Excitement in the United States over a Spanish Outrage of Twenty-five Years Ago--The Virginius a Blockade Runner--Severity of the Spanish Court Martial--Insolence to the American Consul--Indignation in the United States--Negotiations Between Washington and Madrid--Settlement an Unsatisfactory One to Most People--No Just Retribution Ever Made. It was less than twenty-five years before the destruction of the Maine, that another vessel whose crew met its fate in a Spanish port in Cuba was the subject of as intense public interest in the United States as that created by the catastrophe of 1898. The hopeful progress of the Cuban revolution of 1868-78 had stimulated their friends in the United States to aid the insurgents in every way possible, by money, men and the munitions of war. Filibustering was constant and scarcely discouraged by the people of the United States, in spite of the protest of Spain. It was as a result of this condition that the terrible affair of the Virginius occurred. The case of the Virginius had in it elements of tragedy that made it more spectacular and dramatic than that of the Maine, and American spirit was worked to an even higher tension than it is now, before diplomacy and caution averted a war between the United States and Spain. In the case of the Virginius the facts of Spanish aggression were in no way denied, but, on the contrary, avowed for a time with pride, until the authorities at Madrid subdued their people, who were making a settlement more difficult by their talk. The only controversy was as to whether or not Spain's action in the matter was within its rights. But the settlement, however it might have left the rights of the vessel still unsolved, was a rebuke to Spain, and for its execution of American citizens with scarcely a formality of law Spain has never been forgiven by those who remember it, whatever diplomacy decided as to being satisfied. The Virginius was originally an English-built sidewheel steamer called the Virgin, and during the war between the States was one of the most famous of blockade runners until captured by a vessel of the United States. In 1870 she was sold in Washington to an agent of the Cuban Junta at New York, her name was changed to Virginius, and she cleared for Curacoa in the West Indies. From that time till her unhappy fate she was never in United States waters. At Aspinwall and in the ports of Venezuela and the West Indies she was known for three years as the most daring and the most successful of filibusters, making repeated landings on the Cuban coast with supplies of arms, ammunition, food and clothes for the insurgents who were then fighting the Ten-Years' war. In all her filibustering it was claimed, however, that the Virginius never lost her character as an American ship, though the Cuban flag was kept at the masthead whenever that practice served any good purpose.