The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-08-23
TO SANTIAGO DE CUBA.

On the First Passenger Steamer to
 Make the Trip Since the Taking of the Town-Scenes and Incidents Glimpses of Guantanamo and Si' D. ney-Six Hundred Down With he Fever.
 Special Correspondence of the Journal and Courier)
 Santiago de Cuba, Aug. 3.-The first passenger steamer to enter this port
 since it became an American possession was the Philadelphia, of the Red D line, chartered for one trip only by the Ward company, whose own boats, which lately piled these waters, were
 purchased some months ago by our
 government. Naturally the departure
 of the Philadelphia" created ripple of excitement in New York harbor.
 Hours before sailing time q p. m., Sat urday, July 23d), so crowded was the
 steamer that it appeared as if several
 hundred civilians had taken advantage
 of this first opportunity of getting into
 Cuba. The throng was largely of the
 Latin race. Nearly every prominent | member of the Junta was on board, chattering as only Cuban-S -Spaniards
 can. Reporters interviewed recklessly. | Dusky- eyed senortas wept upon the bosoms of the departing and a thou ! sand loving messages were dispatched to friends who yet remained in Cuba.
 Then what 8 skurrying over the gang | plank when the last whistle sounded; and when the steamer finally slipped | her moorings and slid away from shore, | amid cheers and tears and waving | handkerchiefs, it was discovered that but a handful of the throng was | booked for the passage. Nobody went 1 for pleasure only on this long journey | to the be1eaguered seat of war, but
 each of the forty odd passengers had | his special, important mission. For
 example, there was the elderly editor | of Fl Porvenir, the Cuban newspaper, | published in New York, sent down by 1 the Junta to placate the disgruntled | patriots, who are at outs with their American allies thus early in the game 1 because not permitted to loot and mur- der in the taking of Santiago. There 1 was MT. R. c. Smith, agent for the l Ceballos company, of the Compania l Transatlantica Espanola, which has se-
 cured the contract for transporting to
 Spain the army surrendered by General Toral at Santfago,-going to complete arrangements for relieving Uncle Sam
 uel of fifteen thousand hungry board
 CTS as soon as possible. There was MT. l of o n1yor who was last week appointed by Presi- ] dent Mckinley to collect duties at our
 new port,-going to establish United | States custom house at Santiago and
 revive in Cuba the tonnage tax which Spain long ago abolished. Under i Spanish rule there has been tax of
 one dollar per ton on all cargo loaded
 or delivered at any Cuban port, the
 sole exception being in favor of coal,
 which paid no tax. and iron ore, which
 paid only five cents the ton. The de- 1 partment at Washington retains the | latter discriminations but has revived | the long abolished tonnage tax, fixing it
 at twenty cents the ton on the regis i tered net tonnage of all other vessels,
 to be paid on entering the harbor The | philadelphia" also carried a dozen or 1 more engineers and mine-owners,
 American, German and Cuban, going to
 reopen their iron and copper works in ! the mountains around Santiago. Phil | adelphia, Baltimore and New York are
 especially interested in these mines in | the order named. In times not long
 past great deal of Santiago iron ore
 was shipped to points along the line of
 the Pennsylvania and Reading rail-
 roads These mining companies have
 two or three short railroad lines run
 ming from the port to their works in
 the Cobre hills. Not least among their