The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1898-08-21

times and his plantsfo grow together he
would doubtless have done very well in
deed.
The Weeks Voyage
Our weeks voyage was much like
Others in this direction. 1t would be
rare, indeed were not Some squalls en-
countered in the 1857 miles that stretch
between New York and Santiago. Hard
~ had the Brooklyn Bridge the bronze
goddess, and other landmarks and water
marks of Gotham faded from view be-
fore the passengers began disappearing,
one by one. Not soul confessed to
NAL de mer-oh. no! Perish the thought,
Somehow the sight of food suddenly
became a horror, and the desire to re-
cline in seciusion was simultaneous and
universal All the omens and portents
known 10 mariners held true-such as
Rainbow in the morning,
Sailors take warning.
II the Bermudas let you pass
You must beware OF Hatteras.
The first long Sunday was a blank.
We knew we were sailing the Sargasso
Sea. amid patches of wonderful seaweed.
accompanied by those other navigators
the nautalus and fying-ish; but the in
olinatSon for a recumbent attitude In
private was still so strong that few
ventured forth.
Days followed days on the sunlit sea,
all so much alike that one lost track of
time and hardly knew whether ne had
been from home a week or a year. The
skies grew bluer and bluer, and the
waves whitecapped above the biuest blue
eyes have ever beheld. Some of the
nights were passed in struggle TO hold
oneself in bed. SO boisterous were the
long Atlantic swells: and anon, rocked
in the cradle OF the deep more gently,
one gazed through the portfolio at a disk
of star-illumined sky and thought of the
dear home faces till tranquil slumber
came.
notable circums lance of this journey
was that in the whole thirteen hundred
miles we encountered but three vessels
two transports and a man-of-war. Our
route in the usual course. at an average
distance of 100 miles from shore. was the
great ocean highway TO the Antilles, for
merly piled by thousands of merchant
men and other craft but now commerce
and travel are alike suspended because
of Uncle Sans participation in the quar-
rel Of his neighbor San Saivadore-the
first Bit of the Western world which Co
l,,rrs,1,s saw. YOU know-was passed un-
noticed. in the darkness of the night
Early on Thursday. the sixth day out,
we caught the first glimpse of Cuba, low
hills. topped with clouds. so vague IN
the morning twilight that none could
race the lines of demarkation between
sea and sky and shore
The Land of Tragedy.
Rut II was surely Cuba-the land OF
tragedy. within whose small compass up
wards of 60o.O0 people have died within
three years-where more than third of
the population have been annihilated dur
ing that short period. by starvation, dis
ease and the red hand Of war BY and
by Maysi light. holding. aloft its beacon
signal. sprang out Of the mist to greet
US,
It's tall white shaft. set on the east
ern tip Of the island looks enough like
the Washington monument TO give the
wanderer homesick pauG. The low
hills that encompass southeastern Cuba,
rising in natural terraces from the
waters edge remind one of the arti-
ficially terraced slopes of the Peruvian
Andes, whereon the Incas cultivated their
cocoa.
Farther to the westward the hills
mount higher and higher. until merged
in the dark. cloud-canopied Maestro"
(naster9 mountains along which We
coast within a mile of the waye-beaten
coral rock which forms their base. Later
in the day Guantanamo is passed-the
erstwhile unimportant point, where his
tory has lately been made. The name by
the way, is pronounced Wan-tan- af-mo
with the accent so strong upon the tan
that the two remaining syIiables are an
indistinguishable tumble In its broad
inner bay, separated from the sea by
long, narrow channel between two low
promontories, We saw a dozen ships at
anchor-men-of-war. transports, prizes.
the Red Cross steamer State of Texas
the Resolute. bringing down immune
nurses, and other supply and relief ships
in the service of our army
Where the Americans Landed
Then comes the place where our troops
were landed on Cuban soil, and the dreary
hills up which the Rough Riders stormed
In the face of Spanish guns Human life
was held so cheap during those few stir
ring but awful days. when the young and
strong and ambitious died with a cheer
on their lips. Over there are the trench
es where our hungry soldiers lay in the
rain-Where more precious lives were
yielded up from needless hardships and
exposure than were taken by the enemy's
bullets; and somewhere there is the silent
bivouac wherein two thousand mothers
boys await the resurrection morning.
Then comes Siboney, the great fever
patients.
1t is not yellow fever-thank heaveni The
mothers at home may set their minds at
rest on that 1t Is mostly the local calen-
tura-an acute malaria. bad enough to be
sure, but which, in the majority of cases
runs It's painful course in a few DAYS
leaving the patient weak as a baby. on
Inc road to recovery There is typhoid
FEVER, too. and much dyseniery; and no
doubt there are some cases of the dread
ed yellow fever.
Srboney lies sixteen miles east of San
tiago. connected by railway: and as I
shall visit ii in a few days we need say
no more about it at present. Neither need
we waste any space in describing MORO
castle after all that has been said about
1t in these last few months Today Ii is
considerably demoralized in the upper sto-
ry- Let US hope and pray and plead
that there be no attempt at reconstruct
ing that antique pile of infamous history
After the storms and assaults of three
nunored years. TO rebuild the picturesque
rum on the American plan would be little
snort of sacrilege. But In all proba
Diiity 1t Will presently be bricked and
pointed up and freshly painted. and made
10 look as ridiculous as the modern
houses with the Queen Anne front and
the Mary Ann back. so frequently seen in
our rural districts.
The Scene of Hobson,s Heroism
Just around the corner of the Moro
promontory. little way inside the mar
row, widening channel, lies what is left
OF the Merrimac, where young Hobson
sunk her; and as the first civilian shin
10 follow him steamed slowly by, every
passenger took off his hat or waved her
ma of