Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1898-07-23
HUNGRY REFUGEES
RETURNING HOME
View the Ruins of Their Homes
With Equinimity but All
Want Food.
ARE ALL IN WRETCHED CONDITION
] oral Appears to Be Utterly Heart
Broken Over His
Defeat.
ARE ALL IN WRETCHED CONDITION
HE COMPLAINS OF HIS FATE
Had No Complaint Against His
E~nemies---His Generals Were
All Killed or Wounded
Before Santiago.

SanllaBo, July l9.-kIopyrlBIed
1898, 10y the Associated Press Since
{ o'clock yesterday morning n stream
IF refugees has been pouring into the
| .ity, some naked and all hungry and
loot sore. Many had fallen by the way
side.
The town Of Santiago presents a dis
NAL sight. Most of the houses have
been sacked and the stores have all
been looted, and nothing to eat can be
had for love or money. On the streets
yesterday, at the entertainments, at the
breastworks and at every hundred feet
Or so of the barbed wire fences, were
the living skeletons of Spanish sol
liers.
Among the arrivals were the Ger
man, japanese and Portuguese c~onsuls
and their families, the British and
French consuls having arrived day be-
fore yesterday.
General Pando was never here, but
$500 men from Manzanillo arrived on
July 3, making the total garrison here
1000.
The contact mines in the harbor
a, ere removed the day Admiral Ccryera
left, but two chains Of electric mines,
one from Esthclla point an the other
from Socopa are still down. The arma-
ment of the shore batteries of Santa
90 consists Of five brass G-inch muzzle
leaders i'm the Moro Notifications;
two G-inch Hontorias from the cruiser
Reina Mercedes; three 21-centimeter
mortars never used, in the Socapa bat
terry: two useless 21-centimeter NOR
tars: two S-centimctcr muzzle leaders
and four S-centimeter field pieces in the
Estrclla battery; n 57-mil,meter
and one 37-millimeter No~rdenfcldt, and
one 37-millimeter Iotchkiss in the So
capa lower battery, and two 15-ccnti-
meter mortars Mt Punta Gorda.
-Four Spanish merchant steamers,
the Mortera, the Reina de Losangles,
the Tomas Brooks and the Mexico and
the gunboat Alvarado, are now in the
harbor.
All places have been sacked by the
Spanish troops. Twenty-Five thousand
refugees are quarteyed at FL Caney;
5000 at Firmerca, and 5000 ut Qua
bitas El Donito and San Nincente,
where they have been living for a fort
nipht. In one case 500 were crowded
into one building, which was n regular
pig sty, with a horrible stencil. They
used the water from the river, where
soiled clothing was washed and all
manner Of filth is floating.
The Spanish troops will be camped
two miles outside the city limits, UNI
der guard, until their embarkation
takes place.
The docks are crowded by incoming
refugees in a starving condition; await
ing the arrival in the harbor of the
Red Cross steamer State Of Texas, as
there are no catablcs to be bought in
the city.
The entrance Of the refugees was
quiet and peaceful, they viewing their
wrecked homes philosophically as the
fortune of war. Admiral Simpsons
last bombardment of Santiago
wrecked fifty-seven houses in the city,
causing heavy damage.
ToraI Mourns His Fate.
General Toral, the white haired com
mander of the Spanish forces, APP
peared to be utterly heart broken. lie
spoke bitterly Of the fate which com
PEELED him to sue for peace, but had no
word to say against the gallant men
who had conquered his army. He de-
clarcd hat he had little chance to win.
Il would not desire to see my worst
enemy play with the cards | held" he
| said to one of the commissioners. "Ev-
cryone of my generals was killed or
1n., ,,A4 - ai,np1A nnlnYonl
left, and am surrounded by a powerful
enemy. We have counted s~iXty-sever
ships off this port. And, besides
YEARLY waving his hands toward The
city, 81 have secret troubles there"
Speaking Of the battle of June 81,
in which the rough riders and a part
of General Young's command partici-
pated, General Toral said that less
than 1000 Spanish troops were en-
gagged, his loss being 265. He would
not saw how many Spaniards were
killed at lei Caney and before Sant;-
ago. Heavy, heavy" he said defect
eddy.
In pom to an inquiry he said
that transportation would be required
for between $4,000 to $4,000 men, there
being that much of a force in the ca
pituiated district. He informed the
| officers that Santiago harbor had beer
again mined since Admiral Ceryerg
left.
General Miles remained at Juragug
during the completion of tn. arrange
ments yesterday and a report was sent
him by General Shafter in the morn
ing. "That is splendid" he said, "wo
have got everything that we came
after"
General Miles went to Guantanamo
and it is reported that he will remain
there until the Washington govern
ment definitely decides about The
Puerto Rico campaign.