Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 December 1896 — HOW A PATRIOT DIES. [ARTICLE]

HOW A PATRIOT DIES.

Coloma la Shot Like a Dog in Laurel Ditch at Havana. There was another frightful scene In Laurel ditch, in front of the Cabana fortress, at Havana, Saturday' afternoon just as the sun was hiding its head, as if ashamed to lend its light to such a cruel deed. The victim this time to Spain’s heartless custom of dealing with prisoners of war was Antonio Lopez,. Coloma, Well known as a Cuban soldier since the very outbreak of the revolution. - Coloma wu a white man captured at Ybarra, in

Matansas Province, Feb. 24, 1895, the day of thel outbreak, together with the mulatto journalist, Juan Guijlburto Gomez. The poor fellow had been locked up all these long twenty-one months, hoping against hope, which at times passed into certainty that he would not.be executed. 1 There were the same great cliffs, which constitute one side of the ditch, ( black With the crowd, Which had come to see a Cuban patriot die. Below was the ditch itself, more than fifty yards in width, and on the other side the stern ramparts of the Cabanas, with the gate leading into the ditch, which is so narrow that tour men can hardly pass through abreast. Once through the gate, Coloma gave a quick look around. In an instant his glance swept the cliffs abovp, and then fell to encounter that array tof Spanish soldiers, everywhere pitiless faces, a thousand’ to one. • Two more steps he took forward, then,i» raising his head proudly, “Vive Cuba libre!” About to die, he defied them all. As the words left his lips the officer Of the guard drew his sword, and with the uplifted blade sprang toward the manacled prisoner, but before the sword’could fall, the priest, holding up. the crucifix, stepped between Coloma and the coward, who drew back. Undaunted, Colonia Again cried out, “Viva Cuba libre!” This time he was seized and gagged with a white handkerchief tied oyer his mouth that he might utter those hateful words no more. Then With a firm tread he marched in the hollow square to the spot where he was to die. Then shots rang out, Coloma fell forward on his face, and another Cuban hero hay dead, shot like a dog in the Laurel ditch.