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
Force--The 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
remembers 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 hew 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.
"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. A
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.
"There was no reason why the chief of police should scan too
closely the young man with the big cigar. Juan Sola's passport had
been duly issued by the Spanish government, and as far as the
papers showed, there was no reason to suspect him.
"Of course Juan Sola was the girl the correspondent had rescued
from prison, and the fame of whose escape was on every tongue in
Havana, the girl for whose capture the police had for three days
been breaking into houses and guarding the roads, and yet she
passed under their noses with no disguise but a boy's suit of
clothes.
"Miss Cisneros did not court any more danger than was necessary,
and at once went to her cabin. The next day, however, when Morro
Castle was left far behind, she appeared on deck, transformed into
Senorita Juana Sola, alias Evangelina Cisneros.
"When the ship sighted Cape Hatteras light the young woman asked
what light it was, and when told that it was an American beacon,
she knelt down in the saloon and prayed. After that she wept for
joy. She must have been all strung up with excitement over her
experiences, and when she saw the light she could contain herself
no longer, but simply overflowed.
"Nothing could be seen of the Cuban girl as the Seneca slowed
opposite quarantine to permit the boarding of the health officer.
The other passengers, after the habit of ocean travelers, grouped
amidships to scan the vessel of the tyrant, who had it in his
power to lock them all up in quarantine. The girl was hidden away
in her stateroom, wondering what reception awaited her in the big
city whose sky-line broke the horizon ahead.
"The people on board were kind to her from the moment she revealed
her identity, but at this moment when she had reached the haven of
refuge, to gain which she and her gallant rescuers had risked
death itself, she fled from the new-found friends and would not
even look out of the door of her stateroom."
Miss Cisneros was given a great reception in Madison Square
garden, during her stay in New York, where many noted men and
women congratulated her on her happy escape, and welcomed her to
"the land of the free, and the home of the brave." Since then she
has become the protege of Mrs. John A. Logan, widow of the famous
General, and is now a member of her family.
It is suspected that General Weyler connived at the escape of Miss
Cisneros, as it is not probable that it could have been
accomplished without the knowledge of the prison officials, and as
they were not called to account for their negligence, it would
seem that they were simply obeying orders in keeping their eyes
conveniently closed.
The Military Judge of Havana issued a proclamation commanding Miss
Cisneros to return to prison, but it was evident that this was
merely a legal formality. There were men in Cuba, occupying high
official positions, who could not afford to have the story of the
persecutions of which she was a victim, while in voluntary exile
with her father in the Isle of Pines, made known, for it would
have gained for them the scorn and contempt of the civilized
world. Her case had attracted the attention of men and women of
prominence, not only in our own country, but in England, France
and Germany as well, and it was likely to become an international
affair, and Weyler probably decided to escape these complications
by allowing her to be "rescued" from her prison cell.
While all the details of the affair go to prove that this
supposition is correct, all concerned have guarded the secret
well, and it is but just to state that there is no direct proof to
support the theory, and both the man who planned and the one who
executed deserved all the honors they received.