izing and valuing up to that time, leaves it perfectly well established that they do not share, and rather, on the contrary, disauthorize the criticisms tending to offend or censure the chief of a friendly State, although such criticisms had been written within the field of friendship and had reached publicity by artful and criminal means. That this meaning had taken shape in a resolution by the Council of Ministers before General Woodford presented the matter, and at a time when the Spanish Government had only vague telegraphic reports concerning the sentiments alluded to. That the Spanish nation, with equal and greater reason, affirms its view and decision after reading the words contained in the letter reflecting upon the President of the United States. As to the paragraph concerning the desirability of negotiations of commercial relations, if even for effect and importance of using a representative for the purpose stated in Senor Dupuy De Lome's letter, the government expresses concern that in the light of its conduct, long after the writing of the letter, and in view of the unanswerable testimony of simultaneous and subsequent facts, any doubt should exist that the Spanish Government has given proof of its real desire and of its innermost convictions with respect to the new commercial system and the projected treaty of commerce. That the Spanish Government does not now consider it necessary to lay stress upon, or to demonstrate anew the truth and sincerity of its purpose and the unstained good faith of its intentions. That publicly and solemnly, the Government of Spain contracted before the mother country and its colonies a responsibility for the political and tariff charges which it has inaugurated in both Antilles, the natural ends of which, in domestic and international spheres, it pursues with firmness, which will ever inspire its conduct. THE CASE OF EVANGELINA CISNEROS. A Martyr to the Cause-Filial Devotion-Spanish Chivalry-In a Spanish Prison-An American Rescuer-Yankee Pluck Against Brute ForceThe Escape-Arrival in New York-Enthusiastic Reception-A Home in the Land of Liberty. Spanish officials in Cuba have always denied the charge that they made war on women, and have insisted that the tales of persecution of the weaker sex that have reached this country were inventions of the insurgents, published to gain sympathy for their cause. In direct contradiction to this claim is the story of Evangelina Cisneros, the niece of the president of the Cuban republic. Her father, a Cuban patriot of prominence, was banished to the Isle of Pines, and she showed her filial devotion by leaving a luxurious home to share his exile. While there, her beauty attracted the attention of a Spanish General, who tried by every means in his power to gain her favor. It was natural that she should despise anyone who wore the hated uniform of Spain, and, because she rejected his advances, she was charged with conspiring against the government, and sent to a jail in Havana. Her unhappy fate attracted the attention of Mr. W. R. Hearst, the proprietor of the New York Journal, and he, actuated no doubt by philanthropic motives, as well as the desire to advance the interests of his paper, determined to make an effort for her release. How this was accomplished is best told by Mr. Karl Decker, who was Mr. Hearst's representative in carrying out the plot. "I have broken the bars of prison and have set free the beautiful captive of Monster Weyler, restoring her to her friends and relatives, and doing by strength, skill and strategy what could not be accomplished by petition and urgent request of the Pope. Weyler could blind the Queen to the real character of Evangelina, but he could not build a jail that would hold against enterprise when properly set to work. "To-night all Havana rings with the story. It is the one topic of conversation. Everything else pales into insignificance. No one re members that there has been a change in the Ministry. What matters it if Weyler is to go? Evangelina Cisneros has escaped from the jail, thought by everyone to be impregnable. A plot has been hatched right in the heart of Havana-a desperate plot-as shown by the revolver found on the roof of the house through which the escape was effected, and as the result of this plot, put into effect under the very nose of Spanish guards, Evangelina is free. How was it done? How could it have been done? Details of the Escape. "These are the questions asked to-night by the frequenters of the cafes throughout the city, where the people of Havana congregate. It is conceded by all, by the officials of the palace included, to be the most daring coup in the history of the war, and the audacity of the deed is paralyzing. No one knows where Evangelina is now, nor can know. "To tell the story of the escape briefly, I came here three weeks ago, having been told to go to Cuba and rescue from her prison Miss Cisneros, a tenderly-reared girl, descended from one of the best families in the island, and herself a martyr to the unsatisfied desires of a beast in Spanish uniform. I arrived at Cienfuegos late in September, telegraphed to a known and tried man in Santiago de Cuba to meet me in Havana, and then went to Santa Clara, where I picked up a second man, known to be as gritty as Sahara, and then proceeded to Havana. "Here I remained in almost absolute concealment, so as to avoid the spies that dog one's steps wherever one may go, and make impossible any clever work of this kind. Both the men who accompanied me, Joseph Hernandon and Harrison Mallory, pursued the same course, and remained quiet until all plans had been completed. "The fact that Miss Cisneros was incommunicado made the attempt seem at first beyond the possibility of success, but we finally, through Hernandon, who was born on the island, and speaks Spanish like a native, succeeded in sending a note to her through an old negress, who called upon one of her friends in the prison. A keeper got this note through two hands to Miss Cisneros, and three keepers later got to her a package of drugged sweets. Having established communication with her, we began work without losing a day." The Prison Left Behind. Mr. Decker then tells how he rented a house adjoining the prison, and instructed Miss Cisneros to give the drugged candies to the other women who were in the prison with her. As soon as the drug produced the desired effect on them, the bars of the prison were cut from the outside, and Miss Cisneros was assisted through the window, onto the roof of the house Mr. Decker had rented, kept in concealment for two days, and then smuggled on board a ship, bound for the land of liberty. Her arrival in New York is thus described: "Evangeline Cisneros, one week ago a prisoner among the outcast wretches in a Havana prison, is a guest at the Waldorf hotel. Surrounded by luxury and elegance, she is alternately laughing and crying over the events of one short week. One week ago last night a correspondent broke the bars of her cell and led her to liberty over the flat roofs of the Cuban capital. It is the memory of those thrilling few minutes that meant for her a lifetime of captivity or a future of peace and liberty that most often occurs to her now. A "She arrived to-day on the Ward liner, Seneca, and was taken from the steamer by a boat at quarantine, thanks to the courtesy of the Government and the quarantine authorities. When the Seneca sailed from Havana there figured on the passenger list one Juan Sola. girl who signed the name of Juana Sola to the declaration, exacted by the Custom House officers, was the nearest passenger to making good the lost one. Her declaration was that she brought nothing dutiable into the country. "If ever that declaration was truthfully made, it was made in the case of this brown-eyed, chestnut-haired girl, who was so anxious to please the man who made her sign. All she had was the simple red gown she had on her back and a bundle that contained a suit of clothes such as a planter's son might have worn. "Those were the clothes that Juan Sola wore when he ran up the gang-plank in Havana, with a big slouch hat over the chestnut hair, that even danger of discovery could not tempt her to cut, and a fat cigar between a red, laughing pair of lips that accidentally, maybe, blew a cloud of smoke into the face of the chief of police, who was watching that plank, and made the features of the young man very indistinct indeed. |