The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-07-04
ECHOES FROM KEY WEST
The Havana Blockading Fleet to
Be Strengthened.
HOW THE CUBANS LIVE
Cuban Scouts Pass In and Out OF Havana
at wfi-Jack Tar Fond of Filling
Yellow Reporters Full OF Fake
Y~arns-Little Liquor Drunk.

Key West, u 29.-Naval officers on
the ships in the harbor are not hopeful
Of a speedy movement against Havana.
The blockading fleet is TO be strength
e by one or more monitors. which
will coal from the collier Pompeii off
Cardenas. Two tugs will keep a look
out about Cardenas. a revenue cutter
will patrol the shore, one or more ships
will be of Havana always, and the
others will move along the coast be-
tween Havana and Matanzas. Block
ade duty is very dull work. and the
officers have fancy names for it. such
as ~"treading the cinder path"
An idea of the equipment of Gomez
army may be gained from looking at
his officers and men who were towed
into port the other day in a little boat
by the tug Uncas. who picked them
up on Cardenas. Their boat had been
captured from the Spanish and con-
verted into a dispatch boat. Some of
the men were barefooted. some wore
canvas clothes that had been patched
with cloth that did not match. and all
were hungry looking, shaggy and I'M
kempt.
Hardly a day passes now without the
arrival of one or more passengers from
Cuba. The Cuban scouts go into Ha-
vana, Santiago. Cardenas and Matan-
zas. They slip away from the most
carefully watched coast and row out
TO u ships. A Cuban in Key West
wished to send a parcel to his cousin.
who is operating with a small band Of
insurgents close to Havana city. To-
day he gave the parcel to a Cuban Of
ficer. who is going to row ashore from
one of our ships at a point 100 miles
east of Havana, n who will pass IL
to its destination. The messenger ac-
cepted the parcel as a postman would
have taken Ii. Probably messages
could be sent into Havana city if 1t
were necessary.
Recently a Cuban lieutenant. carry
ing dispatches. after long waiting on a
key of Cardenas, sighted a small
American war vessel. rowed out to her
and asked to be taken to Commodore
Watson. who, he said. would give him
transportation to Key West.
mo. sir. you can't come aboard. How
do I know that you are not "A Spanish
spy" the commander of the vessel
asked.
The lieutenant. who spoke English
very well, e~xpostulated and argued,
but all in ain. He was compelled 10
row ashore and wait till the next day,
when another warship hove in sight.
Her captain knew him and got him
passage to Key West.
The six ENJOYS from Gomez had a
stuffy little cabin on their boat, which
was about Is feet long. They had "A
rude cooking apparatus, in which they
roasted SWEEP potatoes. Their proVi-
sion were a bag of sweet potatoes and
a large bottle of fresh water that must
have got very warm during their voy-
age. They a a few sticks of wood to
cock with. When they arrived here
they were taken in charge by the local
junta and quartered in rooms over FL
Polaco restaurant. Here all the Gu
han couriers n spies make their
headquarters while in Key West. The
rooms are small and hot and the beds
do not look very inviting.
After a man has been sleeping in
the brush a few months his place.
with white sheets on the beds. seems
like the Waldorf To us" n of the Gu
bans said TO a reporter.
The Cubans and those who have been
in Cuba say that there is no place in
Cuba that compares with Tampa and
Key West for heat.
The Christian commission of the Y.
NJ. G. A. has opened headquarters near
the naval stores for the express benefit
of the sailors n marines and is Civ
ing away tracts and testaments. The
commissioner rooms are pointed out by
large signs. but are not thronged with
men from the ships, who find entertain
ment elsewhere. The ~well-known fond
ness OF blue Jackets when ashore for all
methods Of travel except walking crops
out even here, where the coral roads
are rough and dusty. Riding about in
carriages driven by Cubans is mex
pensive and amusing TO Jack, and
bicycle riding is also a favorite pur-
suit. There are no stables where
ors would undoubtedly turn equestrians
and gallop about the little island. The
solored bootblacks are well ~patronized
by the men-of-warsmen, who take
great satisfaction in gruffly i~nstructing
the boys how the shoes should be pol
lshed.
The saloons. which bid for the sailors
patronage, are as tough and III smell
ing as any on the New York bowery,
and get a good deal of money out of
poor Jack. Some OF the sailors who
have shore leave over night are either
without means to hire a room when it
Is time TO turn in. or else consider such
expenditure needless. These gather
ibout the base of the soldiers monu-
ment in a triangle opposite the naval
stores and sleep on the grass. IL is
The monument that draws them there.
not the grass. which is foul with Goa
aust.
Int olSOIutiS ~ hts WEI last IlblAh
which gave so much pain TO the Eng
lish correspondents were due to Colonel
Huntington's marines, who have just
been fighting so valiantly at Guanta-
namo. The marines had been cooped
up on the Panther for several months
and when they went into a hot camp
ashore, were restless. When they had
leave at night they used TO go about
shouting Remember the Maine and
making profane and abusive remark
about Spain. They were crazy TO be
let loose on the Spanish. and they
fought like heroes when the time game.
A pleasant characteristic Of the man
of-warsman is his invaTAble willing
ness to furnish news 70 inouiring re-
porters. II the news gatherer will only
give him a tip as TO the sort of matter
vanted the response will be prompt.
Some Exclusive" reports OF battles and
bombardments printed in New York
were obtained nv Interviewing