Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1898-10-21
They Do Not Look For Better Times Until the United States Controls
 the Customs.
DISAPPOINTED OVER
 DELAY IN EVACUATION.
Some Citizens Believe It Will Be Many Months Before All the Spanish Troops There Will
 Depart.

New York, Oct. 2o.-A dispatch to The Tribune from Havana says:
 Havana has known dull times in the past. According to the merchants, how. ever. there never has been & period of stagnation quite equal to the present. The condition is 8 natural and inevit- able one. but this knowledge does not lessen their patience. It is q literal truth that, barring the Spanish officials who will be deprived of their offices and 8 few-Tery few-radical Cuban patri. ots who hoped that their own flag would be run up as soon as the Spanish ensign came down, everybody is praying for the American military occupation. Un. til the customs house is in the control Of the American officials business in Ha- vana will continue stagnant. On the heels of this control will follow 8 period of activity greater perhaps. than the sic nation warrants, but the normal basls will immediately be reached.
 It is curious illustration of the Span. ish character that the coming of a second military commission charged with the minor duty of selecting camp sites has has had more effect in convincing all classes that the United States will as- sume authority than does the presence Of the commission charged with arrang- ing for the evacuation of the islands by the Spanish troops. They can see the engineer officers and the sanitary experts who arrived this week going about and taking observations. It should be said also that this work is being done in q thoroughly methodioal and practical way. The results will justify the care that has heen taken. The labors of the evacuation commission have not been carried on in public General Wade and his associates, General Butler and Admiral Sampson, have not been able to point to the transports departing with Spanish troops in large numbers. On this account as much as for other reasons
 
 hopeless of seeing the Standards depart for months to come. The idea that the evacuation would be delayed until the verge of another yellow fever season had gained possession of them. As they could not be taken into confidence of the Washington administration and it's poli- cy be fully disclosed they formed their own opinion and 1t was mistaken one.
 The reasons which, in the United States, were conclusive against sending soldiers to weste 4 Id central Cuba be- fore November did rbt appeal to the people here. They have seen the Span ish soldiers die lihe flies from the yell low fever It was not quite clear to them why 80 much greater regard should be shown for the lives Of the American soIdiera Recent events have convinced Americags in Havana of the wisdom of the policy that hns been fol lowed. The s11djng of troops here at any time during the last two months would have benn cgiminal unless neces sity had arisen frem maintaining public order. Fortunately, there has been no such emergenos. Lasking in many otR CT respects the aufh6rity Of Captain General Blanco and of the autonomist cabinet, which $ but the shadow of the captain general, has been su fscient to preserve the peace.
 Ttis well understood in the United States that the Spanish evacuation com- mission is tho puppet of Sagasta, and that Che different impression which had obtained in Hafssg would not be under stood there without a word of explana- tion. The. duties of the peace commis- sion in Paris cause little esmment here becaussA there is, little interestAah the Philippines. The most ignorant Span. nrds in Havana, the volunteers among them, know that Snain's power in Cuba is at an end. Knowing that they are indifferent about the other ,parts of the world. But in what. .suseerns themselves