Omaha daily bee., 1899-02-19

who had made their escape from Santiago
were taken before General Shafter.
How about the food supply in the city?'
he asked.
Very poor, %senor," was the reply. "The
Spanish soldiers are eating horse meat.
There is no flour, no bread, no rice"
Hum! And the water?"
PLENTY, senor."
General Shafter stared at the speaker in
.rcdulously.
Plenty" he echoed. "Why that's i'm
possible. We cut off the supply day before
yesterday"
Nevertheless, there is enough in the city
TO last a month. Almost every house has
a cistern or tank, senior. They are all full.
Our water works fail very often and we
keep a supply on hand in case of emergen-
cies. General Toral knows you cut the
pipe and he laughs very much. He says
what you call in America April fool!' "
What General Shafter said is not re-
corded, but the refugees words spread
through the trenches and to this day Wis
itors to Santiago are taken out to the spot
where the break was made and told the
story of General Toral's april fool"
No Beer, No Water.
The local records of the city contain an
other instance of the violent cutting of the
water main. In it's general bearing the in
cident is almost as humorous as the first.
in the latter part of August, when affairs
were becoming settled in the city, the re-
strictions guarding the conduct and liberty
of the American soldiers on duty around
the town were practically removed and the
men were given permission to absent them
selves from camp while off duty.
A strapping private of one of the immune
regiments took a stroll one afternoon, and,
after visiting a number OF rum shops,
dropped into the Cafe La Favorite on Gale
Santo Tomas. He was much the worse for
wear and lost no time in solemnly declar-
ing to the occupants that one American
soldier was worth ten Spaniards and three
dozen and odd Cubans. To prove the asser-
tion he cast his campaign hat into the middle
of the floor and otherwise stripped for
action. He was finally %pacified, but when he
gave an order for several bottles Of Ameri-
can beer he was politely but firmly refused.
1t required the efforts of five walters to
eject him after that,
mo beer, eh?" he shouted back through
the doorway. you (hicD refuse an Ameri-
can gentleman a drink, do you? I'll fix
(hic!) you for that. If | can't have beer
you shan't have water. See."
He lurched down the street and finally
disappeared in the direction Of the mule
corral back of the Spanish barracks. How
he secured a mount is not known, but a half
hour later he was riding past the Bull Ring
over a road leading to Ell Cristo. That even
ing, shortly after dark, word was hastily
sent to the palace that the water supply
had suddenly and unaccountably failed.
Men We're sent out with lanterns. but 1t
was an almost impossible task to trace the
pipe line at that hour and they returned in
cisgust. The following morning at day
break another search was made. About
three miles from the city, at a spot where
the pipe crosses a low meadow upon masonry
supports, a great jagged hole in the pipe
was discovered. The eleven-inch main had
been smashed near a joint and the water
was fast forming a lake in the vicinity
Not far from the break one OF the searchers
found a blacksmith's sledge hammer with
the handle shattered, as II from a powerful
blow. II VAS evident the private OF immunes
had made good his threat. He was arrested
and charged with the deed, out he stoutly
maintained his innocence, and the case was
finally dropped for want of direct evidence
However, when inebriated American troop
ers demand beer in Santiago cafes nowadays
they are promptly served.
One Pbilanthropic spaniard.
The most remarkable thing about the San
tiago water system, beside the fact tina it ID