Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1898-07-29
Tie BOYS N TIE TRENCHES,
Scenes aud Incidents Among the Troops
at Santiago do Cuba.
pISGISTED WITH CUBANS-IT rs
COMMON TALK AMONG THE VOL
UNTEERS THAT THE INSUR-
GENTS NEED A THRASH1NG-A
GROWING ANTAGONTsM THAT
WILL HAVE POLITICAL CONsE-
OIJENCES.


Before Santiago de Cuba, July To-
The American soldiers encamped on
the hillsides that fall away from our
entertainments have been waiting day
after day for the result of the COM
bined truces and conferences between
Spain and the United States to be made
known. They learned yesterday that
Santiago had capitulated. This news
was sent along the lines from right
and left from General Wheeler's head
quarters by Col. John Jacob Aston, and
with it went instructions that our boys
were to make no demonstrations OF JOY,
in order that the feelings OF the span
iards in the trenches few hundred
yards away would not be hurt by the
echCcing Of victorious cheers. SO the
news was received very quietly. There
was however, some cheering among
the crowded tents when our men
learned that the object of three weeks
fighting hunger and hardship had been
attained.
During the afternoon men climbed to
the trenches to look again at the city
they had taken but were not allowed
to enter, and some were glad for peace
and others called for more fighting.
The strain OF the watching and wait
ing was removed, and soldering re-
solved itself into getting as comforta-
bly, fixed in the camp as the mud
would permit.
At sunset yesterday as the regiment
al band all along the line played ma
ticnal airs, as is the camp custom, and
as tired soldier hummed the words
of the Star Spangled Banner" to the
bands time, he chanted, the victory he
had not been permitted to cheer.
THE HAToDSIIPS
CT this campaign, let alone the fighting
that scattered the graves of comrades
side by side, the tents of the living
have been splen,.idly sustained by our
men. Now that the heavy rains of the
hrst of this week have ceased. condi-
tions are better, but rain clouds cover
the sky every day and any hour may
see knee-deep rivers sweeping through
ciunps of tents, and it may be next to
Impossible to start fires to cook food.
Then, food has been scarce. The
roads from here to Sibcney have been
Almost impossible during the rains, at
all times they have been rough and
teaming has been heavy. When men
put up with three pieces Of hard tack
and half cup of coffee a day. the
question of nutriment is Serious and
when unseasbned soldiers go seventy
two hours without sleep, it can be
truly said they endure hardship. But
they have borne it all with fine ccur-
age and a good nature that was never
long absent.
With the courage and determination
of our men one notes the excellent
physical condition of our mules and
horses after three weeks of the heavi-
est kind CT incessant labor. All day
long and far into the night pack
trains and provision wagons tell up to
the front, and Red Cross ambulances
bring back the sick and wounded
Poor Cuban women, foot-sore, starry
ed and weary, drag themselves along
the muddy roads from Caney In
search for food and our men and ambu-
1ances pick them UP and succor them.
At Ell Caney the food Is insufficient.
Weak women and children get none,
and starvation there is growing rap
idly.
A Cuban woman from Ell Caney stag
gered into camp this morning. She
was pale and pinched and the ragged
silk dress that half covered her atten-
uated body
SPOKE OF PAST LUXURY
and refinement more than did her fea-
lures and her despair and utter ex-
haustion. She did not ask for food,
but work She washed clothes from
the hospital for half day in return
for food, and sat down to the welcome
ILL., ioiC VIII DISGuluS lTOIu
the unaccustomed labor. At dusk she
turned YEARLY back toward Ell Caney,
six miles away, the richer by one
meal.
The camps up to this day have been
pitched where bad conditions existed.
and their locations have seldom been
good from the point Of comfort and
health. Now that the game is over.
our soldiers will be moved into loca-
lions where these points are consid-
cred. The country affords good sites,
and when once the evacuation condi-
tioDs are settled and the capitulation
properly confirmed changes will be
made. s.:
An unsettled feeling pervades the
line, and men gather together per-
sonal belongings and are looking over
old battlefields for mementoes of the
three days fight and the ten days
weary waiting.
A farmers boy from Michigan will
secure the horn-handied pocket knife
of dead peasant from the Asturias as
souvenir to the American lad of the
days he fought to free Cuba.
And If the Michigan man ever grew
enthusiastic and generous back in
michigan over the idea of fighting to
help the struggling Cubans gain the
same liberty from Spain that his fore