Santiago is a queer place. We approached the city along the road that passes by our camp. The street was narrow—not more than twenty-five or thirty feet wide—not wider than the paved portion of the street in front of our house. Many are much narrower—mere alleys in fact—but people living all along them. Across the streets trenches had been dug by the Spanish troops and barbed wire netting in front of the trenches. There were many trenches, showing what preparation they had made for a desperate resistance to our advance. The houses are nearly all one-story and have brick or stone floors. Few have wood floors and all seem dirty. No glass is used in the windows, and very little window glass is seen in the city. The window openings are grated on the outside and have a sort of portiere or wooden shutters on the inside. The streets are not straight, but wind and turn until one loses the points of the compass. The houses are built out even with the streets, no front yards and no spaces between the houses. Houses are mostly covered on the outside walls with plaster and roofs of red tile. The city is very old and the houses show it. We went into the cathedral, an old building. They rang the bells and rang them again, but so far as we could see no one came to worship. The janitors and priests lounged about—the latter saluted us. We strolled all about the interior of the structure with our spurs on our boots and wearing cartridge belts and revolvers. The American soldier goes about where he pleases in the city. Of course we recognized the character of the building and removed our hats when we went in. The interior was adorned like most Catholic churches, with pictures and altars and other regalia of the Catholic service. Quite a nice picture of the Virgin appears in the ceiling, and a number of good pictures are found about the walls. We also went into the "palace," now used as General Shafter's headquarters. It is one of the best buildings in the city, but doesn't compare with the more ordinary public buildings in our country. There are no street cars—few, if any electric lights, and the surface of many streets is so rough and uneven that you can have no conception of them. The few that are better than others are paved with cobblestones, but these are few. Most streets are full of loose stones and not paved, and little, if any, pretense at grading. The dirt lies in the streets and side streets are filthy. In fact, it looked to me like the greater the stink the better the people like it. My sense of smell was too acute to relish it. Our troops have gathered up large numbers of Cubans and put them to work cleaning up the streets, and the prospects for cleanliness are better. I don't believe, however, that the Cuban and Spanish residents will profit by it unless they are absolutely compelled to avoid throwing rubbish in the streets. They have no cellars and no sewers. The people themselves have very little regard for the ordinary proprieties of civilized life and children run stark naked on the streets.
The following letter has been received from Claude Neis of Company
G, First District of Columbia volunteers:
Santiago de Cuba, Aug. 9, 1898.
You said that Mr. Balcke's son was killed in Santiago. If so, I must say that I saw his ghost on the wayside in a cluster of woods. I remember seeing the name. His first name was Charley, if I am not mistaken. I feel very sorry to have heard of his death, but I know that he perished for a noble cause and fought gallantly as any soldier could.
Lon White is all right, and this trip is doing him a great deal of good, only he has had an attack of malarial fever lately. It seems to affect all the boys, and if they do not take us out of this place, since peace is virtually declared, we all will have a harder fight to contend with the yellow fever than we had with the Spaniards. It has already broken out among several regiments and we have lost two men already.
Last Friday the First battalion was ordered to guard the Spanish prisoners, 7,000 in number, and my four days' expedition with them has made me conceive very readily that they are superior to what I expected. I made friends with Captain Garcia, a very fine-looking man and a very gentle sort of a fellow. We were forbidden to talk, receive or give anything from or to them, but a soldier in these circumstances disobeys a minor order like that, I was invited to take dinner with the captain and his two lieutenants, Menez and Hernandez, two very nice sort of Spaniards. Though prisoners, they are more cordial than our own officers. The bill of fare and manner of eating was as follows:
1. Bean soup with rice, well seasoned with pepper a la Mexicano. 2. Fish, with the best sauce ever tasted since I left home. 3. Fried eggs and potatoes. (Eggs in the market here are 10 cents apiece.) After each intermission a glass of claret wine. 4. Rice and roast meat a la Francaise. 5. Rice pudding. 6. Coffee (Francaise), bread and butter. 7. Fruit. Glass of good Spanish rum a la rhum.
I have quite a few souvenirs from them and some Spanish buttons for sister.
We are situated on top of a mountain while the Spaniards are down in the valley. They bring quite a number of sick people out every morning. I have even become so acquainted with the men of the— battalion, Captain Garcia commanding, that they call me Senor Neis. I have named one, who is the real picture of an Irishman of the Mick type, "Mickey," and his comrades call him such. They carry my water for me and seem to be willing to do anything I ask them. The majority of them are very illiterate, very few intelligent privates, comparatively speaking. I have a young fellow about my age to teach English, and I am attempting Spanish. Both of us are getting along fairly well. I can make myself understood.
While I was dining with Captain Garcia his orderly was fanning the flies away from me. The country is beautiful, nothing but mountains and valleys. With American people here it will be worthy to have the island called the Gem of the Antilles. I can thank God that I have had the best of health and only two of us in the company have not had the fever. I seem to have gained in weight and full flushed in the face.