Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 October 1895 — CUBA’S CRY IS HEARD [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CUBA’S CRY IS HEARD

CITIZENS OF CHICAGO PROTEST AGAINST TYRANNY. Cause of the Oppressed People Warmly Championed Speeches Made and Resolutions Adopted in Keeping with Declaration of Independence. Pleas for Self-Government. The first protest of free-born Americans against' Spanish tyranny in Cuba was heard in Chicago Monday night. It was as fervid, as resolute and as defiant as ks it had been voiced by men and women who had suffer.-d iiersonally the wrongs that have kept Cuba in a state of ferment for a century. There was no sign of prearrangement in the speeches. They differed widely as to the proper

course of this government. But whether the speaker dwelt upon the necessity of conforming to international law, as Mr. Bryan did, or whether, like Mr. Hynes and Mr. Mason, he spoke out squarely for Cuban independence, the undertone was the same. The meetings cried for freedom, says a correspondent, and it was noticeable that no sentiment was received with greater applause than Governor Altgeld’s blunt declaration in a telegram to the chairman that Cuba should be annexed to the United States. The Central Music Hall meeting was the larger of the two. The other, in the

hall of the Yoiing Men’s Christian Association in LaSalle street, was an overflow, but enough people attended it to comfortably fill all the seats. As for the State street meeting, it was one of the most remarkable demonstrations ever seen in this city. In the first place—and that is the most important point—it was American to the core. There are not many Cubans in Chicago. Probably all the exiles of the suffering islands who have found their wny to the cigar sh&jjfe of the town would not fill the parquet circle of Central Music Hall. Most of them were there, leaning forward in their seats to take in every glowing sentence and cheering wildly the red-hot denunciations of their old masters that poured from the stage. Quesada, the secretary of the revolutionary party, was on the lloor, and so was Zayus, the propagandist of the cause, who is here trying to secure contributions of arms, ammunition and medicine for the insurgents. The big cheer of the evening went up for an excited Cuban who arose in the gallery while Mr. Hynes was speaking and yelled: "I go over and lick Spain myself alone.” Chicago’s Official Stamp,

The other big feature of the meeting was that it was presided over by the Mayor of Chicago, and that the City Council gave it official recognition by attending in a body. If this had happened over in Europe it might have been casus belli. What brought to Central Music Hall this tremendous crowd that filled the auditorium from the back of the platform to the eyries of the topmost-gallery ? In the crowd there were not fifty men who hud ever been within gunshot of Havana. There were not twenty to whom it makes a dollar’s difference whether Cuba bursts her shackles or goes on toiling, footsore under her burdens. There was neither politics nor business in it. Their motive must have been as pure as that which impelled the men who made New England ring against human slavery. It was a great demonstration. From the moment that the gavel of the chairman struck order it was a long roll of applause, shouted applause emphasized with roars that would lend grace to the greatest political meeting. It brought Cuba and the trials and struggles of the Cubans 1,000 miles nearer to Chicago. It lent a new meaning to the familiar lines of the declaration of independence which were in the mouth of every speaker. Liberty and patriotism rang with a different sound to the ears that had only heard them from the mouths of politicians who sought to use them for stepping stones to office. Every mention of the cruelty of the Spaniards was greeted with groans, every mention of the Monroe doctrine and the duty of the government to enforce it with the wildest cheers. If the responsibility of admitting Cuba to statehood had lain with the meeting and some one had put the question another star would have been added to the flag. At the mere suggestion of Cuba’s possible statehood the meeting went into the wildest applause. To the committee that had in charge the drafting of the resolutions the demands on the behalf of the struggling Cubans had at first seemed too strong, too pronounced; but in the light of the en-

thustum which prevailed when they were read they seemed weak and ineffectual. But they were adopted with a roar. Mayor Swift was c-hoeen chairman of the meeting, and addresses were given by the following gentlemen: Ilev. J>r. F. W. Gnnsaulus, Thomas B. Bryan, William J. Hynes, William E. Mason, the Rev. J. H. Barrows, Bishop Fallows, the Rev. Dr. P. 8. Henson, John Mayo Palmer and E. B. Sherman.

MAYOR SWIFT.