Democrat; Waka
Bellefonte, Pa., July 15, 1898.
COVER THEM OVER.
Cover them over with beautiful flowers,
Deck them with garlands, those brothers of ours,
Lying so silently by night and by day,
Sleeping the years of their manhood away.
Give them the meed they have won in the past;
Give them the honors their future forecast;
Give them the chaplets they won in the strife;
Give them the laurels they lost with their life.
Cover the hearts that have beaten so high,
Beaten with hopes that were doomed but to die;
Hearts that have burned in the heat of the fray;
Hearts that have yearned for the home far away.
Once they were glowing with friendship and love,
Now their great souls have gone soaring above;
Bravely their blood to the nation they gave,
Then in her bosom they found them a grave.
Cover the thousands who sleep far away,
Sleep where their friends cannot find them to-day;
They, who in mountain and hillside and dell,
Rest where they wearied, and lie where they fell.
Softly the grass-blades creep round their repose;
Sweetly above them the wild flowret blows;
Zephyrs of freedom fly gently o’erhead,
Whispering prayers for the patriot dead.
When the long years have rolled slowly away,
E’en to the dawn of earth’s funeral day;
When at the angel's loud trumpet and tread,
Rise up the faces and forms of the dead.
When the great world its last judgment awaits;
When the blue sky shall fling open its gates,
And our long columns march silently through,
Past the Great Captain for final review.
A PROBLEM SOLVED.
‘‘Any children?’ queried Rose gently.
He had just given her the interesting in-
formation that he was a widower, although
80 young—35 at the outside.
**One,”” he admitted, and his dejected
tone seemed to imply that that one was an
unsatisfactory possession—not quite right
in its head, perhaps, or disfigured with a
harelip. ‘We had only been married a
year you know. She died when it was
born.”’
‘“Ah-h !”” breathed Rose, with soft in-
tensity. She did not like to say more, and
the womanly pity welling out to him in
his misfortune was sufficiently expressed.
Having consumed the after dinner cigarette,
indulged in at her urgent bidding, he was
at liberty to respond to it. They exhaled
their sighs together. It was, in fact, a par-
ticularly sympathetic night—mild, still,
solitary, with a beautiful moon. They sat
out in it alone, tete-a-tete, on hammock
chairs, free to sit thus till bedtime, while
their host and hostess, her uncle and aunt,
dozed over newspaper and knitting in the
drawing room behind them, the world for-
getting. by the world forgot.
“Son or daughter?’ Miss Lascelles
asked after a pause, not willing to break
the thread of such an exquisite subject.
‘‘A boy,” said Mr. Bell, still with that
unfatherly air of discontent. Sometimes
I wish it was a girl. She could look after
me by and by. I could have her trained
to be my housekeeper and sew my buttons
on—that sort of thing, you know.’’
‘You would have to wait a long time,’
said Rose. ‘‘Judging by—hy your looks,’
she turned admiring eyes upon his very
comely person, ‘‘it must be a perfect infant
at present.”
“Quite an infant—that is—let me see—
14 months and a little over. Yes, it will
be 15 months on Thursday since he was
born, and lost his mother two days after.’’
‘Poor, poor little thing!" ejaculated
Rose.
‘‘Oh,’’ laughed the young man in an
odd, mirthful way, ‘‘you needn’t waste
your pity on him, Miss Lascleles. He's
all right—rolls in fat—never ailed a thing
in his life—might take the prize in a baby
show. So they tell me. I haven’t seen
him myself for a good while.”
You haven’t?’ cried Rose, smilingly
indignant. ‘Well, you are a nice sort of
parent, I must say. Don’t you have him
with you at home, then ?”’
“I haven’t got a home. I gaveit up
when my poor girl died. What’s the use
of a home to me? Ishould never be there.
My business takes me all over the country,
and you can’t leave a house and a young
child to servants. The little time that I
did try to carry on by myself they played
the deuce with everything, child ‘and all.
One woman started feeding it- with thick
arrowroot. She’d have killed it to a cer-
tainty.”’
‘Yes, indeed. The idea! But it’s in-
credible what some fools of women will do
in the way of mismanaging a baby. I used
to see a great deal of that when I was a
district visitor.’
‘A mother of half a dozen, too,” said
Mr. Bell reflectively, lighting another
cigarette. ‘‘Then a girl who'd never had
any took to the job like a duck to water—
knew just what to do and how to do it. I
will say that for her.”’
‘The instinct isin us all,” remarked
Miss Lascelles dreamily to the man in the
moon, who seemed to survey the couple
with his tongue in his cheek, “‘or if not it
ought to be. I'm sure I could give many
a mother points, as you call it.”
‘I’ve no doubt you could. I heard
somebody say the other day that mothers
are born, not made—very true too. You
see it in the little girls nursing their dolls.
I don’t think anything of a she child that
doesn’t want a doll as soon as it can speak.’
“I always loved them,’’ declared Rose.
He leaned forward to look at a spider’s
web that the silver light had just touched,
making it shine out from its background of
dark leaves and veranda post, and there
was danger of rupture to the delicate thread
of the topic that was weaving so charming
a conversation, wherefore the young lady
hastened to inquire what had become of
his little son.
“I suppose,”’ she said, ‘‘he is with his
mother’s people ?”’
Slowly resuming his attitude of repose,
Mr. Bell puffed awhile in silence ; then
answered : ‘“No-o, not exactly. With a
friend of his mother’s, not her family. Un-
fortunately her family is in England ; so is
mine. Neither of us had a soul here be-
longing to us. That was just the diffi-
culty.”
*‘It must have been a great difficulty,”
murmured Rose in a feeling tone.
“I believe you,’’ assented Mr. Bell, with
emphasis. ‘“In fact, it put me into the
most ridiculous hole, the most confounded
fix—one that I can’t for the life of me see
my way out of, one that—However, I
mustn’t talk about it to you. It’s not a
thing that one ought to talk about to any-
body.”
And yet he yearned to talk about it now
and to this particularly sympathetic wom-
an, who was not young and giddy, but,
© like himself, far out of her teens and ex-
perienced in the troubles of life such as
weighed him down. There was ‘‘some-
thing about her,” he thought, that ir-
resistibly appealed to him, and he did not
know what ; but an author, who knows
everything, knows what it was. It was
the moonlight night.
A few words from her, backed by the
nameless influences of the hour. unloosed
his tongue.
“You mustn’t think me an unnatural
parent,”” hesaid. ‘It’s not that at all.
I'm awfully fond of him. I’ve got his
photograph in my pocket. I’ll show it to
you when we go in—the last one for the
time being. I get a new one about once a
month—a regular Mellin’s food series, in
all sorts of get up, clothes and no clothes,
butall as fat as butter and grinning from
ear to ear with the joy of life. You never
saw such a fetching little cuss. I’d give
anything to get hold of him—if I could.”
‘‘But surely—his own father’’—
‘No. It sounds absurd to you, natural-
ly’ but that’s because you don’t under-
stand the situation.”
“I can’t conceive of any situation’ —
‘Of course not. It’s a preposterous situa-
tion, and I just drifted into it, I don’t
know how—oh, Ido know! It was for
the child’s own sake. So that you really
must not call me a heartless parent any
more, Miss Lascelles. Nobody would do
that who knew what I'd suffered for him.”’
Mr. Bell took the second cigarette from his
mouth and sighed deeply. ‘‘Even in the
beginning it would have been difficult to
get out of it, having once got in,’’ he con-
tinued, after a pause, ‘‘but it has been go-
ing on so long, getting worse and worse
every day and every hoar, till now I'm
tangled up and helpless, like that moth in
that spider’s web’’—pointing to a little in-
sect tragedy going on beside them.
Miss Lascelles leaned forward, resting
her arms on her knees and spreading her
hands in the enchanting moonlight, which
made them look white as pearls and made
her rather worn face look as if finely carved
in ivory. It was a graceful, thoughtful,
confidential pose, and her eyes, uplifted,
gleamed just under his eyes, ineffably soft
and kind.
“I'm so sorry,’”’ she murmured. ‘‘Buf
if I don’t know what the trouble is--Oh,
don’t tell me if you’d rather not! I can’t
help you, can I? I do wish I could.”
‘Sodo I. But I'm afraid nobody can
help me. And yet—perhaps a fresh eye—
a woman’s clearer insight’’—He paused,
irresolute, then succumbed to temptation.
‘Look here, Miss Lascelles, I'll just tell
you how it is if you’ll promise not to speak
of it again. You are no gossip, I know—
you will understand—and it will be such a
blessed relief to tell somebody. And per-
haps you could advise me, afterall’’—
‘Let me try,’’ she broke in encouraging-
ly. For an instant her pearly hand touch-
ed his sleeve. ‘‘You may trust me,”’ she
said.
“I'm sure of it. I’m sure of it,”’ he re-
sponded warmly. He flung away the
remnant of the second cigarette, took a
moment to collect himself and plunged
headlong.
‘You see, we had nobody belonging to
us in this country. I came out to make a
living and a home for her—too crowded up
in England—and as soon as I'd got a bit of
a steady income I sent for her to join me.
Of course we had to be married from some-
where, and some kind old people that I
knew took her off the ship and looked after
her for a day or two, and we drove to
church from their house. Their daughter
acted as bridesmaid, and she and my wife
got to be great chums. She used to come
and stay with us a good deal—it was lone-
some for the poor girl in a strange land,
and me so much away—and we used to
put up with them when we went to town.
In fact, they were what you might call
bosom friends. That was just the diffi-
culty.”
‘‘You are speaking,’’ queried Rose gently,
‘‘of the person who has the baby ?’’
“Exactly. Ah, I see you begin to un-
derstand.”
“I think so,” sald Rose, with a smile
broad enough to be visible in any kind of
moonlight, ‘But what was the diffi-
culty ?"’
‘‘Well, you know, being so really fond
of her and all that—wishing to do it for
the sake of her dead friend, what could I
say? [Especially as those women were
killing the unfortunate brat between them.
She was not so very young and was evi-
dently clever at managing’’—
‘‘Yes,”’ interposed Rose, smiling still.
“And peculiarly situated for undertak-
ing the job—much as you are situated
here—living with two old folks who doted
on her and were only too pleased to let her
do whatever she liked, fond of a baby, and
in want of some object in life, and so on.
But chiefly it was for Mabel’s sake. To
see poor Mabel’s child messed and mauled
about by a set of bungling, ignorant crea-
tures, who had no interest whatever in it,
was more than she could stand, she said.
To tell the truth, Icouldn’t stand it either,
and sh> begged me to let her have it to
look after, as there was no female friend or
relative nearer to it than she was. What
could I do? She lived in a nice, healthy
spot, and there was the old mother with
her experience, and I was obliged to go
away, and—and—well, I just had to say
‘yes’ and be thankful todo it. We got
the—the doctor found a—we engaged the
sort of nurse that does everything, you
know, a fine, strapping young woman, in
the pink of condition, and away they went
to Melbourne together. And at the first
blush the worst of the trouble seemed over
instead of just beginning. I gave up my
house and stored the furniture and went
off after my necessary business, miserable
enough, as you may suppose, but at least
with an easy mind about the boy. As far
as he was concerned, as far as poor, dear
Mabel was concerned, I felt that I had
acted for the best. For the matter of that,
looking at the business from their point of
view, it appears even now that I did act
for the best. Indeed, I don’t for the life of
me understand how any man could have
acted otherwise under the circumstances.’’
The listener listening intently here puta
quiet question, ‘‘Did you pay her ?’’ which
caused the narrator to wince likea galled
horse.
‘Ah, there you hit the weak snot, Miss
Lascelles, right in the bullseye !”’ he de-
clared, sighing fuviously. ‘If I could have
paid her, of course there’d have been no
difficulty at all, but she wouldn’t be paid.’”’
‘You ought to have insisted on it,”’ said
Rose severely.
“Idid insist. I insisted all I knew, but
she said it was a labor of love for her friend
and seemed so hurt at the idea of money
being hrought into the question that I was
ashamed to press her beyond a certain
point. She let me pay for the nurse’s
board, and that’s all. The baby didn’t eat
anything, you see, any they were com-
fortably off, with lots of spare room in their
house, and I just looked on it as a sort of
temporary visit until we should be able to
turn round a bit. But’’—with another
sigh—*‘he’s there yet.”’
Miss Lascelles nodded, with an air of
utter wisdom. :
“Of course you went often to see the
child ?”?
“Whenever I was in town, and found
him always the same, so beautifully cared
for that, upon my soul, I never saw a baby
in my life so sweet and clean and whole
some looking, jolly as a little sand boy all
the time, too.”’
‘‘That means that he had a perfect con-
stitution, inherited from you evidently.
And you were fortunate in the nurse ?”’
‘Very fortunate! But it appeared that
beyond—beyond running the commissariat
department, so to speak, she did next to
nothing lor him. Miss—the lady I spoke
of--did everything, made herself a perfect
slave to him.”’
‘‘Bought his clothes 2’
‘Oh,’ groaned the wretched man, “I
suppose so! What did I know about a
baby’s clothes? And she wouldn’t answer
my questions—said he was all right and
didn’t want for anything, as I could see
with my own eyes. I tried making pres-
ents, used to send game and things, found
out her birthday and gave her a jewel, took
every chance I could get to work off the
obligation, but it was no use. She gave
me a birthday present after I'd given her
one.”’
“Well, if moths will go into spiders’
webs,” remarked his companion, ‘‘they
must take the consequences.’’
‘Sometimes they get helped out,’ he re-
plied. ‘‘Some beneficent, godlike being
puts out an omnipotent finger’’—
He looked at her and she looked at him.
At this moment they seemed to have known
one another intimately for years. The
moon again.
“Tell me everything,”’ she said, ‘‘and
I'll help you out.”
So then he told her that he had been giv-
ing up the habit of frequently visiting his
son. Cowardly and weak, he knew, but
the thing was too confoundedly awkward,
too embarrassing altogether.
‘‘But she writes. She writes a full re-
port every week, tells me what he weighs
and when he’s got a fresh tooth and how
he crawls about the carpet and into her bed
of a morning and imitates the cat mewing,
and drinks I don’t know how many pints
of new milk a day, and all that sort of
thing. I believe the rascal has the appetite
of a young tiger, and yet I can’t pay for
what he eats. The nurse was longago dis-
pensed with, so that I’ve not even her
board to send a check for, that they might
by chance make a trifle of profit out of. It
seems too late now tosimply take the child
away, and there leave it. I haven’t the
unspeakable shabbiness, the brazen im-
pudence, the mean selfishness to do such a
thing, and besides he might come to any
sort of grief, poor little chap, in that case.
There’s no doubt in the world that her tak-
ing of him and doing for him have been
the salvation of his health and perhaps his
life. And I know, by what she tells me,
that he regularly dotes on her—asso he
ought—and would howl his very head off
if we took him from her. What could I
do with him if I did take him? I've no
home, and nobody to look after it if I had,
and hired servants are the deuce with a
lone man at their mercy. It would be
worse now than it was at first. And so”’
—with a heavy sigh—‘‘you see the situa-
tion. I'm just swallowed up, body and
bones, drowned fathoms deep, in a sea of
debt and obligation that I can never by
possibility struggle out of, except’’—
He paused and blushed.
‘‘Except,’’ continued Rose, with the
candid air of a kind and sensible sister,
‘‘except by marrying her, you mean? Yes,
I.see the situation. I appreciate your point
of view. I should understand it if it were
not that she unquestionably laid the trap
for you deliberately, just as that spider laid
his for moths and flies, and marriage by
capture has gone out.”
‘Oh, don’t say that!’ the man protest-
ed in haste. ‘I would not for a moment
accuse her of that. She was Mabel’s
friend. It was for her—it was of pure
womanly compassion for the motherless
child at any rate in the beginning, and
even now I have no right whatever to sup-
pose’ —
“But you know it all the same. Every
word you have said to me tells me that you
know it. You may as well be frank.’
He squirmed a little in his chair, but
confessed as required.
“Well—but it’s a caddish thing to say—
I think she does expect it. And hasn’t she
the right to expect it? However, that’s
neither here nor there. The point is that
in common honor and honesty, in common
manliness, Ishould repay her if I can, and
there’s no other way—at least I can’t see
any other way. Itis my [lault, and not
hers, that I don’t take to the notion, for a
better woman never walked, nor one that
would make a better mother to the boy,
but somehow you do like to have your
free choice, don't you ?”’
‘And ought to have it,’’ quoth Rose
with energy, ‘‘and must have it and shall.
Now listen, Mr. Bell”’—addressing him in
such a tone of confidence and encourage-
ment that he felt sure she was going to cut
his bonds forthwith. ‘‘You have asked me
to help you, and I can help you. It will
be perfectly easy, situated as I am here.
He will not miss her after a couple of days,
and she has really no earthly right either
to him or to you, and it would give me the
greatest pleasure you can imagine. This
is what you must do.”” She leaned for-
ward in her chair and gazed earnestly into
his paling face. ‘You must just hand
that baby over to me.”’— Exchange.
What Rennet Is.
It is Prescribed by Physicians for Dyspepsia Suf-
ferers.
“It is strange, but not one person in a
hundred can tell you exactly what rennet
is,”’ said a wholesale dealer in the com-
modity to a writer for the Washington
Star. ‘‘Rennet is the glutinous membrane
covering the stomach of the calf, and its
preparation for the market requires a high
degree of skill. It is obtained first by cut-
ing away carefully the lining and soaking
it in salt and water for several days, the
water being changed every day until every
part is thoroughly cleaned. It is then
placed in a Qigh clean tub, and the whole
mass is covered with the very best cherry
wine.
This is allowed to remain on the rennet
til it becomes a thick, jelly-like substance,
which is then dissolved in alcohol and
sherry wine.
‘After being reduced sufficiently for con-
venient filtering it is passed many times—
often a score—through the filterer, and the
result is the clear and limpid preparation
of commerce known as rennet. Physi-
cians recommend rennet as being most
nutritious and beneficial for weak diges-
tion and dyspeptics. Milk thickened by
pure rennet is at once partly digested and
becomes for the sick a most invigorating
nutriment, and for the well a most deli-
cious dish.”
When Nye was Funny.
The late Bill Nye was fond of telling this
story of his smaller daughter: At a din-
ner table one day there was a party of
guests for whom Mr. Nye was doing his
best in the way of entertainment. A lady
turned to the little girl.
‘‘Your father is a very funny man,”
said she.
‘‘Yes,”” responded the child, ‘‘when we
have company.’
SIX SPANISH SHIPS DESTROYED.
CERVERA HIS OFFICERS
AND CREWS TAKEN PRISONERS.
His Dash Was Courageous But Disastrous—Taken Prisoner and is Now at Annap-
olis, Md., With Many of His Officers—His Crews are Quartered on Seavoy’s
Island. Our Loss at Santiago's Gates Heavy but the Victory was Great.
When Shafter began thundering at the
outer fortifications of Santiago de Cuba on
Friday, July 1st, he had a hard task before
him. From daybreak until 4 o’clock in
the afternoon the battle raged fiercely and
desperately. 15,000 Americans fought their
way across two and a half miles of bitterly
contested and strongly fortified country,
until they were within gun shot of the
town. The slaughter on both sides was
terrible and even now the loss is not defi-
nitely known.
The battle began just at daylight ata
point about eight miles from Juragua and
four miles northeast of the outer fortifica-
tions of Santiago. The general order for
an advance was issued by General Shafter at
dark Thursday night and by midnight every
man in the army knew thata desperate
struggle would come with the dawn.
Before the sun had risen the great line
was complete. To the extreme left was
General Duffield, with the Thirty-third
Michigan, his command having reached the
Aguadores bridge by train. Next, to the
northeast, was General Kent's division, a
mile and a half from the sea and held as a
reserve force. The centre of the line was
held by a cavalry division, which until
General Wheeler arrived at noon was com-
manded by General Sumner.
Owing to General Young’s illness Colo-
nel Woods, of the Rough Riders, com-
manded his brigade, which consisted of the
First regulars, the First volunteers and
the Tenth regulars and one battalion of the
Ninth regular cavalry, all dismounted with
the exception of two troops on the ex-
treme right under Generals Lawton and
Chafiee, fully five miles from the sea.
It had been arranged that General Duf-
field should make a feint of attacking Ag-
nadores in order to draw attention from
the main movement, and at 5 o’clock Gen-
eral Lawton’s troops moved forward, led
by a battery of the First artillery under
command of Captain Allyn Capron. Every
man in the army carried three days rations
and ammunition to match, and every one
knew that he was not expected to return
to camp until Santiago had fallen.
The first shot was fired from the battery
at 6:40 by Captain Capron, whose son,
Captain Allyn K. Capron, of the
Rough Riders, was killed in the battle at
Sevilla. The shot was directed at Caney
where the Spaniards were in force, and it
fell in the heart of the town. The firing
continued 20 minutes without response.
Meantime the cavalry division had
moved forward on the main Santiago trail,
headed by a light battery of the Second ar-
tillery under Captain Grimes. The move-
ment of this battery was a heart breaking
task, owing to the mud in the valley and
a steep hill. Under the musketry fire of
the cavalrymen the Spaniards in the little
town of El Paso retreated, and Captain
Grimes’ battery took up a position there
and began a rapid firing into Caney.
The guns of the two batteries made the
place so hot that the enemy finally retired,
baving no artillery. The town was sur-
rounded by rough earthworks and lines of
barbed wire.
After the enemy had been driven from
El Paso 21 shots were fired by Captain
Grimes and Captain Capron from that posi-
tion into the outer fortifications of Santiago
before a response came. When it did come
however, it came with unexpected ac-
curacy, the shots being from three-inch and
five-inch rapid fire rifles, evidently taken
from Admiral Cervera’s warships and
mounted behind the fortifications. The
Spanish gunners raked the hill on which
El Paso stands, and which meantime has
been made the headquarters of General
Sumner and the Cuban generals, Garcia,
Castillo, Capote and Rabi. One shell
struck a large sugar storehouse, on the red,
corrugated roof of which stood 10 Cubans
viewing the fight. The roof fell, and all
the Cubans were wounded and three of
them will die.
A detachment of 200 Cubans went forward
from El Paso, and then Colonel Wood,
with the Rough Riders and the First and
Tenth cavalry started down the hillside
straight for the enemy's fortifications.
Captain Grimes’ battery poured a steady
fire into the Spaniards to protect Colonel
Wood’s advance. s
The dismounted cavalry paused on its
way through the tangled grass and under-
brush and half way down the hillside se-
lected a good spot to halt, and from there
opened and maintained for 20 minutes a
hot fire. The opposing batteries banged
away, Captain Grimes sending a storm of
nd | held him, he made a bold dash from the
the Spaniards pounding away at the hill- |
lead down into the outer fortifications, and
top with vicious persistency.
Most of the Spanish shells went over the
hilltops and fell in a ravine beyond. Here
several detachments of Cuban troops were
stationed as reserves, and before they could
be moved seven insurgents were seriously
wounded and several slightly hurt. At
the same time two Americans were killed
and nine were wounded. The Spaniards
used smokeless powder and shot, with
much more accuracy than during the pre-
vious engagement. The wonder is that
many more lives were not lost, as the oppo-
sition batteries were less than two miles
apart.
FColonel Wood’s command behaved with
great bravery, firing steady and deadly vol-
leys, with the enemy’s shell screeching and
bursting over their heads. Twenty min-
utes of fearfully hot work silenced the
Spanish batteries.
Away to the left General Lawton’s di-
vision, with Chaffee’s men and Capron’s
battery, was meantime fighting fiercely
with the enemy entrenched in and about
Caney. The Spaniards contested every inch
of ground bitterly and fought with unex-
pected coolness and courage, but the irre-
sistible onward movement of the Americans
slowly forced them back upon and beyond
Caney.
About 11 o’clock the terrible fire from
Captain Capron’s guns and the muskets of
the men broke the Spanish line and a re-
treat began toward the line of outer fortifi-
cations. The enemy took the trail known
as the main Santiago road, and Captain
Grimes’ battery immediately began pitch-
ing shells in ahead of the retreating men,
while a detachment of 2,000 Cubans, head-
ed by Garcia, were started to cut off the
retreat.
General Sumner had commanded the
center, owing to General Wheeler’s illness,
but about 11:30 o’clock General Wheeler
started on the two-mile journey to the
front in an ambulance. About half way to
the front he met a number of litters bear-
ing wounded. The veteran, under protest
of the surgeons, immediately ordered his
horse, and after personally assisting the
wounded into the ambulance, mounted and
rode onward. The men burst into frantic
cheers which followed the general all along
the line. By noon, although still very ill,
General Wheeler had established headquar-
ters at the extreme front and center of the
line.
The hardest, fighting of the day was on
the right flank. The advance there was
more rapid than at other points on the line,
and General Chaffee’s brigade was the first
to cross the little San Juan river, close to
the line of outer fortifications.
At 2 o'clock Caney had not been entered
by the American troops, but they had
pushed on past it, and it was theirs at any
time they chose to march into it. At that
hour General Shafter, whose headquarters
for the day had been three miles to the
rear, went forward to assume personal com-
mand of the operations.
The only movement of the day which
did not meet with success was General
Wauffield’s attempt to occupy the sea village
df Aguadores. The New York, Suwanee
and Gloucester shelled the old forts and
the rifle pits during the forenoon, drove all
the Spaniards from the vicinity and bowled
over the parapet from which flew the Span-
ish flag, but owing to the broken railroad
bridge General Duffield’s troops were un-
able to get across the river which separated
them from the little town, and were com-
pelled to go hack to Juragua.
The Cubans behaved with skill and valor
and rendzred valuable aid. General Garcia
and the other Cuban generals led the troops
in person, and showed great coolness in
tight places.
The Spanish fought stubbornly through-
out, and the retreat, though steady, was
slowly and coolly conducted. They con-
tested every inch of the way and fought
with unexpected skill, their officers hand-
ling the troops with bravery and good
judgment. As in all their fighting so far,
however, they did most of their work under
cover, rarely showing themselves in large
bodies in the open.
Friday’s battle gave us San Juan Heights
overlooking the city and one of the strong-
est Spanish out posts but Shafter was
obliged to stop for reinforcements and tele-
graphed to Washington for aid and a fully
equipped hospital ship at once.
OUR LOSS.
At the storming of the fortifications of
Santiago was terrible. One thousand and
fifty two wounded ones were treated at the
hospital at Sibony where several hundred
are still patients. In Tawton’s division
there were killed, 4 officers, 74 men;
wounded, 14 officers, 317 men ; missing, 1
man. In Kent’s division, killed 12 officers
87 men ; wounded 36 officers ; 562 men ;
missing, 62 men. In Bates’ brigade, kill-
ed, 4 men ; wounded, 2 officers, 26 men ;
missing, 5men. In signal corps, killed, 1
man ; wounded, 1.
After the terrible fighting and loss Gen-
eral Shafter decided his men must rest and
wait reinforcements before attempting to
take the city and on Friday night our
troops bivouacked on the grounds they had
fought so valiantly for. No fires were
lighted, but the moonlight streamed softly
down upon the scene of the day’s carnage.
The men, most of whom had not touched
food during the day, ate hardtack and raw
bacon from their knapsacks, and without
blankets or shelter, threw themselves upon
the bare ground and slept. During the
night fresh ammunition and food were
brought up and distributed ; but none of
dead was carried off the field and the re-
mains of many, lying in dense undergrowth
along the line of the advance, will perhaps
never he found, save by the buzzards.
SUNDAY’S WORK.
On Sunday morning Admiral Cervera’s
fleet consisting of the armored cruisers Cris-
tobal Colon, Almirante Oquendo, Infanta
Maria Teresa and Vizcaya, and two torpedo
boat destroyers, the Furor and the Pluton,
which had been held in the harbor of San-
tiago since May 19th by the combined
squadrons of Rear Admiral Sampson and
Commodore Schley, were completely de-
stroyed by shells from the American war
ships and to-day lies at the bottom of the
Carribbean Sea off the southern coast of
Cuba. Admiral Cervera made as gallant a
dash for liberty and for the preservation of
ships as has ever occurred in the history
of naval warfare.
Iu the face of overwhelming odds, with
nothing before him but inevitable destruc-
tion or surrender if he remained any long-
er in the trap in which the American fleet
harbor at the time the Americans least ex-
pected him to do so, and fighting every
inch of the way, even when his ships were
ablaze and sinking, he tried to escape the
doom which was written on the muzzle of
every American gun trained upon his ves-
sels. The American victory was complete
and according to the best information we
had only one man killed and two ships,
the Iowa and the Indiana, disabled.
THE EXODUS FROM SANTIAGO.
Through fear of the approaching battle
fully 25,000 women, children and non-com-
batants were hurried from the city on
Tuesday and Wednesday. Thousands took
refuge in the American camps and all told
tales of horrible suffering from starvation
and disease within the city. Lieutenant
Hobson and his men, as prisoners of war,
were exchanged and landed safely in Sibo-
ney on Thursday, July 7th.
THE BOMBARDMENT POSTPONED.
In order to allow Linares, tue Spanish
general, to cable to his home government
as to surrendering the bombardment of the
city proper was not to have begun until
Saturday at noon. All arrangements were
made for Sampson to shell the forts at the
mouth of the harbor while Shafter had the
land forces but just about the time for ac-
tion a little group of Spanish officers, un-
der a flag of truce came out from the yel-
low wall of the besieged city and slowly
made its way toward the American line.
A detail was sent to meet them and they
were escorted to comfortable quarters,
while a letter from General Toral was car-
ried to General Shafter’s tent, two miles
from the front. The letter was couched
in the icily courteous terms characteristic
of such communications and was as brief
as possible. It bore the signature of Gen-
eral Toral, who commands at Santiago
since General Linares was wounded, and
stated thot he was prepared to surrender
the city provided his army would be per-
mitted to capitulate ‘‘without honor.”
This, he explained, meant that the Spanish
forces should be unmolested and go in any
direction they wished, with arms and fly-
ing their colors.
The letter concluded with the bold state-
ment that surrender under any other terms
was an impossibility and would not be
considered.
General Shafter’ immediately cabled the
facts to Washington and sent to General
Toral a refusal of his proposition, but he
added that he would communicate with
his government and would extend the in-
formal armistice until Sunday at noon.
Another Great Naval Victory.
Spain’s Best Squadron Reduced to Scrap Iron and
Blackened Hulks.— Admiral Cervera and 1,500
Spanish Officers and Marines Prisoners—About
200 Killed and Drowned—Only One American Life
Lost—The Dons Suffer One of the Most Disastrous
Defeats in the History of Naval Warfare—The
Battle of Manila Bay Duplicated Off the Cuban
Coast at Santiago.
An attempt was made on Sunday July
3rd by Admiral Cervera’s squadron to dash
out of Santiago harbor and escape. It
emerged but what happened to it is thus
told in a dispatch from Admiral Sampson
to the navy department in Washington.
: ‘‘SIBONEY, July 3, 1898.
“To the Secretary of the Navy :
‘‘Playa, via Haiti, 3:15 a. m., July 4th,
Siboney, 3rd.—To the Secretary of the
Navy : The fleet under my command of-
fers to the nation as a Fourth of July
present the destruction of the whole of
Cervera’s fleet. Not one ship escaped.
The fleet attempted to escape at 9:30 a. m.,
and at 2 p. m. the last ship, the Cristobal
Colon, had run ashore 60 miles west of
Santiago and had let down her colors. The
Infanta Maria Teresa, Almirante Oquendo
and Vizcaya were forced ashore, burned
and blown up within 20 miles of Santiago.
The Furor and Pluton were destroyed
within four miles of the port. Loss, one
killed and two wounded. Enemy’s loss
probably several hundred from gunfire,
explosion and drowning. About 1,300
prisoners, including Admiral Cervera. The
man killed was Geo. H. Ellis, chief yoeman
of the cruiser Brooklyn.’
The following additional information,
regarding the destruction of the Spanish
fleet was received by the navy department
from Admiral Watson, on Monday night:
“PLAYA DEL ESTE, July 3.
‘‘At 9:30 a. m. today the Spanish squad-
ron, seven in all, including one gun boat,
came out of Santiago in column and was
totally destroyed within an hour excepting
Cristobal Colon, which was chased 45 miles
to the westward by the commander-in-
chief, Brooklyn, Oregon and Texas, sur-
rendering to Brooklyn, but was heached to
prevent sinking. None of our officers or
men were injured except on hoard Brook-
lyn- Chief Yeoman Ellis was killed and
one man wounded. Admiral Cervera, all
commanding officers, excepting Oquendo,
about 70 other officers and 1,600 men are
prisoners. About 350 killed or drowned
and 160 wounded, latter being cared for on
Solace and Olivette. Have just arrived off
Santiago in Marblehead to take charge
while commander-in-chief is looking out
for Cristobal Colon.’’
As soon as the Spanish fleet emerged
from the harbor it was seen by the Ameri-
cans. The latter immediately started a
terrific fire on the flying Spaniards. The
latter steamed westward along the shore
line and returned the fire as best they
could. Shot after shot was poured into
the hulls of the Spanish vessels from the
American guns, tearing great holes in their
sides and scattering the decks of the
enemy’s ships with dead and wounded.
One after another of the Spanish ships be-
gan to sink and burn, and the explosions
on board added to the terror of the situa
tion. Instead of indicating a desire to
surrender, however, they turned their
vessels toward the shore about one mile
away.
Such of the Spaniards on hoard as could
do so made their way to the beach and
others were assisted by American vessels.
There the enemy threw themselved on the
mercy of their captors. No other course
was left them as bands of Cubans were in
the brush on the hillsides not far away
ready to rush down on them and plunder
and butcher them in their defenseless con-
dition. All the prisoners, including Ad-
miral Cervera, were taken on hoard
American vessels and courteously treated.
The wounded were likewise provided for.
Only two of the American vessels were
injured during the engagement, and, as
already stated, only one American was
killed.
Sampson’s Bulky Report.
It is said that Admiral Sampson’s report
to the navy department of the destruction
of Cervera’s fleet is about 12,000 words.
Ensign Palmer, who is carrying the docu-
ment, arrived at Portsmonth, N. H., on
the St. Louis Sunday and immediately left
for Washington.
Naval Nomenclature.
The animal world has been extensively
drawn upon to furnish names for various
things on shipboard. Such, for example,
are : ‘Flemish horse,’’ a short foot-rope
under the yard arms; ‘‘lizard,’’ a short
rope with a ring in the end for use in
“tripping’’ one of the lighter yards ;
‘hounds, ’’ a part of the mast ; ‘‘bull-rope,”’
a rope used in hauling small spars into the
rigging ; ‘‘cat-head,’ a protuberance from
the bow to which the anchor is hauled up ;
‘‘cat,’’ the tackle used to haul the anchor
to the cat-head ; ‘‘fish,”’ another tackle
used in securing the anchor ; the ‘‘leech,”’
is the side of a square sail ; ‘‘dolphin-
striker,’’ a short spar perpendicular to and
under the bow-sprit ; ‘‘dog’s ear,’’ a piece
of sail projecting when sails are furled ;.
‘‘snake,’’ to join two ropes by zigzagging a
smaller rope between them ; a ‘‘jackass is
a big stuffed ball used to plug up holes to
keep the water out. — Harper's Round
Table.
——Dr. J. T. Rothrock, forestry com-
missioner, has purchased at county treas-
urer’s sale, on behalf of the state, 15,088
acres of unseated lands in Clinton county,
for the purpose of creating and maintain-
ing a forestry reservation. The lands are
located in the townships of Beech Creek,
Chapman, Girgan and East Keating.
——One of the strangest streams in the
world is in East Africa. It flows in the
direction of the sea, but never reaches it.
Just north of the equator, and when only
a few miles from the Indian Ocean, it flows
into a dessert, where it suddenly and com-
pletely disappears.
——The unexpected never happens ;
there are always people around who knew
things would turn out that way.
——The beatitudes are the rules for
everyday living, and for the humblest as
well as the highest occupations.
——Subscribe for the WATCHMAN.