Greatest Chase of to be her match in strength. It would never do to allow even one of the Spanish ships to get away. Straight into the west the strongest chase of modern times took place, the "Brooklyn" heading the pursuers. She stood well out from the shore in order to try to cut off the "Cristobal Colon " at a point jutting out into the sea far ahead. The "Oregon" kept the middle course about a mile from the cruiser. The desperate Spaniard ran close along the shore, and now and then threw a shell of defiance. The old "Texas" kept well up in the chase under forced draught for over two hours. The swift Spaniard led the Americans a merry chase, but she had no chance. The "Brooklyn" gradually forged ahead, so that the escape of the "Cristobal Colon" was cut off at the point above mentioned. The "Oregon" was abeam of the "Colon" then, and the gallant cruiser abandoned all effort to escape, and at 1.15 o'clock headed for the shore, and five minutes later down came the Spanish flag. None of our ships at this time were within a mile of her, but her escape was cut off. The "Texas," "Oregon," and "Brooklyn" closed in on her and stopped their engines a few hundred yards away. Down Came the "Colon's" Flag. Commodore Schley left the "Brooklyn" in a small boat and went aboard the "Cristobal Colon" and received the surrender. Meantime the "New York," with Admiral Sampson on board, and the "Vixen," were coming up on the run. Commodore Schley signaled to Admiral Sampson : "We have won a great victory, details will be communicated." A Moment for Patriotic Cheers. The surrender in that little cove under the high hills was a general Fourth of July celebration, though a little premature. Our ships cheered one another, the captains indulged in compliments through the megaphones, and the "Oregon" got out its band, and the strains of the "Star Spangled Banner" echoed over the lines of the Spaniards drawn up on the deck of the last of the Spanish fleet, and up over the lofty green-tipped hills of the Cuban mountains. Commodore Schley, coming alongside the "Texas" from the "Cristobal Colon" in his gig, called out to me, cheerily, "It was a nice fight, Jack, wasn't it?" The "Resolute" arrived soon after, and the work of transferring the prisoners from the "Cristobal Colon" to her was then begun. Five hundred and thirty men were taken off; eight were missing. It was hoped that the "Cristobal Colon" might be saved as a Fourth of July gift to our navy. She was beached bow on, on a sandy shore, and her stern was afloat, but she was not materially damaged by the shots that struck her. One 13-inch shell and one 8-inch had hit her, but it was found that the Spaniards had taken every measure to destroy her after they themselves were safe. They had opened every sea-valve in the ship and had thrown the caps overboard. They had also opened all the ports and smashed the deadlights, and had even thrown the breech plugs of their guns overboard. The "Colon" floated off at seven o'clock in the evening and drifted 500 yards down the beach to the westward, swinging bow out. The "New York" pushed her stern on to the beach, but the water was already up to her gun deck. At eleven o'clock she lurched and turned over on her starboard side, with her port guns pointing straight skyward. Twisted Wrecks of the Fleet. The first ship inspected was the "Almirante Oquendo." She was run ashore in a small bay, and well up on the beach, where she is likely to stay until time and the action of the elements complete the destruction begun by the American guns. Her sides were scarred by many shots, and in her port bow there was a tremendous hole made by a 13-inch shell. On her port quarter, near the water line, there was a large rent. Her military masts were gone and her decks presented a scene of wreck and confusion. As the vessel was approached a ghastly sight was presented. Dead Spaniards were seen floating all about in the water. They were stripped to the waist as they had stood to man their guns. The gunboat "Suwanee " steamed up, and Lieutenant Blue started ashore in her whaleboat to look after the prisoners, and especially the wounded, who were taken on board and their injuries carefully dressed by our surgeons. PRAYER. BY S. WEIR MITCHELL. And in thy majesty ride prosperously, because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things.-Psalm xiv. FIRST AMERICAN NEWSPAPER IN SANTIAGO. A S the newsgatherer preceded our army in Cuba, so the newspublisher was first to inaugurate American enterprise on the reclaimed island. Santiago is a large city, with many capabilities, which correspondents were quick to discern; therefore, almost immediately after its surrender, and before the plunder incident to military ocсираtion was brought into orderly arrangement of assumed ownership, a paper was founded in the city. Out of a chivalrous deference to the suddenly mixed population of Santiago, the paper, very properly christened The Times, was printed half-and-half, but the spirit of every column was distinctly American of the far western type, as the following salutatory and extracts will show: "A newspaper should have a mission. Its mission should be to educate and enlighten. When it fails to do this, it is a failure. In the heart of Africa there are no newspapers. We have not heard whether there are newspapers in Hayti or not. We started the Times of Cuba so that we might have an American paper, as well as the American flag, in our new possession. They were Spanish papers, some of them run by Cubans. Of these latter we have had the pleasure of reading various old copies. They tell us of the loyalty of the Cubans to Spain, and how they proposed to keep the Yankee out, fighting side by side under the red and yellow flag. The editors are still here, and now they are singing verses and telling us how they helped whip the Spaniard. And they are full of complaints because we do not fire him out. cance of a Common Word. "After seeing the pied form of a newspaper run up to the very day of our first bombardment, we had some misgivings about starting the Times. Some of the old editors offered to furnish us with their 'wardrobes.' In our ignorance, we did not know what Singular Significonnection a 'wardrobe' could have with a daily paper, but later we learned that it was the term applied to the standing newspaper items which had been kept in Spanish printing offices for the last century. They included death notices, marriage announcements, and even local items of news. When a man died, or was assassinated, or put in jail, the editor went to his 'wardrobe,' selected the appropriate item, changed the victim's name and then the matter was all ready for the press, without fear of being censored. Then this matter of being censored also frightened us. "We have been in jail so many times that imprisonment has lost all its novelty for us. But we were informed that if we wanted to publish any real hot stuff we might hire a couple of old beggars to sit in our office, and when the police came around to arrest the writer of the obnoxious article all we had to do was to point out one of the beggars. We would still have one beggar left for another article and if we wanted to write more articles we could get more beggars. They were cheap. Then we were told that we might expect to have a duel or two on our hands. This idea rather pleased us. We never had been challenged but once, and that was way back in the palmy days of our youth in Spain. After having accepted the challenge, our opponent said he had only challenged us to test our nerve, as he was looking for a companion to help fight another fellow. A Duel Was Threatened. "After being confronted with so many circumstances attending Cuban journalism, we finally went ahead and got out our first paper. For three days we struggled with a reporter and an advertising manager, who smoked cigarettes in the morning and slept siestas in the afternoon. The one proved absolutely helpless to bring out a paper which had not provided itself with a 'wardrobe,' and the other was so slow in making out receipts and collecting bills that many of our customers died before we could get their promised subscriptions. We were almost in despair, but we finally found a man who wanted to work, and since then we have become daily more interested in the Times and its mission as a newspaper. True, it has not been much of a paper, but we have had the satisfaction of saying about what we pleased, and we have not yet been arrested or shot at or otherwise maltreated, but on the contrary have received many expressions of attention and kindness, notwithstanding the fact that two or three narrow-minded people have ordered us to take their names off our subscription lists. Of course, there is no hope for these people, for when the Times has flourished and grown, and becomes a power in the island of Cuba, these simple, narrow-minded ones will still be antiquated, rubbing their eyes and longing for the good old days when King Alfonso was a child and everyone could do as he pleased, except run an independent, modern newspaper." All newspapers occasionally have cause to apologize for errors which have crept into print, but very likely the following is unique: "It seems to be the object in life of some people to do as little work and get as much money as possible. This was the case yesterday when our printers run in upon us the article 'Are We Fools?' which had appeared in our issue of the day previous. Our printers are all natives, which not only accounts for the many typographical errors, especially in our English section, |