Bomb for a Bathroom

While he was supposed to be mounting guard on the roof of the President's Palace one night last week, a Cuban soldier sauntered over to the ventilating pipe above President Gerardo Machado y Morales' bathroom.

Producing from his pocket a dynamite bomb, the soldier slid it gingerly into the 4-inch pipe, lowered it slowly until it reached what felt like the bottom of the pipe. At 4:25 a. m. he lit the fuse.

President Machado hops into his tub at 4:30 each morning. But his son-in-law, Senor Emilio Obregon, who has the room and the bathroom just above, is less spry. So is his wife. So are their children. At 4:30 a. m. on the fatal morning last week, the Obregon family were sound asleep in their beds when the bomb went off in their bathroom. Potent, the explosion tore through the bathroom wall, wrecked Son- in-Law Obregon's expensive plate-glass shower bath, hurled some of the bits of glass with such terrific force as to embed them in the wall.

The guilty soldier was soon seized. He confessed in a daze of fear, kept murmuring, "I cannot understand how El Gallo [The Rooster] escaped." To persons more familiar with the presidential plumbing, explanation was easy. In providing a sumptuous bath for His Excellency's son-in-law, the plumbers had switched over the President's former ventilation pipe to ventilate the Obregons'.

One bomb is only one bomb. In a single night last week 13 bombs exploded in various quarters of the City of Havana. Nobody was killed. Most Cuban bombs are about as potent as cannon crackers--that of the faithless roof guard being an exception. Just to show how steady his nerves were, President Machado made public appearance on the Cuban Independence Day ("The Day of the Shout of Revolution'') last week, and inaugurated Cuba's brand new $18,000,000 Capitol Building.

"Today, when many thought I would not be present, I have come!" boomed Sr. Machado. "I have come, and I feel strong, very strong!"

There was virtually no disturbance, except that a young man in the crowd pulled out a revolver. Dictator Machado's efficient police sprang upon the youth and disarmed him before he could fire. Amid near panic, the band burst into Cuba's national anthem, gradually reassuring everyone. When confidence was restored, His Excellency continued his rather difficult speech.

Problem: How to praise the original Cuban Revolution (against Spain) without suggesting to an excitable audience that a new revolution (against the Dictatorship) would be equally praiseworthy?

Solution: Cried Sr. Machado, "I fought Spain, not because of hate but because of love of independence. I was ready to shed blood, body and life if necessary for its maintenance. I am not a rebel, because I am a patriot. Patriots cannot revolt against the sacred institutions of the fatherland.

"I know that God will illuminate the minds of Cubans, making them follow straight paths."

Cuban Philo. In the best tradition of detective fiction, Cuban Lieut.-Colonel Erasmo Delgado proceeded to unravel deductively The Mystery of the Bathroom Bomb.

The soldier had been caught redhanded, had confessed to setting the bomb, but resisted strongly all questions as to where he got the bomb and how he knew, or thought he knew, which bathroom pipe was the President's.

To have gouged the facts out of the fellow would have been crude. Cuba's deductive Philo Vance reasoned to himself that plumbing plans were the clue. How many sets of plans were there? Three! How many were not up to date ? One! Where was that? In the archives of the City of Havana!

Leaping now by mighty leaps, the mind of Detective Delgado pounced upon Ex-Mayor Miguel Mariano Gomez of Havana. He became "ex" very recently, when President Machado signed the decree transforming Havana from a city into a Federal District. Obviously here was a MOTIVE.

Ex-Mayor Gomez's sister, Detective Delgado noticed (and it was odd that President Machado had not noticed the ominous fact long ago), is the wife of Major Manuel Espinosa, for five and a half years aide-de-camp to the President, and commander of the palace guards. Lightning-like, the deductive flash of suspicion leaped from the plumbing plans in the Municipal Archives through the ex-Mayor, his sister and the President's aide to the soldier and the bomb. Confronted by Cuba's Philo Vance with these crushing suspicions, the soldier broke down utterly. He had acted under orders from his superior officer the President's aide, he confessed. He had been given the bomb (12 Ib. of dynamite) at the residence of ex-Mayor Gomez. Oddly enough, though the aide was instantly arrested and will be court martialed, Dr. Gomez, who has many potent friends, remained at liberty last week.

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