The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-08-14
OPERA BOUFFE WARFARE.
a BATTLE IN ONE OF THE SPANISH
AMERICAN REVOLUTIONS.
The FiEhtins Suspended In Order to ALLOW

was being discussed. when an American cleo
trical engineer said;
1T is a way the people Of Spanish blood seen
to have wherever they have any fighting to do
Some OF the things / have witnessed in revolu
tions down in Central and South America arr
funnier than any opera boufre you ever saw.
myself once stopped a battle.
II had barely arrived in a certain republic
when they started a revolution. 1 had al
electric light plant to look after there. For 9
while everything In our town went on swim.
minRly. and my wife and 1 established our.
selves In a house on the outskirts Of the place
You know you can't live comfortably in those
South American cities-ln the actual heat of the
city, l mean. The houses are all built close UT
against one another. with q courtyard called q
patio In the centre. and they are rarely more
than one story high. The consequence is you
have two windows, perhaps. or sometimes only
one, opening on the street, and the other
rooms all open on this patio. so that you
can't ~ventllate them. As often as not the only
inlet into the room is q door opening on the
patio. which is all that gives you both light and
air. and you may fancy what that means in a
tropical heat. But that's O depression.
A / said, we we're established in a detached
house on the outskirts Of the city. and every
thing went smoothly for a time. Then news
began to spread OF fighting closer and closer
to us. until at last the revolutionists blew up a
bridge on the railroad some twenty miles from
the city. Then we knew they were really near.
and the Government forces in the city began
to prepare to fight them, and started intrench-
ing the central plaza. Incidentally they APP
propriated all the railroad ties and rails they
could lay their hands on; they cut the rails
into six-foot lengths and drove them into
the ground. and piled the ties edGewise
against them. That was what their bar
ricades consisted OF. with a little three or
four foot brass cannon loaded with bolts. nails
chunks OF iron. &C., poking its lose out of the
middle Of them. In spite OF all the excitement
l used to go up to my office In the city every
day. had a special permit to pass the barri-
cades. The only Objectionable thing to a free
and independent citizen was that the troops
had all been concentrated in the centre of the
city; stores. clubs, &c. had been annexed for
temporary barracks. and you couldn't walk
twenty yards along the streets without being
halted by a yell of a la otra acera'
ITO the sidewalk across the street, from
a ragged sentry pacing up and down
before these extemporized quarters. Con-
~sequently you would walk twenty yards down
a street on one side. and then be peremptorily
ordered to the other, and when you had gone
twenty yards further you would be sent across
again and 80 on. l imagine they thought one
might dynamite the barracks or commit some
other outrage II he we're allowed to walk along
past the walls. The ~sentries meant business,
too, for they would bring their rifles to their
right away. and they were Just in n
nasty enough humor to use them If you went
on regardless. or course, il you had been a
hundred yards away you could have laughed at
them. but at ten even they might possibly have
potted you.
Well. things went on like this for a week or
more, and then my servants at home used to
bring in yarns to frighten my wife. Talk
about the yellow journals here and their fake
Why. they Just aren't in it with the
South Americansl And 80 l would barely be
up in my Office and settled down to work when
my wife would ring me up by telephone what
would benighted New Workers think of a tele-
phone at $1.50 a month y and tell me the
had arrived. They were ex-
pected. and finally did come in on the quarter
of the city where my house was. or course, /
would close up my Office and rush Off home
to see that everything was ali right there,
it was all a false alarm. So, at last /
got into the way of waiting a little to see il
got to work when the telephone rang as usual,
and my wife told me the cook-I think it was
were in the railroad station, which was about n
quarter of a mile from my house. / replied that
she needn't M worry , herself, as the rnevolutionists
SAN Noo ava W VEGA. 1lONtNcT, llNe
minutes afterWard the manager of the railroad
rang me up, telling me it really was true this
time. and that there were about 800 men in the
station. So l shut up and hurried home.
When got e the plaza found a troop of
6overn n soldiers beaded BY their Colonel
q good little chap and a great friend OF mine
Just about to start off and meet the Insurgents.
| thought could not do better. as they had TO
road station. which was also the way TO my
house. than to Jack myself, on to them. 30 wo
started of past the barbados. flags flying and
trqmpets blowing. AS we reached each small
SIDE street ten or q dozen Of the command
H T9n mdr bolt n VIZ last a fash @s rs HR the street tPs ito to b be = seen hHI
from which we could catch an occasional CLINT
OF arms away among the trees in the distant
first Of all because their odd, rusty;
and. secondly, because the weapons s" were at most.
ly pointed at the sky. My little Colonel-he was
only about l9 or 20 years, old at the outside
grabbed a Remington from the hands of a
colder. and, advancing, about ten yards in
with the rifle sights raised for 200 yardsi. and
fired. He repeated this several times; he said
popping from the trees in the distance and de saw
punss Of smoke; but must confess no bullets
Look here! Couldn't You lust stop this
street q hundred yards down in front there?
I ~ 4 can nv ge hn along e. a thd ttnudrp1 down there | can
my uOuSe ny Jne pdcR- way. ana as / am
rather anxious to reach It l wish you'd stop
hiring until | can get out of the way
II said he was entirely at my orders, and
would be delighted TO ,oblige me-. so they
boGwSn my side street and the battle went
were one killed and two wounded. Arriving at
house without any further incident, l found
quiet. except that all my native SER
"a were suffering from q bad attack Of scare:
the railroad, which was only a stones throw
away. to discuss the situation with him, As
which looked out upon the avenue from the
to the railroad station. the revolutionists
were we're stFagSlinG slowly along and we heard oc-
the city. Native families who lived In
ne nelghborhood were besieGing the house,
begging to be allowed to store their Valuabies
here. on the principle, suppose-for they
from my friends
In q way II was rather an anxious time. for
We couldn't tell how many LIQUOR stores the
. .6e Gan had Looted 10 or whether they were under
Eyer 3ye matter matters | returned to my house, and. as /
aSer Iho oJdc Ihat my LTlena the railroad man
house. ], promptly ran up mine too I f66umnud5
nv garrison had haan a ~ IN nntnI ,Dkn, T