The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1899-02-23

orally throughout the island and do
not draw their loads by means Of the
well established yoke around their
necks, but by meansofa rectangular
block Of wood placed one across the
forehead o! the beast directly be-
meath the horns and wood arrange
ment behind the horns, the two be-
ing fastened together by means of
thongs and then roped or chained to
the tongue of the cart. You will
see by this that the poor beasts are
unable to turn their heads in any
direction and to make matters worse
a shifting of the load on the cart to
the rear almost fits the poor animals
Oft their fore feet. consider this Il
most cruel manner of providing
means of locomotion and a custom
that ought to be abolished at the
earliest opportunity. Ponderous
carts, small mules and oxen, prevail
here. l feel safe in saying that our
four muleescort wagons in the army
serv ice draw smaller loads than so:ae
of these solitary animals-mule or
OK. The district OF Havana is still
the rendevois of several thousand
Cuban soldiers who have not yet, to
my knowledge, been requested to re-
sumo civil life. | have heard of no
unpleasantries where these soldiers
come in contact with our own, and
they seem to respect the boys in blue
to the fullest extent. What the ne
cessity is for keeping these men in
arms in province containing per-
haps $4,000 American soldiers, |
have not tathomed as yet. A camp
of five thousand Cubans are about
three miles from our headquarters,
and much nearer than that to some
the regimental camps of the 2nd
division. 1t is very evident that
good discipline prevails on both
sides. But | am wandering from the
channel | had dritted in at the out
set and wished to follow as closely as
possible that | might conline my let
ter to current events, and not de
scriptions of what | saw. Orders
came on Saturday morning to break
camp and move to another site close
bv but more accessible and in Il
good many ways more desirable for
camping purposes. 1t was short
work to get our equipment together
and established in our new quarters,
and with our experience of tent
Building the night before, we all
felt confident that we could put them
up again without the assistance OF Il
detail. This we did to all appear
ances as good as professionals, cX-
cept that we drove less pins for the
stay ropesthan was afterwards found
10 be sufficient. When everything
was gotten into ship-shape it was
nearly dark and another day in
Camp Columbia gone. Atsun-down
a few clouds began to appear here
and there accompanied with IA right
smart breeze which which BODIED no
good for Us. Our tents began to
writhe and twist and the fly continu-
ally striking against the top canvass
made enough noise to imagine we
were experiencing the tail end Of "A
West Indian hurricane. Tired men
are glad enough to accept such
shelter as is offered them and we
paid little attention to the threaten
ing torn ousidc, but turned into our
little cots for the highland were soon
fast asleep. Heavy squalls with Il
de!uge of water from time to time
awakened us to our sensee, but not
for long. About $3.50 in the morn
ing Il terrible squall struck us, tear
ing up tent pins, overthrowing cots,
baggage, etc. and completely demo-
fishing our canvass home. The five
slecpers on the windward side Of the
tent came to their senses in the open
air partially covered up with de-
;bris, under downfall of rain in ninky
darkness. | was one of these unior-
|tnnates. The other five were miss
ing for time, but had Jared better
than we had, their only inconveni-
ence being the amount of debris pill
ed upon them which was sufficienttO
protect them from the rain aud wind.
TO be continued next eek.