Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1899-02-16
The FSenzied Inhabitants Thought They
 Were to be Butchered. Y

The scenes and actions in CaneY after the battle are in a measure eXi plained by the impression that, fol4,5 lowing the taking of the town, the in+s vading force would loot, commit mur9 der and rapine. Immediately after oc-s cupation of the hill upon which the fort is situated by our forces, the fren- zied inhabitants began rushing up the hill to make peace with the Yictors. I went down into the town with q sergeant and eight men, with instruc- tiens from Capt. Allen of the calvary to turn out all the Spanish Soldiers could find and break up their arms and send the soldiers up to the fort
 General orders had been issued for bidding anyone except this small guard to enter the town as there was thought to be a great amount of fever, and al- so because it was still occupied by the defeated Spanish under arms.A As we went down the trail across the river we met a procession such as 1 never expect to see again, Hysterical wom- en, paralyZed with the fright of the whole long day; children or all sizes screaming with terror and clutching their mothers skirts for protection from men who had killed their fathers or brothers, as far as they knew with out cause. Some little ones, with eyes wide open in mute wonderment of it all; men of all classes; soldiers who walked indefinately with no excuse, while others declared they were forced into the Spanish ranks.
 One poor frightened woman of about fifty years was carrying another, evi- dently her mother-a woman who must have been eighty or more. She was ill her nightclothes, having just been taken helpless from her bed. The younger woman was carrying, or real- ly dragging her, by holding her on her back, having the arms over her shoul- ders. The older woman was much tall CT and her bare feet dragged upon the jagged rocks in the path while she moaned and cried incoherently. These people were not of the poorest class, but evidently well to do. l stopped a couple of Spanish soldiers and had the women carried to their houses, and assured them that no harm would come to them.
 One young woman rushed frantically mp to me, as l came into the town, and thrust a jewel box into my hands, and as she did so she lifted the lid and showed me that the contents was really valuable, begging all the while that 1 spare her life. When l closed the box and handed it back to her, saying that did not want it, she look ed at me in an inquiring way to see if she could make it out. She did not understand that sort of soldering, and she fully expected to purchase her oil mensely funny had it not been so ex- tremely pitiful. One woman came up very mysteriously, and after looking about her most carefully, produced a murderous looking sheath knife from under the folds of her skirts, telling me that it belonged to a Spanish sol dier who had concealed himself in her house, to which she led us.
 I started up side street, over some trenches filled with Spanish dead when a beautiful woman came rush. ing down moaning, and now and then muttering q frenzied prayer as she clasped q little crucifix. Her long black hair was falling loosely about her shoulders and she presented pitt. ful picture of despair. I tried to com fort her thinking that like the rest she was merely lsysterical. but little by little l made out her story, and it was sad indeed. Her husband, a Spanish soldier, had been killed while defending her hc10r from a drunken officer, and she begged me to go with her. and so I followed I found a pretty room, but In great disorder, showing q terrible struggle, the table overturned and the clothes pulled off the bed on the honr, clutching q corner of q blanket, was the dead body of a Spanish soldier, who from the dirt and grime, had been in the trenches dur ing the day. At Iiss head was q single candle burning, placed there by his devoted wife, and on his breast lay q crHeifix. The moment We entered the room the woman dropped at the side of the body. moaning and praying. 1t was pitiful. James F. J. Archibald in Leslie's Weekly.