The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst (59 page)
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Authors: Kenneth Whyte
BOOK: The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst
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But at least through the Ruiz chronicles, Pulitzer had been able to boast a martyr of his own, none other than his star reporter Sylvester Scovel. Traveling under the guise of Harry Williams, scrap-metal dealer, Scovel had visited the tiny port of Las Tunas on the southern coast of Cuba in February 1897 to send his copy out by boat. He was picked up by Spanish guards and charged with communicating with the insurgents and bearing false documents, among other crimes.
Scovel’s incarceration was hardly agonizing. He was transported from Las Tunas to Sancti Spiritus and installed in a comfortable cell with food and fresh flowers. He continued writing for his paper, smuggling out his copy via friendly guards and proudly datelining his stories “Calaboose No. 1, Prison of Sancti-Spiritus, Santa Clara Province, Cuba.” Pulitzer mounted a righteous campaign to have his man released, soliciting and winning support from the journalistic and political communities. The U.S. Senate and fourteen state legislatures passed motions requesting that the State Department intervene on Scovel’s behalf.
16
The
Journal
neglected to report on his plight.
16
The
Journal
neglected to report on his plight.
The
World
and its allies stressed that Scovel had never carried arms or acted in any capacity other than as a journalist in Cuba. This was not strictly true. Scovel’s most recent visit to Gómez had come at the urging of Consul General Lee, who wanted the insurgent general’s reaction to Washington’s proposal that the rebels accept an armistice in return for home rule. He had also been running letters back and forth from the insurgent army to the Junta in New York and assisting the Cubans in the training of their recruits. Fortunately for him, proof of his undercover work was in short supply, and Pulitzer had raised enough of a stink that Enrique Dupuy de Lôme, the Spanish minister to Washington, wrote Madrid recommending the reporter’s release. Weyler reluctantly complied and by early March the
World
had lost a martyr but regained its most valuable and celebrated correspondent.
17
World
and its allies stressed that Scovel had never carried arms or acted in any capacity other than as a journalist in Cuba. This was not strictly true. Scovel’s most recent visit to Gómez had come at the urging of Consul General Lee, who wanted the insurgent general’s reaction to Washington’s proposal that the rebels accept an armistice in return for home rule. He had also been running letters back and forth from the insurgent army to the Junta in New York and assisting the Cubans in the training of their recruits. Fortunately for him, proof of his undercover work was in short supply, and Pulitzer had raised enough of a stink that Enrique Dupuy de Lôme, the Spanish minister to Washington, wrote Madrid recommending the reporter’s release. Weyler reluctantly complied and by early March the
World
had lost a martyr but regained its most valuable and celebrated correspondent.
17
Pulitzer had nothing similar to throw up against Hearst’s Evangelina story, but what he could not match he could always undermine. He now cabled Weyler for his thoughts on the Cuban girl’s case and received a prompt and gratifying reply. “For judicial reasons,” wrote the captain general, “there is on trial in the preliminary stages a person named Evangelina Cossio Cisneros, who, deceitfully luring to her house the military commander of the Isle of Pines, had men posted secretly, who tied him and attempted to assassinate him. This case is in the preliminary stages, and has not yet been tried by a competent tribunal, and consequently no sentence has been passed nor approved by me. I answer the
World
with the frankness and truth that characterize all my acts. Weyler.”
18
World
with the frankness and truth that characterize all my acts. Weyler.”
18
Pulitzer was delighted to report that Hearst’s “blameless flower of Cuba” was actually a ringleader in an assassination plot and that the
Journal
had greatly exaggerated her legal predicament. His
World
had also learned that Evangelina was not in fact a niece of President Betancourt, and that her life in Recojidas was nowhere near as onerous as advertised. Pulitzer editorialized that nothing could be gained for the Cuban cause by “inventions and exaggerations that are past belief.”
19
Journal
had greatly exaggerated her legal predicament. His
World
had also learned that Evangelina was not in fact a niece of President Betancourt, and that her life in Recojidas was nowhere near as onerous as advertised. Pulitzer editorialized that nothing could be gained for the Cuban cause by “inventions and exaggerations that are past belief.”
19
Dupuy de Lôme joined the assault on the Evangelina story with a letter to Mrs. Jefferson Davis, informing the grand lady that “a shameless conspiration to promote the interest of one or more sensational papers is at the bottom of the romance that has touched your good heart.”
20
He reiterated Weyler’s line that Señorita Cisneros had lured to her house the military commander of the Isle of Pines and that her case was still under consideration.
20
He reiterated Weyler’s line that Señorita Cisneros had lured to her house the military commander of the Isle of Pines and that her case was still under consideration.
A third line of attack on the
Journal
’s scoop was opened by U.S. consul general Lee, who, on his arrival in New York for thirty days’ leave on September 8, told a delighted New York
World
that he wished to correct “false and stupid” impressions of the imprisonment of Evangelina Cisneros. She had two clean rooms in the Casa de Recojidas, said Lee, and was well clothed and fed. He did not believe that the Spaniards had any intention of sending the girl to Africa and surmised that she would have been pardoned long before “if it had not been for the hubbub created by American newspapers.” Lee also doubted Evangelina’s innocence: “[T]hat she was implicated in the insurrection on the Isle of Pines there could be no question. She, herself, in a note to me, acknowledged that fact, and stated she was betrayed by an accomplice.”
21
Journal
’s scoop was opened by U.S. consul general Lee, who, on his arrival in New York for thirty days’ leave on September 8, told a delighted New York
World
that he wished to correct “false and stupid” impressions of the imprisonment of Evangelina Cisneros. She had two clean rooms in the Casa de Recojidas, said Lee, and was well clothed and fed. He did not believe that the Spaniards had any intention of sending the girl to Africa and surmised that she would have been pardoned long before “if it had not been for the hubbub created by American newspapers.” Lee also doubted Evangelina’s innocence: “[T]hat she was implicated in the insurrection on the Isle of Pines there could be no question. She, herself, in a note to me, acknowledged that fact, and stated she was betrayed by an accomplice.”
21
As a sort of punctuation point to all this, Weyler notified the U.S. consulate that he was expelling
Journal
correspondent George Eugene Bryson from Cuba, along with Edouardo Garcia of the New York
Sun.
22
Journal
correspondent George Eugene Bryson from Cuba, along with Edouardo Garcia of the New York
Sun.
22
Far from being embarrassed by the attacks, Hearst reprinted both the Weyler and the Dupuy de Lôme letters in full and thanked the men for admitting the essential and indefensible fact that Berriz had ventured alone at night to the room of an attractive young woman who was entirely at his mercy. “This defense,” the
Journal
argued, “by being made official, deepens Spain’s disgrace.” The paper also corrected de Lome’s assertion that “one or more sensational papers” were responsible for the Cisneros romance—“only the Journal is entitled to the Spanish Minister’s censure.”
23
Journal
argued, “by being made official, deepens Spain’s disgrace.” The paper also corrected de Lome’s assertion that “one or more sensational papers” were responsible for the Cisneros romance—“only the Journal is entitled to the Spanish Minister’s censure.”
23
Bryson, before being shipped out of Havana, managed to wire New York addressing Weyler’s dismissal of the girl’s jeopardy: he quoted legal sources confirming that prosecutors had demanded a sentence of twenty years in Ceuta and that the matter was now in the hands of the Judge Advocate General. The New York
Sun
quoted a Cuban lawyer who substantiated Bryson’s account of her legal situation, no doubt contributing to Edouardo Garcia’s simultaneous expulsion.
24
Sun
quoted a Cuban lawyer who substantiated Bryson’s account of her legal situation, no doubt contributing to Edouardo Garcia’s simultaneous expulsion.
24
As for Weyler’s charge that Evangelina had been involved in an assassination plot against her guards, the
Journal
considered it ridiculous. The prisoners had not harmed Berriz despite plenty of opportunity. More interestingly, the
Journal
argued that even if she had been involved in an uprising, she was simply supporting the cause for which every man in her life was prepared to die. That demonstrated good breeding, not rebelliousness or criminality, and did not detract at all from her status as a “blameless flower of Cuba.” The paper evoked the heroine of a much-recited John Greenleaf Whittier ballad to make the case that in a civilized country, women were not prosecuted for supporting their men: “When Barbara Frietchie was allowed to wave the Stars and Stripes in the face of a victorious rebel army the incident was characteristic of American methods of warfare. No American soldiers, of North or South, made war on women. . . . The idea of punishing a woman for her devotion to the cause of her family would have been revolting to the roughest band of bushwhackers on either side.”
25
That explains the importance of Mrs. Jefferson Davis to the
Journal
’s coverage (beyond her connections to Pulitzer). Her request that Evangelina be granted clemency, “even though the provocation may have been great,” was a common sentiment. None of the intervening parties—not the Vatican, nor American politicians—stipulated that the teenaged girl must be innocent of any wrongdoing to qualify for mercy.
Journal
considered it ridiculous. The prisoners had not harmed Berriz despite plenty of opportunity. More interestingly, the
Journal
argued that even if she had been involved in an uprising, she was simply supporting the cause for which every man in her life was prepared to die. That demonstrated good breeding, not rebelliousness or criminality, and did not detract at all from her status as a “blameless flower of Cuba.” The paper evoked the heroine of a much-recited John Greenleaf Whittier ballad to make the case that in a civilized country, women were not prosecuted for supporting their men: “When Barbara Frietchie was allowed to wave the Stars and Stripes in the face of a victorious rebel army the incident was characteristic of American methods of warfare. No American soldiers, of North or South, made war on women. . . . The idea of punishing a woman for her devotion to the cause of her family would have been revolting to the roughest band of bushwhackers on either side.”
25
That explains the importance of Mrs. Jefferson Davis to the
Journal
’s coverage (beyond her connections to Pulitzer). Her request that Evangelina be granted clemency, “even though the provocation may have been great,” was a common sentiment. None of the intervening parties—not the Vatican, nor American politicians—stipulated that the teenaged girl must be innocent of any wrongdoing to qualify for mercy.
The
Journal
quoted the prison physician at Casa de Recojidas as saying that Miss Cisneros was threatened with consumption and needed to be moved to better accommodations to protect her health. Former prison mates were found to attest to her mistreatment in jail. Colonel Berriz was said to be under pressure to withdraw his charge against Evangelina and let the matter pass. (The
Sun
wrote that Berriz was eager to reclaim letters in which he had allegedly made immoral propositions to the girl as the price of her father’s liberty. These letters have never surfaced.)
26
Journal
quoted the prison physician at Casa de Recojidas as saying that Miss Cisneros was threatened with consumption and needed to be moved to better accommodations to protect her health. Former prison mates were found to attest to her mistreatment in jail. Colonel Berriz was said to be under pressure to withdraw his charge against Evangelina and let the matter pass. (The
Sun
wrote that Berriz was eager to reclaim letters in which he had allegedly made immoral propositions to the girl as the price of her father’s liberty. These letters have never surfaced.)
26
As for Pulitzer, Hearst lambasted him and Weyler both for libeling a young woman of irreproachable character. The
Journal
took every opportunity to link the pen pals in print, vowing to fight for Evangelina “in spite of Weyler and the
World.
” Davenport contributed a cartoon of a fierce-looking Weyler leading columns of tall, skinny, bug-eyed Pulitzer clones. The caption read, “Calling Out the Reserves.”
27
Hearst also mocked Pulitzer as snobbish for quibbling over Evangelina’s family connections. In practice, however, the
Journal
quietly downgraded the girl from a niece to a “relative” of the Cuban president.
Journal
took every opportunity to link the pen pals in print, vowing to fight for Evangelina “in spite of Weyler and the
World.
” Davenport contributed a cartoon of a fierce-looking Weyler leading columns of tall, skinny, bug-eyed Pulitzer clones. The caption read, “Calling Out the Reserves.”
27
Hearst also mocked Pulitzer as snobbish for quibbling over Evangelina’s family connections. In practice, however, the
Journal
quietly downgraded the girl from a niece to a “relative” of the Cuban president.
Consul General Lee’s criticisms of the
Journal
’s work were in some ways the most serious since he was neither a Spaniard nor a publishing rival but a well-placed agent of the United States government. He was also a nephew of Robert E. Lee, a graduate of West Point, a Confederate cavalry officer, a veteran of the Indian Wars, and a former governor of Virginia. His words carried weight. Yet the
Journal
did not answer his charges, even though it knew them to be disingenuous. Bryson was well acquainted with Lee and his staff. The newspaper and the consulate shared an office building, the Casa Nueva in central Havana. Bryson knew that Lee had seen Evangelina in prison, that Lee broadly shared the
Journal
’s concerns for her treatment, that he had fought to improve her living quarters, and that Lee’s wife and daughter had visited Evangelina in prison to offer her comfort and support. Other consular officials also called on her regularly and agitated for her release. The day after his first story appeared, Lee had echoed Bryson’s descriptions of conditions at the prison in a letter to Weyler begging for the girl’s release. Yet now Lee described the
Journal
’s reporting as “false and stupid,” and the paper let it pass. The only explanation is that the consulate and the newspaper were in cahoots, as subsequent events make clear.
28
Journal
’s work were in some ways the most serious since he was neither a Spaniard nor a publishing rival but a well-placed agent of the United States government. He was also a nephew of Robert E. Lee, a graduate of West Point, a Confederate cavalry officer, a veteran of the Indian Wars, and a former governor of Virginia. His words carried weight. Yet the
Journal
did not answer his charges, even though it knew them to be disingenuous. Bryson was well acquainted with Lee and his staff. The newspaper and the consulate shared an office building, the Casa Nueva in central Havana. Bryson knew that Lee had seen Evangelina in prison, that Lee broadly shared the
Journal
’s concerns for her treatment, that he had fought to improve her living quarters, and that Lee’s wife and daughter had visited Evangelina in prison to offer her comfort and support. Other consular officials also called on her regularly and agitated for her release. The day after his first story appeared, Lee had echoed Bryson’s descriptions of conditions at the prison in a letter to Weyler begging for the girl’s release. Yet now Lee described the
Journal
’s reporting as “false and stupid,” and the paper let it pass. The only explanation is that the consulate and the newspaper were in cahoots, as subsequent events make clear.
28
In early September, the queen regent requested that Weyler treat Evangelina as a distinguished prisoner of the state and move her to a convent to await the completion of legal proceedings. Although Weyler did not regard the girl as particularly villainous—he had suggested to Lee that she would be released as soon as the newspapers lost interest—he refused to comply with the queen regent’s request. He instead held Evangelina incommunicado at Recojidas so that no one knew her precise circumstances.
29
29
Weyler’s stubbornness was probably connected to momentous events in his home country. On August 8, days before the Evangelina story broke, an anarchist shot and killed Spanish premier Cánovas at Miramar. Cánovas’s government had been in trouble before his assassination. The costly and difficult war in Cuba was increasingly unpopular, and rebellion had spread to Spanish-held Puerto Rico and the Philippines. With Cánovas gone, an interim Conservative government was appointed, but it was not expected to last. There was immediate speculation that the Liberals would regain power. Their leader, Práxedes Sagasta, had proposed political reforms aimed at bringing peace to Cuba and had denounced Weyler’s methods as both severe and ineffectual, giving rise to rumors that the captain general would be recalled. Weyler was unrepentant about his ways: “How do they want me to wage war? With bishops’ pastorals and presents of sweets and money?”
30
But the last thing he needed was what Hearst had brought him: an international scandal over his treatment of female prisoners. Hence his peevish response to the queen regent’s order.
30
But the last thing he needed was what Hearst had brought him: an international scandal over his treatment of female prisoners. Hence his peevish response to the queen regent’s order.
Hearst took the queen regent’s promise of all possible consideration for Evangelina as a guarantee that she would not be harmed and as an opportunity to declare victory. He celebrated the paper’s triumph for a few days in early September before allowing the story to go dormant. It remained dormant for a month. The only hint, a very slight hint, of its imminent return was an October 5
Journal
editorial on the proceedings of a municipal affairs symposium in Columbus, Ohio. At the paper’s invitation, the mayors of several large American cities had spoken approvingly of the daily newspaper as “agent and attorney” for the people, and the editorial now wondered how far a newspaper might go in this new role: “It is universally admitted that a newspaper may deplore the existence of destitution and distress, and may even urge its charitable readers to relieve sufferers, but can it save lives itself without convicting itself of sensationalism? It may criticize corruption and maladministration in office, but has it a right to protect the public interests by deeds as well as words?”
31
32
Journal
editorial on the proceedings of a municipal affairs symposium in Columbus, Ohio. At the paper’s invitation, the mayors of several large American cities had spoken approvingly of the daily newspaper as “agent and attorney” for the people, and the editorial now wondered how far a newspaper might go in this new role: “It is universally admitted that a newspaper may deplore the existence of destitution and distress, and may even urge its charitable readers to relieve sufferers, but can it save lives itself without convicting itself of sensationalism? It may criticize corruption and maladministration in office, but has it a right to protect the public interests by deeds as well as words?”
31
32
Three days later, the
Journal
reported that Evangelina Cisneros had escaped from the Casa de Recojidas. The story announcing her flight was short. Datelined Havana, it said that the girl had failed to appear for roll call in the morning and that a search was undertaken. The guards found one of the bars of her room filed and bent outward. Evidence pointed to the cooperation of outsiders in her escape. Several prison employees had been placed under arrest. The authorities had no idea as to Evangelina’s whereabouts.
34
Journal
reported that Evangelina Cisneros had escaped from the Casa de Recojidas. The story announcing her flight was short. Datelined Havana, it said that the girl had failed to appear for roll call in the morning and that a search was undertaken. The guards found one of the bars of her room filed and bent outward. Evidence pointed to the cooperation of outsiders in her escape. Several prison employees had been placed under arrest. The authorities had no idea as to Evangelina’s whereabouts.
34
The following morning, October 9, the
Journal
announced that Weyler had resigned, having failed to gain the support of the new Spanish government. Adjacent on the page was a large picture of Evangelina with news that she was on her way to the United States, having been sprung from prison by concerned “friends.”
33
Journal
announced that Weyler had resigned, having failed to gain the support of the new Spanish government. Adjacent on the page was a large picture of Evangelina with news that she was on her way to the United States, having been sprung from prison by concerned “friends.”
33
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