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THE DAILY PRESS Publlrtid by THE KINS 'OH FREE PRESS PUB. CO. Entered at P. O. as second class man matter. W. S. HERBERT, Editor. LEE ON THE DISASTER Says Man Who Blew Up the Maine Was Ko Novice. NEWSPAPER RELIABILITY. We print the followingfrom the Raleiff Naw.ntuurvir. because it eo well ex presses our feeling: "As a rule, our experience is that the tendency of the bulk of the news 01 a t-oerwtfihlH nevrsDaoer is toward the truth. It must not be overlooked that . in their desire to serve the public, enter prising journals try to be first in getting the news. " "Take, for example, the handlingoUne war nws for the last few weeks. Even the report of the Maine court and the president's message came as no Hurpriue, Thev hRl hwm outlined and with practi cal accuracy by men who had gotten the reSUILS Wlin IIHI HUU T iguauus ui "mm critics do not dream. "Again, the newspaper, more acutely than any one ele, feels most chagrined at denying its printed story of the previous day. And if it has been led iqto an error, it is to its credit that it comes out promptly and frankly with the correction, "There is no desire among respectable newspapers except to print the truth and ou the whole they do so. In the midst of a mass of news to be handled in say eight hours oue cannot be expected to get out a Revised Edition of the Bible. But do not be bard on your paper, dear reader; what it tells you is pretty nearly right. We wish to add to the above the thought that during the recent numerous conflicting report regarding the war sit nation, fbese conflicting reports were largely because of President McKmley's vacillating cour.se. We have no doubt that he told the representatives of the money power that be would exhaust every resource at bis command to main tain peace; and, on the other band, told others that the honor of the American nation would be fully vindicated. And this, we think, largely accounts for the conflicting reports sent over the wires '. during the past few weeks. And we i think the reports hereafter now thatl McKlnley has sent in his message will be m,ore in accord with actual facts. What the United States does in the in , terest of the island of Cuba she needs to do quickly. With the withdrawal from Havana of Lee and the Stars and Stripes came the withdrawal of Clara Barton and the Red, Cross. The starving multi tudes are being no longer fed. The ab sence of Americans removes all restraints to the satiety of proverbial Spanish cruelty and blood-thirstiness. The main purpose of our intervention is to stop an - intolerablecondition in the island. Hence we need to make haate. The RedOoss, as Mihb Barton points out in a letter, must follow not precede the guns. And Cuba's crying need is the presence and ministrations of Miss Barton and her like. Charlotte Observer. The Wilmington Star firmly sticks to the opinion that there will be no war. It aid yesterday: When Spain has been driven to her last resort, she will listen again to the Pope and the European powers, and they will whisper in her ear: ; "Cuba is already. lost to you. Abandon the . island, and , f are .Porto Rico, the rniuipines and your present dynasty," The Star thinks that then Sagasta will yield to the ; inevitable. The Star evi dently believes thatSagastais sagacious. ; The Catholic Pope has done all in bis power to avert war. He is reported as greatly upset over the almost certainty . 01 conflict, and is said to hare prayed God to avert the war, otherwise to let him die that he may not behold such a ight. Pugilist Jim J.Corbett is a candidate for the Democratic congressional nomina tion in the Harlem district. , 7 6RIFT0N ITEMS. ?V""'- -Vr - ' April 14. 1898. Mips Ella Bland KTvulting Mrs. Sarah BLAMES THE WEYLEEITES. Ia HI Tetlmony Before the Senate Com. mlttee He Exonerate Blanc From Complicity huI DUotuie the IttU f Cab Havana Starring. . Mr. W. S. Blouut was in the village M'ednesday. ; . .. Mess. Jacob and Wade McCotter went to ureetiville Mouday. - Mrs. May Hellen nasgone to Richmond to purchase her spriug stock of millinery. Mr. Henry Crawford and famil spwt .miuiuui uiui auu ouuuuy W1IU Air VV 0. G arris. , Mr:L' A Tinte died at bis home nar j nere ioeaay. He leaves a widow and five children to lament their tossHe wan eicnoniy a snort while.: His remains were taken to anctboro for interment. Washington, April The testimony taken before the senate committee on foreign relations In connection with the investigation Into the relations be tween the United States and Cuba was made public today. It constitutes a book of about 650 pages and includes not only the testimony taken since the disaster to the Maine, but also much that was taken before and running back for a year or more. The statement Which contains the greatest current in terest is that made by Consul General Lee on the 12th Inst. In this statement General Lee said he was informed on very good authority that the Spaniards had placed two rows of torpedoes at the mouth of Havana harbor, by Morro castle, within the past two months, or subsequent to the Maine disaster, and that the switchboard is in a room in the castle. He said, however, that he had no information of the placing of any torpedoes before the Maine was de stroyed and none in regard to the pur chase abroad by the Spanish authorities. Have you any reason to suppose that the harbor was mined at all before the blowing up of the Maine?" asked Sena tor Frye. No, sir; I had no reason to suspect anything of the sort up to that time." He then went on to say that General Weyler's letter to Santos Guzman had led him to believe that mines might have been placed there previous to the Maine incident, and he said that this supposition was strengthened by a tele gram from General Weyler of which he had cognizance. Upon the whole, he thought the Weyler letter (the ' Laine letter) was a cprrect copy of the genu ine letter. The telegram to which he referred was addressed to Eva Canel, a Rioted Spanish woman and an admirer of Weyler, and to Senor Guzman,' and It read as follows: '.'Grave circumstances cause me to ask- you to destroy the last letter, of Feb. 18." General Lee said that this telegram had never before been published, and he found in it strong confirmatory evi dence of the genuineness of the Weyler letter. No Doubt About External Origin, With , reference to the responsibility for the destruction of the Maine, Gen eral Lee said: "I am satisfied the explosion was from the outside. I cabled the state depart ment a few days after the board assem bled that it was almost certain that the explosion was from the exterior.-1 have always had an idea about the Maine that, of course, It was not blown up by any private Individual or by any pri vate citizen, but U was blown up 'by some of the officers who had charge of the mines and electrical wires and tor pedoes in the arsenal there who thor oughly understood their business, for it was done remarkably well. "I do not think General Blanco, the present captain and governor general of the island of Cuba, had anything to do with it. I do not think he had any knowledge of It. I saw him Just shortly after the occurrence. I was sitting In Any room at the hotel, and from the bal cony of the hotel I could hear this. I heard the explosion and saw a great column of fire go up In the air. A few moments after ascertaining that it was the .Maine 1 went right down to the palace and I asked for General Blanco, He came In directly by himself, He had just heard It and was crying: tears were coming out of his eyes. He seemed to regret It as much as anybody I saw in Havana, but, I think It came from some of the subaltern officers who had been there under Weyler, and who were probably antl-Blanco anyhow and who had full knowledge of the business." General Lee said that he had seen a copy of a telegram from Admiral Man teroiia, dated in Havana, prior to the explosion of the, Maine, to the Spanish commission ia London, asking t he com mission to "hurry up the electrical ca bles." "Whether that referred to wire ror submarine .mipea . or torpedoes. I do not Know, he continued. "I tried to certain if any the wire or electrical cable had arriyed there,, but they came on spanian ships and -I could not find out."-: .....ww ,i,:-ijT3."nr: General Lee said that this testimony iu itrgaru o jnameroiia ana also that with reference to the .Weyler teleeram had been furnished to the court of in. quiry which Investigated the Maine dis aster, but had not been sent to congress or puousnea Decause of a request of his made to the state ""department not to.make.them public, "as I was afraid the Spanish papers there would reDub. llsh it. and they would probably kill, the man that gave it to me." General Lee then made the statement already reported, about the electee lights, stating that riot more than one or two had gone out. He had not felt the shock of the explosion at his hotel. ' Wm an Expert's Work. The following colloquy between Sena. tor Foraker atd General Lee brought out some xuriner opinions or the gen eral in regard to the destruction of the Maine: , Senator Foraker Tow think that no novice could have destroyed the Maine? General Lee Oh, no, sir! The man Who old the, work was an officer thor oughly acquainted with explosives 'of all sorts and knew all about them. It was very well done. Senator Foraker A man who had ex pert knowledge necessarily? , . jt General Lee Yes, sir. f x" Senator Clark And who must have had knowledge of the location of the torpedo? General Lee Tes. I never have been certain that the submarine explosive was placed there prior to the entrance of the Maine Into the harbor. It might have been done afterward. The Maine was anchored to a buoy by some little chain. A vessel swinging around that way sometimes gets at various places all around the circle. When she would swing off that way, with the bow next to the buoy and these boats plying about the harbor all the time, anybody couia go pretty well in front of her on a, dark night and drop one of these submarine mines of 600 pounds. They have fingers, as it were, and as the boat goes around it would touch the finger, which makes contact and explodes the mine. That might have been done aft er the Maine got in there and not be discovered. One or two men rowing quietly in a boat 'could drop It off the stern of the boat on a ' dark night. though Siffsbee had his patrols out. A boat would not have been noticed, be cause boats go there always to a late hour of the night. The harbor is full of these little boats. A mine weighs about 600 pounds, and I suppose it would take two or three men one man to row and probably one or two to handle the mine. Spanish Population Mot Hostile. In reply to a "question from Senator Gray General Lee said that the Spanish population is not especially hostile to ward the United States, his language being as follows: "I do not think- they are now. They were, but the Spanish portion aire prin cipally the merchants, commission mer chants and shopkeepers, and all this agitation is affecting very much their business. A great rnnny of them, while they give expression to great loyalty', are really annexationists because they think it is the only way out of the trou ble, as they would much prefer annex? ation to the United States to a Cuban republic, fearing that discrimination would be made against them in some way, and would rather trust to the United States than to'the Cubans." Senator Lodge asked, "What does this cessation of hostilities spoken of Jn the last" few days amount to?" to which General Lee responded: "Nothing, prac tically nothing the armistice amounts to nothing. I saw General Blanco's proclamation, which said the queen re gent, at the request of his holiness the pope, had Issued an armistice, but that is not worth the paper It is written on. Because a truce or armistice between two contending forces requites the con-., sent of both before it can be of any practical effect, and It will not have the consent of the insurgents." in response to an inquiry from Sena tor Frye as to his reasons for saying that, the Insurgents would pay no atten tion to the armistice General Lee said: V "Because every attempt so far to make terms or to make peace or to buy the insurgents or their leaders has met with signal failureand whatever may be said about old General Gomes, he is. In my humble opinion, fighting that war in the onlyway.it can be done scatter ing his troops out because to concen trate would be to starve, having no commissary train and no way to ret supplies. They come in sometimes for the purpose of making some little raid where he thinks It will do something. out ne nas given orders, so I have al ways been Informed, not to fight, not to become engaged, not to lose their cartridges, and sometimes when he gets Into a fight each man Is ordered not to fire more thata two cartridares. When General Weyler was there, he went out after him sometimes, i and they would move up a column and tire; and some havle a good many barrels of flour and a good don 1 office and some potatoes; dui not fi preat many; and a little lard but' everything that the town" of Ha vana has received in the last four or five or six months has been from the Unite! States by steamers from New xorK. -New Orleans and Tampa." Senator JMJIls .asked. "Can they get no sanajaience.rrom toe islands?" -General Lea answered: "Nothing more than from the floor (indicating). The fwavK.tha fJnsurgsm do :is this: They aye itftle patches of sweet potatoes verythin' grow there very abundant lyJn a short time and Irish potatoes and fruits: They drive their pigs and cattle mtc the valleys and hillsides, ahd tbey ! use those . and scatter out, That is the reason why they ail scatter out. A great many are planting. They insurgents plant crops in many parts or the island." H'Suppose: Havana was blockaded,' said Senator Mills, "so that; no provi sions couiajgo in, would the neoDle mere nave any way to get any?" 'None whatever," responded General Lee. "The town would surrender in short while." Are all the Cubans ' friendly to the Insurgents?" asked Senator Foraker. I never saw one that was not," re sponded General Lee. He then went on to depict the lmpov. erished and weakened condition of the Spanish soldiers. Nobody, he said, ever saw the Spanish soldiers drill. He stat ed that the Spanish appropriations to relieve the distress looked big on paper. but would amount to nothing. He could not see any possibility of Spain conquer lng the insurgents. In response to an Inquiry from Sena tor Lodge for his opinion of the insur gent government General Lee said: I have never thought that the insur gents had anything except the skeleton form of a government a movable capi tal, i asked them one day why they aia not nave some permanent capital. and I think they gave a very good rea son. They said it would reaulre a lares force to protect it and defend it and they could not afford to mass up their men there; that the capital and the government offices had to move where they could be safest." In response to questions from Senator Daniel, General Lee said that an Amer ican army of occupation could go into the Island with safety now. . "I mean, on account of climate and so frn'aald Senator Daniel, to which Gen-, eral Lee responded, "Account of the cli mate and on account of everything alseJ?X .:-L . General Lee said that when he left Havana the Spanish troops had noft been paid for about nine months, nor the Spanish officers for about four months. - ,- WHMGTOH AHDWELDOH RAILROAD. CONDENSED SCHEDULE. ' TRAINS GOING SOUTH. DATED Jan. 17th, 1898. Leave Weldon.. Ar. Rocky Mt... Leave Tarboro.. Lv. Rocky Mt..., Leave Wilson..., Leave Selma Lv. Fayettevllle. Ar. Florence.... o -a Ar. Lv Lv. Ar. Goldsboro. . . Ooldsboro. . . Magnolia. . . . Wilmington. A. M. 13 00 ill 1288' 115 815 316 .4 45 7&5 P. M. if H KG P. M 943 10 86 1086 11 18 1159 107 815 A. M o-as 32 P.M. 0 00 6 45 7 19 8 00 P. MJ A.M. 5 40 622 7 01 805 9 80 A. M, P. M. 110 237 820 4 24 550 P. M. TRAINS GOING NORTH. Lv. Florence Lv. Fayettevllle Leave Selma...., Arrive Wilson.., Lv. Wilmington. Lv. Maenolfa..... Lv. Goldsboro Leave Wilson... Ar., Rocky Mt.. Arrive Tarboro. , Leave Tarboro.. , Lv. Rocky Mt... Ar. Weldon A. M 9 48! 12 18 147 235 P. M. 2 35 329 1238 329 4 33 P. M. A. M. 5 00 5 88 6 15 0 46 p cj K Q P. M. 815 1019 11 30 1209 A. M 12 12 1347 12 47 1421 A. M p 3 P. M. 716 8 55 1010 p.m 11 20 1157, P. M. 900 1048 1206 P. M. 12 65 137 Train on the'Klnston Branch Road leaves Weldon 3:55 n. m.. Halifax 4:30 v. m.. arrives ucouana aecx at b-w p. m., ureenviue 0:57 p. m., Kinston 7:55 p. m. Returning leaves Kins ton 7:50 a. m., Greenville 8:52 a. m., arriving , Halifax at 11:18 a. m., Weldon 11:33 a. m.. daily except Sunday. - it. m. JCMJiKsun, uen'i rasa. Agent R. KENLT. Gen'l Manager. ; T. M. EMERSON. Trafflo Manager ' 1 1 ; ' 1882. 1898. it 1 1 ""i 1 . 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 i ( y ( 11 11 1 1 . 1 1 i 9 , That is the proud record of THE. KINSTON 8 FREE PRESS. Every intelligent family in Lenoir, Greene it and Jones comities, and portions of several oth er counties, ought to take THE FREE PRESS, which during all these years has done its utmost to advance the best interests of the people of this section If Thera Be Wat, Tutu j?-ju1j rwiuas can oe renea on to give fully and accurately the very latest war news. If Thete Be Peace, ! , THE FREE PRESS will inform its.subscrib- ers of it as soon as it can be learned.1 ?' ' ; , , THE FREE PRESS, will give as careful and j times the flank of the column and the reliable teleeraphic reports as it is 'possible to! -r ouiuicis ' wuuia aepioy ana i hhfam ' - throw out skirmishers, and the Cubans, llyUtlilll. . r : . i like Indians,, would go into. the woods. Tf Vftu TtriaVi nil f.Vift lflfftsf. riflWfl frvirti attatv vajieys and mountain sides 'and scatter J " " vvjr7 JSLr-i'o1 the Spanish troops gwhers, County, State and.Nation; subscribe for j were irone. The- Snanfah trnrmm mim IX , were rone. The Spanish troops would ft countermarch, and go back to town; 3 r ' men killed and 10. or.-lz wounded. I do not think it would be safe for anv Snan. Ish officer to gro out under a flag of true. iney couia not buy the insurgents. Ev ery time they went out to buv' them they (the Insurgents) killed them.. Senator Mills asked: "How much nm- visions have they In store for the army? How 1 lonecan . they maintain their forces, there -without (bringing in more provisions ? ' - V" -: '' 5 Havana ia SUrvlnr. . " General Lee replied: "They are Hvln there almost from hand to mouth th Spaniards and the citizens In the' town of Havana also. I made some inquiries on that point Just before I left. They i li lt O t it Free KINSTON, N. C. o . TWIOE-A-WEEK, onlv Sl.25 a vearl .lesfl k than 1 cents a copy. - ' DAILY 6 cent3 a week, 25.cent3.a- month, (iftO'h tTAn- V; . ' . Kyu u jfocu. i
The Kinston Free Press (Kinston, N.C.)
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April 15, 1898, edition 1
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