Arizona republican., 1899-01-24

l the people, who had nothing to eat, | had no desire to go walking, and the
 market place and Alameda were de-
 serted.
 Horses and dogs were dying before | our eyes. Carriages stopped going
 about for want of horses, which the | scavenger carried off at night, and
 gradually the city acquired that stamp of sadness and absence of life which
 is seen in places into which cholera
 and plaques carry sorrow and death. The situation became more serious every day, and the Encouragement was
 general, for every one knew that if the blockade should continue the ruin of
 the city was imminent
 q must state that while the ships of
 the hostile fleet were firing on Punta
 Cabrera and Mazamorra on the 7th,
 9th, and days following, insurgent
 bands, commanded by their principal
 chiefs, sustained continued muSket
 fire on land. Tn these attacks they were repulsed with great losses.
 As the month Of June wore away the people of Santiago became familiar with the repeated bombardments and there were strange developments. The lieutenant wrote.
 "On the 20th a shell exploded in the hold of the schooner Trafalgar, causing several deaths and injuring the hull of the schooner, which had to be run ashore in order to prevent her from sinking
 "I shall not speak at length of mat ter which is of no importance, but will mention it briefly, because it gives an idea of the craze reignipg at Santiago to which the frequent bombardments, which must have cost at least $1 ,000,- 900, gave rise
 Whether by reason of the type of their fuses, or because many of the shells did not have the requisite pow der charge q have discharged a 57-mm. shell myself which had only ona-eighth of it), certain it is that many did not explode and remained intact as though they had not been discharged; as they were being thrown in such large num- bers, many people wanted to keep one as curiosity or as a souvenir of an event which does not happen often in a lifetime. Some wanted them of small, others Of large caliber; others wanted to make a collection of all sizes. I have a friend who called on me one evening to show me a 20-cm. shell which had been discharged and had not suffered the least deformation. The fad had cost him 20 pesos. and he was as happy over it as a child over a new toy. But I was thoughtless enough to tell him there 32-cIn ones and he was inconsolable. It will be understood from the above that the fad was being paid for dearly; and as cap ital is always made out of everything, many people made a business of gath ering up, discharge projectiles and selling them. That was the cause of the unfortunate occurrence on board the Trafalgar; a shell had been dis charged without the necessary care. and what happened was but the natural consequence.
 Another monomania Of this period: As the Americans kept up the bom- bardments all through the month of June, so that there hardly was a day when gunshots were not heard at d greater or less distance, people were hearing them all the time; the falling of chair, the closing of a do3r CT win low, the noise of carriage wheels in the the crying of child-every- thing was taken for gunshots, and gun shots was all that was being talked about. When they finally ceased San tiago had become so identified with them that people almost missed them and were surprised to hear them no longer. ."-St- Louis Glo5e-Democrat