The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-06-12

The Patriots Find Rations Under
The Greenwood Tree.
After Camp IS Pitched The Men
Forage IA The Forest

Ohe OF tue most disappointed men
In town is captain Bueneo Of the Cuban
army. The captain, who is a member
Of the largest banking house in San
Diego, Cuba, came to New York last
July on n special mission. Ho soon
finished bis business, and has been
trying ever since TO get back to fight
with his company. Twice he has at
tempted to get away, once, it is said,
on the Hawkins and again on the Bor-
muda.
81 was al through with my busi-
ness on July 30" said the captain,
''and here am still. Every time I've
tried TO get away something has hap
pencd. II the people in charge of the
Bermuda had labeIe their boxes the
government would not have stopped
the steamer and should be back with
my friends by this time, with a chance
to help them. Here I can do nothing.
an useless
"Look at colonel Perez there. He
and 1 began together We we're old
schoolmates, you know. He stayed
and fought and now he is a colonel,
II could have got back, I'd be a
colonel too, or dead. Oh, we'll, the
rainy season is coming on and after
that che fever That will make the
Spaniards sick. In the last war thir-
ty-eight percent of them died Of fever
to say nothing of those VIC put out
Of the way with our machetes aud bull
lets.
"Of course they cannot ride at all.
Perez has told you about that, but we
can outmarch them, too. One night,
about a year ago, we broke camp and
started to meet Maceo and Marti.
We knew that they were to land about
forty leagues away. By noon the next
day we had marched eighteen leagues
but we were not too tired to attack a
Spanish column that came down on
our flank, little to the rear. We
had lively fight until five o'clock
when Maceo and Marti came up. Then
together we drove the enemy out Of
sight.
1--WE ought to have been pretty
fired by that time. Don't you think
so? Well, we were not very fresh,
but orders were given to return by
the route we came and, hunting up
something to eat from what the Span
iards had abandoned in their flight,
we marched back the whole eighteen
leagues, reaching our starting place
the next afternoon. You won't find
any Spaniards to do that. We couldn't
if we weren't used to the food and to
the climate and hadn't lived out OF
doors all our lives.
"Another thing in our favor, espe.
cially in the billy country, where the
woods are dense, is that we know
what plants and roots are good for
food and what poisonous. Almost
anywhere in Cuba there is enough
stuff growing wild to keep any man
alive, if he knows how to get it. We
do; so we can go about without 6
commissary department. When We
halt for breakfast or supper, there il
bugle call as a signal to prepare tc
hunt-get our sacks ready, etc. Their
n second call, meaning dispense to the
woods. In a half-hour, perhaps, you
will see oil the men back in camp eacl
with some fruit or vegetable that b,
has plucked or dug out of the ground
We eat those things and they agre,
with us. If the Spanish eat then
much they have pain in the stom
ach.
"All we need to drive the Span
iards out is supplies. We've NOR,
men than we can arm. So it is ne
usa for anyone to come to us looking
for a job, unless he knows something
about artillery. Then we might us
} him, but do not know certainly. -
New York Press.