The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1899-01-25
LETTER FROM CAPT. r u. BEER.


|
DEAR FOLKS: Drop you letter this
evening. Az wrote you on board the
transport last Tuesday. we arrived at
Havana Tuesday morning, but did not
discmbark until Wednesday morning.
Left boat about q 90 A. NJ. aud marched
through Havana aud about hve or six
miles beyond city limits to our present
camp, II beautiful aud apparently very
healthy place, situated on II blpG or hill
within two miles of the ocean. The
ocean Is In plain view here, nnd there
seems to be- II constant breeze blowing
DER nur camp from the sea- generally
very cool and pleasant. Weather here
now Is not exceedingly hot; sun gets
very warm during middle Of the day.
but along about 10 o'clock H. Is pleas
ant, not the least bit uncomfortable.
So far I like this climate, and from
what little we have seen Of the people
| they do not seem like II bad lot, nor II
very suffering people. Have seen some
nice looking Cubans and Spaniarls and
In n great many eases IT'S extremely
hard To tell the Cubnns and Negroes
apart, they are 80 very black, but as n
rule you can pick ,hcm out. There are
II lot " Cuban soldiers here policeing
our camps for us and their officers. as n
rule, are rather nm Intelligent. well-fed
looking crowd. hut the men are, on the
whole, n scrawny, bunny looking lot "
individuals. very poor physiqucs and
very poor faces. Some of the people we
met on the streets, probably II third Of
them. would compare with the average
American Of the southern part of the
| United States fuvorably, but large
percentage of what would be- called the
common people are individuals we
would not care 10 associate with at all.
and ~ To being out with them ON II dark
night, | think most Of us wound he in
clined To keep our hands ON our pistol
pockets, even II We do call them friends.
We have heard 40 much about the fair
seinorettas. They are In the decided
minority. The greater number Of the
women are far from fair. Our story
books ms children, describing hags and
witches, | think were written by men
who undoubtedly saw II good many such
as we have here. will not deny but
that there are few very fair women
here but they use even more paints and
| powders than our American ladies', IN
their efforts to make sickly yellow
complexion look fair. They, as n rule,
have pretty black eyes, and when their
faces are plump and smooth their bright
eyes naturally make their faces appear
fair, which otherwise would be decidedly
unattractivc. The most Of the faces we
see seem marked with disease and de-
cidcdly unattractive. | say disease:
do not know that Is the reason they
look so. II may be a natural look to
them. When we first passed through
Havana and | compared the natives
with our stout, rugged-looking fellows,
the thought struck me that this city OF
Havana ought to be taken under cover
and called hospital, and as we passed
Il building where there were some
Cuban troops located, and they turned
out the guard for us, it struck me that
Spain had not tried very hard to con-
quer the insurgents. II this guard was
anyways at all a fair representation Of
the Cuban army, and it undoubtedly
was, they certainly are miserable lot
as far as appearances go, and what |
have seen Of them around our camp has
not improved my opinion of them in the
least. Talking Of slow movements of
laborers, the Irish section hand and the
messenger boy at home have to stand
the brunt OF all the jokes on account OF
their lack OF accelerated motion, but
they are like lightning when compared
with these fellows. However, guess
slow movement Is part Of these south
ern countries that IL Is hard for
northern person to get used to. Since we
have sailed into the harbor of Havana,
by old Moro Castle and the forts that
surround this old city, have thanked
Heaven that we came in here without
having to take the city by force. One
cannot conceive how impregnable this
place is until they have gone over the
ground surrounding this city. Block
houses, forts, breastworks, rifle pits,
thorn and cactus hedges eight and ten
feet through mature itself aiding in
fortifying) literally covering every inch
of the ground; concealed rifle pits blast
cd out OF the rocks. 1t looks to me that
10000 men, properly rationed and fur
nished with good lot of ammunition
and arms, could hold this place against
the world. ! never conceived how we'll
a city could be fortified and guarded
until we dropped in here. Whether
Mckinley realized what q strong posi-
tion the Spanish held here or not have
no idea, but am sure that could some
Ix.ls sl. l.. 4.