksmen. On the other hand, cvery shot that the New York fired after she got the range was |pitched right into the batterics. It beganat 12:57and ended at 1:13. In point of time the engage- ment lasted just 18 minutes. The Herald-Call dispatch boat rounded the fleet after |the engagement, and not a | single casualty was reportet. The Puritan and Cincinnati were left on guard at Matan- | zas, and the New York re- [turned to her old position. |All told the United States | ships fired -86 shots at the forts. This is by actual count from the Sommer N. Smith. | The forts fired probably 25 | shots. | The bombardment devel- {oped that the largest pieces |mounted by the Spanish at Matanzas are 8-inch guns,and [the best opinion is that there |is not more than five or six | guns there. 1‘ But far more important than | the destruction of Matanzas ’:batteries is the conclusion |about the future which may [ be drawn from the bombard- | This conclusion is lutely at the mercy of| the United States fleet | whenever we choose | to open fire. I Sampson to-day, with guns | which amount to less than & one-tenth of his fighting force, | mand of Commodore quent, but the shells fell|struck just fore of her and|silenced the batteries -in 18| William Bazzell and Captain Frank Dunn,| the only newspaper| boat in the gulf to be| within twenty niiles of | the engagement. From the deck of the Her- ald-Cail boat not a human being could be seen on any of the ships. The crews were all at quarters ready for | the fun to begin. Nor could any living object be descried on shore. The bay and shore of Matanzas were like the land and waters of No Man’s Land. At a few minutes of| 1 o’clock there was a| puif of smoke from| the cast shore and an 8-inch shell whizzed toward the New York and fell short. Scarcely had the report died away than another puff of smoke floated from the point on the Maya side and easily blew away. This shell also fell short. The range to the cast Dbattery was nearly 7000 yards, but the flagship promptly opened fire with one of her 8-inch guns and in a few min- utes the engagement was generalandshore and bay were cov= ered with wind=blown smoke, while the hol- lows between hills roared with the can- nonading. Continuing to cut loose with her guns, starboard and port as well as fore and aft, short. The New York ignored| these batteries after a min-| ute, and proceeded to pay all | her attention to the battery | on Rubal Cava, which was being pushed to completion. It was a beautiful sight to see the target practice of the| New York. A big balloon of | smoke would suddenly rise from her side. The eye, fol- lowing the direction of the shot, would see an instant later a great cloud of dust and fragments of concrete and mortar fly high in the | air. Then would come the roar of the piece, sullen and heavy. The New York had soon reduced the range from 7000 | to 3000 yards and was toss- | ing shells into Rubal Cava at | the rate of about three a min- ute, with wonderful pre- cision and apparently great destruction. In the meantime the Puri- tan was taking care of Point Maya. It was a long shot to that battery. It was so well masked that the only target was the infrequent smoke from the battery. But when the Puritan got the range her shells burst every time with- in the fortification, and great was the explosion thereof. High up in the air would go the cloud of a Spanish fort in atoms, looking for all the world like the ex- plosion of a magazine of brown prismatic powder. Viewed from the deck of the Sommers N. Smith the Puritan was doing fully as much harm on the east side of the bay as the New York | another struck just aft. | minutes. He steamed righti FAST CRUISERS Five of Uncle Sam’s Vessels to Be R R R R S R R R R R TP RS DR PE RS SR e TO SEARCH FOR SPANISH SHIPS Sent After the Enemy’s Men- of-War and Merchantmen. NEW YORK, April 27.—A Washington special to the Herald says: Five fast scouts will .soon be traversing the Atlantic on the lookout for Spanish men-of-war and Spanish merchantmen. Two of these, the Minneapolis and Columbia, are now at sea on this duty, and they will be followed irf the course of a day or so by the St. Louis and Harvard. I learned to-day that the hasty conversion of the St. Louis and New York into auxiliary cruisers was the result of a recommendation n.-de to the Navy Department by the War Board. Invy of the desire of the board to have ships available for imme- diate s ce it was determined to equip "each with only four 6- pounde Not only were the batteries reduced to a minimum, but to save time instructions were sent to Captain C. F. Goodrich, command- ing the St. Louis, and Captain C. 8. Cotton, commanding the Harvard, to employ their men at sea, if necessary, in mounting the guns. It is expected that orders will be given to these vessels. now at Tomp- Kinsville to proceed to sea in search for Spanish men-of-war as soon as the department learns that the latter have left their present an- chorage. ' The St. Paul will be ready in a few days. Admiral J. G, Walker, retired, has applied to the Navy De- partment for an acti command afloat. At this time there is no va- cancy for him, and Secretary Long announced to-day that he had no intention of appointing a commander-in-chief of the-several squad- rons stationed along the Atlantic coast. I understand that the depart- ment has practically determined not to assign to sea duty, for the present at least, any retired flag officers. Much to the relief of naval officials a telegram was received to- * day by. Captain Charles O’Neil, chief of the Bureau of Ordnance, from the California Powder Works, announcing that the Government’s in- terests had not been affected by the explosion of the powder mill which took place yesterday at Santa Cruz, Cal. The mill which ex- ploded was used for the manufacture of black powder. The ho: ship Solace will leave Norfolk on Monday to join Ad- miral Sampson's fleet now off Havana. Few cases of sickness among the men on board the ships in the fleet have been reported up to the present. + R R R R L R R R B R s R R R R R R R T T T o E R O in on them, as close as he could get, and not one of our ships was touched. What is to be said of a gunner that cannot hit a mark as big as the New York 2000 or 3000 yards away ? The incident has great- ly encouraged the naval officers, and they believe that when they bombard Havana they will destroy had that Havana is abso- all the defenses in about one hour. WORKS AND MEN GO UP ON BOARD flagship New York, off Matanzas, April 27, from Heraid-Call correspondent (via Key West).—The bombardment of Matanzas, the first important hostile act of war, began half an hour ago, at 5 minutes past 1 REAR-ADMIRAL SAMPSON. -| from Algiers (on the west side of the + - | o’clock in the afternoon. The first shot was fired from the New York's eight- inch gun amidships, on the port side. It is under Cadet Boone. The harbor of Matanzas is protected from sea by a long low strip of land covered with managua. On this point a battery has been placed, and for the.last few days the officers of the Puritan and Cincinnatl have observed mef working on the| ramparts and placing guns in posi- tion. This fact was reported to.the admiral, and the bombardment of to- day was to clear the point of this fort. ‘When the call came to general quarters the flagship was 4000 yards off shore. The Puritan was about 1000 yards | further out on the New York's port | side and the Cincinnati lay still an- other thousand yards out, moving slowly to the starboard of the ship. Admiral Sampson and Captain Chad- | wick were on the forward bridge throughout the bombardment. The | bullseye at which the first gun was| DEWEY'S FLEET SAILS 10 SELE THE PULLIPPYE Continued From First Page. have exterminated the mnatives of North America instead of giving them civilization and progress. «Filipinos, prepare for the strug- gle, and, united under the glor Spanish flag, which is covered.v. h laurels, fight with the conviction that vietory will crown your efforts, and to the calls of your enemies op- pose the decision of Christians and patriots and ery ‘Viva Espax}a!’ A Other proclamations promise sum- mary death to any one proposing submission, proclaim martial law and the requisition of every capable Spaniard for military service. 0. F. Williams, latc Consul at Manila, who arrived yesterday, went on board the Olympia. Prior to sailing for the Philippines yesterday Commander Dewey assem- bled the commanders of his squadron and discussed the information sup- plied by Mr. Williams. The com- manders, having received their or- ders, returned to their ships, which were already cleared for action. The squadron sailed at 2 o’clock, the Olympia and Baltimore leading the two-column formation line ahead, with the transports last. The Governor-General’s proclama- tion was sent to each ship, where it was read to the crews. The band was playing as the ships headed for Manila. Alijandrino, former insur- gent leader, accompanied the squad- ron to take over the command of the rebels. Her Majesty’s ship Immortalite follows to protect British interests. LONDON, April 28.—The Hong- kong correspondent of the Daily Mail says: “United States Consul - General ‘Williams, after spending the even- ing ashore with Consul Wildman, ‘accompanied the American squad- ron. Thirty insurgent leaders here wanted to accompany it, but Chief Aguinaldo went as their representa- tive. He will take charge of the in- surgents at Manila. Admiral Dewey has issued strict orders that no bar- barous or inhuman acts are to be perpetrated by the-insurgents. The primary object is the capture of the Spanish fleet, which Admiral Dewey thinks more important than captur- ing Manila. He is determined to | prevent its preying upon American vessels. On reaching Manila he will demand its capitulation within half an hour of his arrival. trained was a long rampart of vellow earth about 200 yards long. With a| glass it was quite possible to see| groups of men moving about upon iLq‘ The first shot fell about a hundred | vards to the right of this bank, and | the managua bushes were thrown up | into the air in a cloud of vellow sand. | The second shot came from one of the 8-inch guns in the forward turret, which is under command of Lieutenant Frank Marble. It fell at the extreme edge of the point 200 yards to the left of the fort, but its sister gun followed it like a reverberation of the first and struck the fort fair in the center with a projectile twenty-five inches long, weighing 250 pounds. The earthworks rose in the air like a geyser of muddy water and the work of ished as completely and as suddenly as though an earthquake had swal- lowed it 'up. How many of those men | were demolished with the earthworks | or what guns were dismantled it was | impossible to see. Simultaneously with | this third shot a battery in a fort on| the further side of the harbor opened | on the warships, and ‘guns from all parts of the ship returned the fire. It was impossible to keep count of them. The smoke as it drifted back over the ship’s superstructure and between decks made it almost difficult to tell which of the shots had reached the shore. Not more than five or six shots from the forts came near the flagship. One shot fell about a hundred yards to the stern, another fell short by a hundred yards and a shrapnel shell broke almost overhead. There were no casualties among the seamen. Of course the fact that the ship was prepared for this and stripped for action, and that every un- necessary piece of iron work and wood work had been removed accounted for the little damage done by the concus- sion of her great guns. This was the first one of our greatest warships which has gone into action, and it was interesting to note the per- fectness of discipline that obtained. Officers gave their orders in volces hardly raised above that of every day. The men laughed when the shots struck home, but there was no cheering nor greater show of excitement than at practice. At the same time the deck of the superstructure heaved, and where your correspondent stood on the for- ‘ward bridge back of the turret the con- cussion of her guns made the ear drums tingle, and the smoke filled the mouth and nostrils of the officers and dimmed their eyes so that it was for a second at a time impossible to see or speak. KEY WEST, Fla., April 27.—The re- sult of the engagement created the greatest enthusiasm among officers and men, and increased—if that is possible— the desire to take a crack at Morro Castle. Within ten minutes after the engagement had ended the special dis- patch boat was alongside the New York and congratulations were extended to Admiral Sampson, who returned his compliments. He requested the Smith to carry the official dispatches report- ing the battle to Key West. So it was the Herald and Call that brought the news to President McKinley, as well as to millions of readers. Spanish Craft Sails Suddenly. NDON, April 28.—The correspond- nt of the Daily Telegraph at Gibraltar says: “I have just arrived to-night Bay of Gibraltar). The Spanish tor- pedo-boat destroyer Destructor de- parted in hot haste, I learned, after re- ceipt of a telegram and had not re- turned at sunset. All kinds of rumors many men for three days was demol- | “His men are in the best spirits and excellent health. There have been nine desertions, including six Chinaman, one Italian and cne Ger- man, during the fleet’s stay at Hong- kong. Every preparation has been taken. The ships are cleared a=d painted for battle, and the general |opinion is that the fight in these | waters will resuit in an easy victory | for the Americans. Her ships carry | 122 guns as against ninety-six of the | Spanish fleet. ! “The co-operation of the American | fleet with the rebels has been kept a | strict secret. The latter await the ar- | rival of the fleet, when Manila must ‘soon succumb. Its defenses are in a | wretched state. | “The Americans in the Philippines are anxious to see British rule estab- | lished there and the report has been favorably received. The Manila press, on the contrary, says there is great enthusiasm among the population fcr Spain, and that an obstinate resist- ance will be offered to the Americans. But the papers qualify their bold al- legation by referring to the phleg- matic character of the natives, which prevents any excited expression of opinion. “These journals say, too, that tke treason of a few hundred or a few thousand rebels does not affect the virtue of the race,and they haughtily add that the Philippines will prove worthy of Spain. HAYTI HAS SHOWN HER FRIENDSHIP. NEW YORK, April 27.—A Washing- ton special to the Herald says: Haytl has shown her friendship for the United States by agreeing to pay, at a time when she could have avoided doing so, the claim of Bernard Campbell, an American, who was maltreated at Cape Haytien in 1889 for his refusal to enter the Haytian navy. Under the agree- ment, reached to-day by Solicitor of State Penfield, representing the United States, and Minister St. Leger, repre- senting Hayti, the latter will pay to Mr. Campbell on June 1, $5000, and on June 1, 1899, $5000 with interest for one year at 5 per cent. Hayti has not yet issued a neutrality proclamation, but this is daily expected, as is also ons from San Domingo. Fabulous Wealth. The “incalculable mineral wealth” of newly- found mining regions largely run by syndicates and promoted by transportation companies is in too many instances really a fable. The products of industry in legitimate flelds of enterprise nearer home are far surer and unregarded in the matter of improved he who ‘use regularly Hostetter's Stomach Di ters for malaria, dyspepsia, constipatio biliousness, ete. Ask your Druggist for a generous 10 CENT TRIAL SIZE. ELY'S CREAM BALM contains no cocaine, mer-H <cury or any other injurious 1t opens and’ cleans the Nasal Passages, Allays Inflammation, = ects the =) Taste and Smell. Is quickly absorbed. Gives Belief at anca. 8 ota i anmiu or by mail; a. 10¢. at Druggists or by mail. ELY BROTHERS, 6 Warren St. New York. are current and the British cruiser Charybdis is suddenly leaving to- night.”