Omaha daily bee., 1899-03-22
ECHOES or THE WAN.

liberty recently and battered down the walls
of social caste as effectively as he riddled
the Spanish fleet. The incident, as related
by a Manila correspondent, puts the adj
miral in an admirable light and proves that
behind a will of steel beats the tender heart
OF a gentleman of the old school.
The Oriental hotel in Manila has long
been the ~favorite abiding place OF the wives
OF army and navy officers stationed there'
Naturally they have their little,
tant "set," in their eyes the cream OF aris.
tocracy. This set has a rigid outsldei T"
does not include any woman Of less aristo'
cratic position than theirs, any one whose
money ia the result Of her W honorable
labors. There was one of the latter class OF
women staying at the Oriental hotel during
the months of the war excitement, a MISS
who was the correspondent OF
a syndicate OF American newspapers. She
was a woman Of ability. She did her WORK
well and won the respect and esteem OF
every one who knew her; she was univer-
sally liked, except by the officers wives,
who could not condescend to know her.
They made their attitude pronounced; they
drew the social line, on whose safe inside
they congratulated themselves upon being
Admiral Dewey undoubtedly has a sense
of humor as we'll as many other things
InaJ go 10 MAKE up u tdpdult OihSS ""N
charming man. He evidently smiled, per-
haps in an amused way at first, then a lit
tie grimly and ironically, when 1t came to
his ears that the wives of his subordinates
had entered into a crushing social ring to
ostracize and prosecute the newspaper
woman. To see the point was to act.
Miss Thompson had an unexpected visitor
one day. Admiral Dewey sent up his card.
He paid a long call. He and Miss Thomp-
son found much that was interesting to
talk about. In the enjoyment of their talk
they were apparently oblivious that the rest
of the Oriental hotel had gone mad. The
world had quite came to an end in the
teapot district, with it's self righteous ideas
of the fitness Of things. The admiral had
called an a working woman! They were
made to appear in the wrong. Perhaps 1t
is better to draw a veil over the subse-
quent wailing and crashing of teeth, the
tears and rage of the would be leaders Of
Manila society. But Dewey was charac-
teristically relentless. He rubbed In the les
son he had given. He asked Miss Thompson
If he might lunch with her the next day,
and again the whole Oriental hotel knew 1t
and was afame. The woman who had been
Inundated by the pettiness of petty people
was honored by a great man.
A count of the cannon captured in Cuba
and Porto Rico shows a total of $40 pieces
of various ages and calibers. The metal of
most of them is iron and bronze. Except
as trophies of the war they are of no value
and will be distributed among the various
arsenals and navy yards, to swell the col
lections of historic souvenirs of wars from
1875 to 1898. The number Of captured guns
in the custody Of the War department is
as follows: At Watervliet arsenal, from
, Santiago, eighty-two, of which eleven are
steel, thirty-one cast iron and forty bronze;
at New York arsenal, from Santiago, forty
bronze pieces; total in the custody of the
army in this country, 1872.
The report of the chief of ordnance Of the
War department shows that the following
guns were captured from the land defenses
at Santiago on July IA last: San Antonio,
one piece; st. Inez, six pieces; Sueno, three
pieces; Caney road, five pieces; %Palomar,
two pieces; st. Ursula, seven pieces; Cana
des, one, and Central Beneficieancia, one.
Those captured in the harbor defenses OF
Santiago on July IA were as follows: MORO
castle, thirteen pieces five mortars and
eight guns); at the battery east of the
Moro, nine pieces; at MORO dock, five;
. Estralia battery, nine; lower Socapa bat
terry, 4; upper Socapa battery, five; Punta
I Gorda, four; Punta Blanca, forty. From
the cruiser Reina Mercedes, one piece was
taken, and from the Santiago arsenal
twenty-five. There was brought from
Baracoa one piece and from Guantanamo
two pieces, making a total of al guns, leav-
ing nineteen not yet brought to this coun-
try.
The captured guns in possession Of the
Navy department number ffty-six. or these
seven are at the New York navy yard, OF
which four were taken from the Reina Mer-
cedes, one from the Oquendo and two from
the Cayo del Toro; twenty-four are at the
Norfolk navy yard, of which two were taken
from the Maria Teresa. At the Boston
navy yard are two guns, secured from the
i gunboat Sandoval, and at the Washington
navy yard are twenty-three pieces, OF which
ten were taken from the Viscaya, ten from
the Teresa and three from the Oquendo.
A yarn told by a Manila correspondent o.
Harper's Weekly concerns two Tennessee
volunteers serving as prison guards. A Fill.
pino convict had climbed the prison wal
and was running for dear life through the
open. Two long-legged Tennesseean'
kneeled to fire.
81 don't guess it's more than three hun
dred yards said one, quietly.
II reckon it's most five hundred" sale
the other, as If he were discussing thu
weather.
The prisoner was running like a deer, ant
rapidly approaching the underground arount
innumerable little huts, where he would b
: safe.
, Call it four hundred" suggested the frs
' Tennesseean, in a conciliatory tone.
They adjusted their sights, aimed, an,
! fired. The escaping convict fell, and tn
Y two Tennesseeans went out to bring in wha
5 was left of him.
'If he's hit in the head it's my shot,
r said one.
Il aimed low, acco'din' to amy regula
tions," drawled the other.
a The convict was found with one bulle
= through the back of his head and anothe
t through the lower end of his spine. The
know how 10 shant In the nalutnIn. q