The Newtown bee., 1898-03-18

piled with what they need. They also
look after the supplies for the army.
Moreover, the government has establish
ed plantations for raising vegetables for
the use Of the army and the people,
which is resulting in plenty of food. The
Cuban army does not move in large
forces, but in small detachments so as
not to exhaust the supply of food in any
one place. At the same time, it has
good system of communication by horse
back riders and can be concentrated in
short time. There is scarity of cloth
ing, but more is going in than formerly.
[ knew of no yellow fever where l was.
There is a good deal of malaria, but
plenty Of quinine and medicine. They
need more doctors.
1.-THE Cuban war ia guerrilla warfare.
and Gen Garcia, under whom served. ia
an adept at it. He is q pleasant man to
meet and kind to his soldiers. He travels
all about with an escort of oily about
so men. He has two sons in the army.
is enthusiastic and sure of success within
six months.
''In my work of blowing up bridges |
used from 20 to 40 pounds of dynamite
at charge. The most exciting oper4-
ton Of this kind and the only one where
! there was loss Of life was the blowing up
of the big locomotive. We were ordered
to go to Gibarra, 81 miles from our camp,
to do it. We started at M, in two
detachments of S75 men each, Col Rod
riquez being command of the force and [
of the operations. We arrived after
nightfall and sneaked up to within mile
and half of the city. There were niue
forts within quarter of mile of us
With my hands I scraped out a hole un-
der the track and put in ~ pounds of
dynamite. | made a conduit for the
wires, put back the stone ballasting and
then brushed it off with q branch. The
soldiers were hidden In some bushes. I
led the wires to large fallen tree and
placed six dry batteries behind it. Then
I lay and waited.
SAT 6 O'Clock in the morning the track
walker came along. He failed to notice
anything wrong. At z O'Clock the whis-
tie blew at Gibarra and 7.20 train, con-
sisting of the engine, one fort car filed
with soldiers and passenger coach with
officers, came slowly down the track. 1t
was terrible strain for few minutes,
but pulled myself together and fired
the torpedo just as the engine reached it.
1t was terrific explosion. The fr G.
ments fell all about us. The engineer
was killed instantly, but the fireman was
unbur5. The colonel sprang from the
bushes with his men, but the fire from
the fort Car began Instantly. There
were toe many soldiers for our force,
and we ran back. We got away safely
and were back in camp befo e noon.
Son January % obtained leave of
absence and started for the United
States. Two days sfterWard was taken
prisoner by Spanish column of 1000
men under Don Arsenic Lenares. MY
horse was taken away from me and 1
had TO walk the rest of the day. I was
badly used up. Gen Blanco was then at
Gibarra and was eventually taken be-
fore him. Before reaching him had
been promised freedom IL [ would agree
not to fight Spain again. 1t was the
Spanish penal colony in Africa If did
not. When I was taken before Gen
Blanco forgot all the Spanish / knew.
was in his presence about five minutes
and it was long enough. 1t ended in my
shipped to Havana By boat and then to
New York. The Maine had not been
blown up when | was In Havana. saw
her in the harbor. believe the fret ex-
plosion was from the outside, but not the
second one. From my study and expert
ence consider It TO be impo sible for
any torpedo on the outaide to have done
the damage to the Maine which was