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sent to the people back home of the boys killed, on the dispatch boat "Dolphin," that brought me over from Cuba.

The Spanish soldiers had the bulge on us during the engagement in this respect, that they fought without any gear whatever except their rifles and ammunition belts. All of their individual belongings, such as knapsacks, haversacks, ponchos, and so on, they left behind them with storekeepers, and they didn't have any packing to do during the scrap. A good many of the troops on our side fought in practically heavy marching order -that is, they went into the fight that way. They didn't all come out that way, though. The temperature was something fierce, and the way they chucked gear right and left was a caution. Most of them hung on to their canteens, though, for water certainly tasted sweet in that Difference Between heat. The thrown-away gear was nearly all gathered together after the rumpus was over, and the men got their belongings back, and without having anything said to them

a High and a Low

Ball.

for throwing it away, either. It was funny to hear the talk of some of the Rough Riders at mess that night.

"What I want, and want right now," said one of them to his companions, " is twenty-seven Scotch high-balls and a caviare sandwich."

"Stop your kidding," one of them replied, "you're in luck that you didn't get one Spanish low ball."

One of the boys of Hamilton Fish's outfit sang in a very sweet tenor voice "The Vacant Chair," at mess that night. It was enough to choke a man up.

Edward Marshall, that newspaper correspondent who was hit in the spine early in the fight, was a game man all right. He was conscious when they picked him up.

"Where did you get it, Marshall?" he was asked before he was examined. "I pass," said he, for he didn't know where he was hit himself, the bullet made him so numb. "Any old place from hat to moccasins, I guess."

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PRAISE FROM THE FOE.

I

A Tribute From 11,000 Spanish Soldiers.

T is very doubtful if the annals of warfare have ever recorded such a document as the farewell address which was presented on August 21, 1898, to the American army at Santiago by 11,000 Spanish soldiers on the eve of leaving Cuba for their native country.

This tribute to our gallant boys reads as follows:

"Soldiers of the American army :

"We would not be fulfilling our duty as well-born men in whose breasts there live gratitude and courtesy should we embark for our beloved Spain without sending to you our most cordial and sincere good wishes and farewell. We fought you with ardor, with all our strength, endeavoring to gain the victory, but without the slightest rancor or hate toward the American nation. We have been vanquished by you (so our generals and chiefs judged in signing the capitulation), but our surrender and the bloody battle preceding it have left in our souls no place for resentment against the men who fought us nobly and valiantly.

"You fought and acted in compliance with the same call of duty as we, for we all represent the power of our respective States. You fought us as men face to face and with great courage, as before stated, a quality which we had not met with during the three years we have carried on this war against a people without religion, without morals, without conscience and of doubtful origin, who could not confront the enemy, but, hidden, shot their noble victims from ambush and then immediately fled. This was the kind of warfare we had to sustain in this unfortunate land.

"You have complied exactly with all the laws and usages of war as recognized by the armies of the most civilized nations of the world; have given honorable burial to the dead of the vanquished; have cured their wounded with great humanity; have respected and cared for your prisoners and their comfort; and, lastly, to us, whose condition was terrible, you have given freely of food, of your stock of medicines, and you have honored us with distinction and courtesy, for after the fighting the two armies mingled with the utmost harmony.

"With the high sentiment of appreciation from us all, there remains but to express our farewell, and with the greatest sincerity we wish you all happiness and health in this land, which will no longer belong to our dear Spain, but will be yours, who have conquered it by force and watered it with your blood as your conscience called for, under the demand of civilization and humanity.

"From 11,000 Spanish soldiers.
"Pedro Lopez de Castillo, Soldier of Infantry.
"SANTIAGO DE CUBA, August 21, 1898."

T

THE MOST HEROIC ACT OF THE WAR.

True Story of How Hobson Sank the "Merrimac."

HE wars of the nation, from Revolutionary days of '76 to the present, are punctuated by deeds of extraordinary courage, but history has never recorded a more heroic act than that performed by Assistant Naval Constructor Richmond P. Hobson, on the night of June 3, at the entrance to Santiago Harbor. Lieutenant Cushing's feat in blowing up the Confederate ram "Albemarle," in Albemarle Sound (October 27, 1864) and Lieutenant Somer's fatal exploit in destroying a Moorish ship in Tripoli Harbor (May 25, 1804), were regarded as being the most noteworthy examples of sailor daring in the annals of American seamanship, but desperate as were these undertakings, they were not more so than was Hobson's dashing attempt of June 3, to block Santiago's harbor, thereby to prevent the escape of Cervera's fleet which was shut within.

When Rear-Admiral Sampson joined Commodore Schley, the latter had already ascertained that it would be impossible for the fleet to crawl into the rat hole in which the Spanish fleet had taken refuge. The mines across the entrance and the batteries which commanded it made the mere contemplation of it an act of folly. Commodore Schley was inclined to think the dynamite cruiser "Vesuvius" might be able to countermine, but the ships would have to go in single file and if one were sunk in the channel the progress of the others would be blocked. It was then that Lieutenant Hobson conceived the scheme of sinking a big collier across the harbor entrance and asked to be allowed to execute it himself. It seemed certain death and almost certain failure, as the odds were overwhelmingly against reaching the entrance before discovery; but Hobson was so enthusiastic that his confidence was infectious, and the Admiral finally but yet reluctantly gave his consent.

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