The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-08-17
SANTIAGO AFTER TAKING
HOW THE CUBAN CITY OPENED TO
RECEIVE AMERICAN MONEY.
ShOpkeepers, Finding Themselves
Not Looted. Turned LoOters-Admit-
ted Our Men and Cheated Them.
Santiago Letter in New York Commercial
Il ....4i c-cr

Santiago so far remains decorous scene
of a first colonial experiment. Looting and
the tho atrical scenes of conquest that at
tended older wars are not here. The town is
as quiet as New York on Sunday after
noon out of the season. At first the shops
opened their shutters tentatively half way
before they could be sure their tills were
not. one and all. to be pilfered. The Cafe
Venus admitted visitors only after mys-
ferrous pounding at the entresol before GUS
tom flowed more freely, and customers, be-
ing Americans hungry and ragged, were
found amenabe to any price. For nation
Of Yankee shopkeepers, the Yankees in San
tiago have done very we'll. They have let
the unblushing Spanish shopkeepers cheat
them to the top Of their bent. 1t took the
Spanish shopkeeper but day to realize
this. Women and childrea in the back
ground, adding to the towns queer, de-
serted look, attested the inhabitants uncer-
tainty. Yet the situation was character
istic enough of Uncle Sam, who, instead
of looting, kept his hands In his pockets
and let himself be looted. Loot may not
be the Spanish word for translating pesos
by dollars and charging accordingly. but it
is perhaps, polite enough
After awhile the streets grew more con-
fident Women. some of them in freshly
laundered dresses, priests carrying great
sun umbrellas, were seen going about their
errands. Shutters came down from shop
and dwelling in greater numbers. The Cafe
Venus. in the plaza, opened it's lower doors
at last, and allowed noncommissioned Off
GERS and enlisted men to drink at the tin
tables. Before. only officers had been adj
mitted to the salon upstairs. Everything
was still very quiet, partly no doubt, be-
Ninth Infantry, had been admitted to the
joys of the conquered town, and the Span
5T r THey were stI 9ncertan prob
ably, whether they should be believed when
they declared themselves, as they, did when
ever the question was put officially, as Gu
ban sympathiZers. There were also many
refugees who had not, returned and the
Spanish soldiers, mostly, were not in the
streets The liveliest scenes were along the
wharves, where Colonel Humphrey and Col.
Weston were happy at last unloading trans
lent beach at Siboney. Cuban labor was
supposed to be doing most of the work.
Cubans also were swarming about the State
of Texas, which, as all the world now
knows, rolled into Santiago harbor the first
of all the American ships. Miss Barton. in
a flash SIX apron, with little MOVERS en-
broidered on it, was directing the discharge
of her cargo at last. On the hill at the
pital, that could so plainly be seen on the
day of the fight, covered with Red Cross
flags, Spanish officers and men were busy
tation. Horses gathered before the doors
and also at the palace in the plaza, where
the me a we're
still in their shelter tents on the hills, liv-
ing, many of them, on hard tack and sow
belly" General Shafter rode in from his
headquarters outside the town and did bust
ness for few hours every day in the pal
ace, too.
HOW THE TOWN LOOKED.
Santiago had the appearance of a town
stunned and just gathering itself together
to see if it was hurt A shabby, provincial,
dilapidated little Spanish town, interesting
to the tourist enormously at such time,
but telling such a tale, too, of Incidence
and ineptitude in its 400 years. Gas, cleo
trio lights, ice, mere evidence of civilized
comfort that struck one as great luxures
after the hard life of camp. But when one
thought how little this second oldest town
in Cuba had grown or been ambitious in
its long life, one welcomed the Anglo-Saxon
regime that was to do 1t over The town
s!ouches down from a high plaza the
are. The streets are at right angles most
ly but so narrow and uneven of surface
that they have the effect of great irregu-
larity. The main buildings are a few
churches the cathedral, with its plaster
echoes of Toledo and Seville; the arch
bishops palace, lmposingly placed on hlgn
ground, and, true to the countrymen of
Calderon-the theater. Here in accordance
with the precautions of putting the men
only in buildings that have not been slept
in, the Ninth Infantry are quarterec. FROM
the veranda of the Anglo-American Club,
opposite Gale Baja de San Juan, they can
be seen lounging in the red and white prop
erty thrones, or cooking their beans on the
rough pavements outside the stage en-
trance. The most notable shops are the
BARRIERS shops, true to the traditions of the
immortal barbiere, and the chemist shops.
Each of these sort of shops makes some
considerable display. Even the lesser bar
bers have some shift at decoration. and
their shops were plainly social gathering
places for their clientage, as in the old
way from which northern BARRIERS have
with so much snubbing been educated. In
Gre establishment near the palace you
might any day see half a dozen American
officers being scraped and latherer by these
Figaros whose ignorance of English was
ali that kept them from being sociable.
The chemists shops, the hurnblest OF them,
had their colored vases posed on the coun-
ters, and scrupulous-looking scales set Tor
mally between them, one shop IN the Cai ne
Imitation of old oak paneling, dreary hall
in which the gray-haired proprietor was a
lonely though patient host. Clothing and
ha berdashers and tobacconists' shops were
fairly stocked. Cafes and bakeries were
quite deficient. In most only a few strips
of coarse fried porridge were TO pe nau,
with an occasional moldy cooky. with the
incoming of the Americans, of course, came
greater plenty and circulation. NEGROES
of guava jelly, and others of substance
that looked like muddy chocolate, which
they sold to the laDOrerS 5dlOIS lHe VIA NVS
in their off hours for a few corpees. None
of the greater merchants would take any
thing but American money. partly, no
doubt on account of the Spanish rate or
exchange and partly, too, because they
saw that the eye and the face of George
Washington were destined to be the trust
worthiest sort of tender in the town and
province now. So far as we could judge
from the shopkeepers the town was re-
Iieved and truly glad that a settled state
of affairs seemed likely to descend upon
them Your true Spaniard is VIGOROUSLY
grave and long of countenance. AS grave
as a Spaniard'' was a comparison general
even in FJizabethan days. Any many
long Castilian face in Santiago now VelIS
much inward satisfaction
PROBLEM OF GOVERNMENT.
One of the first problems confronting the
military governor is that of sanitation. The
trouble has been that the Americans in the
town were reacting against the yellow fever
scare at Siboney. Some surgeon had de-
clared it wasn't yellow fever. anyway. and
officers and correspondents in Santiago,
grateful for the comparative civilization of
the place, didn't care. General Wood was
sleeping in the place Many officers were
chartered at the Anglo-American Club or
at the Spanish American Hotel, thankful TO
be in the same town with an ice machine
and reckless of house germs. Yet ali the
time the town stank as only an UNFRAMED
Spanish town could. In addition. the
streets were more poorly "poiced" than the
slovenliest camp. All rubbish and refuse,
Drains at some long distant time were de-
signed to run underneath the narrow side
walks but broken flagstones and overflow
ing drainage long ago revealed this easy