El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-07-01
HORRIBLE.
A Vivid Description of the Life OF the
Soldiers at Santiago.


SANTIAGO, July 1.--Extraordinary
are the experiences of the American
soldiers in this tropical jungle, and
great are his endurance and herolsm.
The United States cavalrymen are
dismounted for the first time In years,
and with infantrymen from cool M1ch1-
gan and Massachusetts they have toll
ed hour after hour along SO called
roads and narrow paths, through jung
les of cacti, poison vines, and high
grass that cuts like q razor. They
stagger along in a blisterlng
sunlight that makes the
sky lines of the distant hills simmer
and waver before the eye, while from
stagnant pools strange gray mists hoat
upward, and vultures with outstretch-
ed wings look greedily down from
above.
The rank vegetation torn down and
trampled under foot by the troops has
fermented, and q horrible sour breath
arises from the earth. Curious stencil
dense Jungle.
Thousands of gigantic land crabs,
spotted yellow and red, wriggle and
twist themselves along the sides of the
road with their leprous white claws
clicking viciously,--a CHASTITY dreadful
sight to the young soldiers fresh from
New York, Boston and Detroit.
Ragged Cubsns slip noiselessly
through the underground or sprawl
under the shade of the huge gossamer
trees, watching with childish pleasure
the steady approach of the American
defenders. The heat is almost into
lerable. The sun, likeaa great yellow
and turns everything dead into q thou
sand mysterious forms of terror. The
fierce light swims in waves before tt e
eyes of the exhausted soldiers.
Today the first great tropical rain
storm we have encountered fell from
the sky, not slantwise but
straight down. 1t was the
first actual test of the army
in this most dreadful experience of
the tropics. For three hours great cold
torrents swept mercilessly down from
the clouds, drenching the soldiers to
the skin. soaking blankets, and carry
ing misery all over our vast camp.
OThe flood continued, extinguishin z
camp fires, sending rivers of
mud and blood red water swirling
along the narrow road, dashing over the
rocks where the trail incline ddown-
ward, and through this filthy flood the
army streamed along, splashing in
| mud and water, and hudd1ing vainly for
shelter under the trees.
Shortly before the heat was SO in
tense that the men reeled and swoon-
ed, but now came one of the mysteri-
GUS Transformations of the tropics. The
whole army shivered, and robust men
could be seen shaking from head to
foot, as they turned gray and white.
Millions of land crabs came Gathering
and squirmiug from under the poison
Gus underground, and the soldiers
crushed them under their heels.
Every man who had quinine swallow
ed a dose. Officers splashed with
mud to their hips, hurried
here and there urging the men
| to strip naked when the rain
was over, and dry their clothing at the
camp fires. Presently a thousand men
were standing almost naked, while the
sun drew up the thick vapors from the
earth and vicious tropical flies stung
| their white skins. The American
army is noble body of men when it is
stripped.
Think of tremendous heat like this,
and a flood of rain like this, in one day,
on men used only to q northern eli
mate, and yet there was not one word
of complaint anywhere. The writer
has seen several armies in the field,
but he never saw more splendid ex-
hibition of cheerful endurance than
these brave men show every day.
| ATECT EnnM m Mi n