Evening star., 1898-08-10

ganized by the British merchants at Ma
nila.
The British consul here died of dysentery
yesterday, but his remains cannot be buried
in the Protestant cemetery on account of
the insurgents.
Disease Is Raging.
For four days a typhoon has ragged. The
suburbs have been flooded, the trenches
swamped and the sandbags dissolved.
Disease is raging. Mere infants of thirteen
years of age are enlisting; they become
officers and fight in the trenches The
newspapers applaud what they should con-
denim crime.
The British vice consul supported by the
French consul, who is the dean of the for
eign representatives here, took the initia-
tive in unofficial "feelers' looking to an
armistfce, pending peace, but the Ameri-
cans are not authorized to accept anything
except surrender, and the Spaniards will
never surrender.
The latter hope to endure until peace is
declared between Washington and Madrid.
The hardships of the situation are chiefly
pressing upon the natives and the foreign
erS, and not upon the Spaniards, because
the bulk of the priests the officials and
the military monopolize the food sup
plies, and though 100000 of the population
starve, the fact goes practically unheeded.
The 10000 Spaniards in Manila are con-
fident OF their safety. They believe that
the strong walls of the city will resist for
three months, and they are resolved, re-
finally to sell their lives dearly in wreakng
their hatred upon the English, the Ameri-
cans and the Filipinos.
The Spaniards are busy making mitrail-
leuses. This correspondent has seen natives
eating rats and mice. and it is reported
that they are stealing food and numbering.
Scarcity of Food.
Under date of July 80, a Manila dis
patch states:
The scarcity of food now affects even the
richest class in Manila. There is no meat,
bread or flour, except very small reserves,
chiefly laid under requisition for the Span
ish troops.
The newspapers, though rigidly censored.
admit that the famine and the unprece-
dented rains are causing the epidemic.
They pretend that the disorders are trivial
intestinal ailments, but it is believed most
of them are dysentery, due to wretched
food and the dangerous character of the
water. A number of important persons are
ill.
An abattoir has been established for
slaughtering horses and dogs. The news
papers admit that the military bakers are
reduced to the necessity of using rice, the
stock of which will shortly be exhausted.
The stock of fuel, too is exhausted, and
the bakers are burning doors and window
frames. 1t is impossible to eat uncooked
rice.
A decree has been issued authorizing the
entry of private premises and the seizure
of cattle and horses there, for a nominal
payment, made in worthless drafts. Sew
eral animals belonging to British owners
have been taken, though there were plenty
belonging to Spanish owners that had not
been seized. An attempt was made to
seize the Indispensable pony of the consul
lar physician, and considerable Indignation
has been expressed. There may possibly
be some trouble over it.
The insurgents deny that they have Of
fered to join the Spaniards against the
Americans, insisting that their offer was
only to avoid bloodshed, in the hope of rec
onclling some of the Spaniards to renounc-
ing their allegiance to Spain, by inducing
the Americans not to lombard the city
1t Is alleged in a dispatch officially pub
lished here that Germany is combining
with Russia to prevent the capture of Ma
Mia, and that therefore Admiral Dewey
and General Merritt will refrain from at
lacking the city, so that the American re-
sources are exhausted: that Admiral Ger
vera, on issuing from Santiago harbor was
victorious and captured Admiral Sampson
afterward bornbarding American ports:
that the Cherokees and the negroes in the
United States have rebelled: that President
mckinley has been mobbed: that Admiral
Canara is at Singapore; that he is going
TO land in the South Philippines; that the
allied Spanish fleets will annihilate Ad-
mlral Dewey, and, finally that the cli-
mate Is decimating the American soldiers