Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1899-03-13
4 Mini @e NTone,.


 4 Mint CT Money.
 It is said that Sarah Bernhardt wa was getting $40 a month at the 0aa1s s19 in 1872, has in the last twenfg sa e years since then received g, 800 bon
 What is known as the tblock hony. system" started throughout nearly fbs whole of Cuba by the Spaniards in f6s beginning of the trouble with the ia. surgents, called forth the admirafio1 and unstinted praise of the most ar. perieneed officers of our army nas. ticularly those who were strategic an. Ough to note the care with which tboso hastily constructed forts had been Dlae. cd. It was a revelation to many of ns says q correspondent to note the miIi' tary keenness of the Spanish ofiicep who had the work fn charge.
 Every straight path we rounded fnfo and every trail our men entered in tba province Of Santiago de Cuba Was found to be commanded at it's extrema end by one of these block houses pefehed on a height overlooking tba whole line of advance. Had the Span. iards been possessed of sufficient com. age to have occupied and attempted fo hold all their block houses situated ba. ! tween Siboney and Santiago our ad yances would have involved . mue greater loss of life and time Fortu nately most of them were vacated be fore we reached them.
 Owing to the peculiar style of afgH-s inga carried on by the Gubans this block house system was found to k the best, and, in fact, the only way oi successfully preventing the ins0rgen advances and checking their denredl. tions. If once 9 small body of mer came down from their caves in ma hills to a road they were pracCeaIiya a the mercy of the Spaniards. Retrea along the path would bring them unda the guns Of another block house; dash up the hills on either side of tA road would also have been impotan because every movement of such nature would be covered from enc the two forts.
 The spaniards found that the great est difficuleY in the maintenance q these block houses was in keeping th men who occupied them supplied viii food and ammunition. The ammg milton itself came in small quantita on various ships and was distributa every few weeks. In getting mateHd to the scattered block houses tH greatest danger was run e0ntihualg half a dozen Spanish soldiers probabT forming the sole convoy for ge quantity of supplies. The GabaH watched for these periodical visits a often made short work of the carfiea
 While the block house has been & seribed as a lookout, it is ii reality 2 fort of no mean strength when con bated only by rifles To artillery, course, such q structure would 4 # mere mouthfu1; b. h withstaaE sl rifle shots and in earring out the pu pose for which it was built there ca sk be no question of the great value & must have proved to the Spaniagh a%
 These forts generally range fTo fourteen to eighteen feet square a are built to a height of tWentY-six fe NA of the heaviest yellow pine timber tainable, backed in most cases wifi old boiler-p1ate metal. r he main rOo < is twelve feet high, with it's floor SUI four feet below, along q slit flush vi @ the outside StOnewOrl This slit 6 fSztaClfa4t4 AO11 ti4iEC hD 40AA laeA wide, and through it the Spanish f0 diers pointed their rifles in every rection. The upper room, perehed top of the lower roof in Chinese 8 goda fashion, was used more for lo out purposes, but it was also prov ed with a slit similar to that belX which, when occasion demanded, eeN be also used for firing purposes
 In parts of the country which the @ surgents were known to occupT numbers a block house contained fV twenty-four to thirty men The
 sides of the lower chamber each six firing stalls, somewhat simiAaks build to the stations used at rife fNA z petitions in our own country. But erally sixteen men formed the V force of each of these forts.