The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1898-07-13
HORRORS OF THE
MARCH In CUBA.
TROOPS ENCOUNTER THE FIRST
TROPICAL RAINSTORM.
For Three Hours Great, Cold Torrent
Swept Down from the Clouds. A Thou
sand Forms of Terror.

Swept Down from the Clouds. Thou
sand Forms of Terror.
NEAR SANTIAGo.-No man who did
not go over the trail in the march of
Skaters men from Baiquiri TO Santiago,
no man who was not In the terrible down
pour of rain which drenched the Ameri-
can army to he skin this afternoon, can
understand the suffering of our troops
and the heroism with which they bear it..
Cavalrymen, dismounted for the first
time in years, and infantrymen from cool
Michigan and Massachusetts, toiled hour
after hour along these so-called roads and
paths through the jungles of cacti, poison
vines, and high grasses that cut like a
razor, in blistering sunlight that makes
the sky lines of the distant hills simmer
and waver before the eyes, while from
the stagnant pools strange, gray mists
float upward, and yultures with out
stretched wings look greedily down from
above.
The vegetation torn down and tram
pied under foot by our troops has ter
mented, and horri be sour breath arises
from the earth. Curious stenches steal
from the hidden places in the jungle.
Thousands OF gigantic land crabs,
spotted with yellow and red, wriggle
and twist themselves along the side of
the roads, with leprous, white claws
clicking viciouSly-a CHASTITY, dreadful
sight to young soldiers fresh from New
York, Boston, and Detroit. Ragged
Cubans slip noiselessly through the
underground or sprawl under the shade
OF huge gossamer trees watching with
childish pleasure the onpush of their
American defenders.
The heat is almost intOlerable. The
sun is like a great yellow furnace, tort
uring everything living ard turning
everything dead into thousand mystic
TlOus forms of terror.
The fierce light swims IN waves before
the eyes of the exhausted soldiers. This
morning a young infantryman reeled and
fell in the road almost under the feet of
the mule ridden by your correspondent.
When helped him to his feet he smiled
Five minutes afterwards he was trudg-
ing along CALAMITY.
Z NO hours later the first great tropi-
cal transforms we have encountered fell
from the sky, not slant wise, but strs light
down. 1t was the first actual test of the
army in a most dreadful experience of
the tropics. For three hours great
cold torrent swept down from the clouds,
drenching the soldiers to the skin, soak
ing blankets, and carrying misery into
all our vast camp, reaching out on either
side of the trail extinguishinG camp fires,
and sending rivers of mud and red water
swirling along the narrow road dashing
over rocks, where the trail inclined
downward, and through this filthy food
the army streamed along, splashing In
the mud and water or huddling vainly
for shelter under the trees,
An hour before the heat was so Intense
hat men reeled and swooned but now
came one of the mysterious transforma-
tions of the tropics. The whole army
shIvered, and robust men could be seen
shaking from head to foot, turned gray
and white. Millions Of land crabs came
ciatteriLg and squirming from under
the poisonous underground, and the SOL
diers crushed them under their heels.
Every man who had quinine swallowed a
dose. The officers, splashed with mud
to their hips, hurried here and there,
urging the men to strip naked when the
rain was oyer and dry their clothes at
| the camp fires.
Presently thousands of men were
standing about naked, while the sun
drew up thick vapors from the earth
ard vicious tropical flies stung their
white skins. The American army is a
noble body of men when stripped. Think
of the tremendous strain of heat like
this, and rain like this, in one day on
men from northern climate, and yet
there was not one word of complaint
| from anywhere.
The writer has seen several armies in
the field, but he never saw a more splen,
! did exhibition of cheerful endurance,
| Pmples and biotches on the face are