One of the sounds of Key West is the whacking of the horses which draw the carriages and the mules which move the street cars from place to place.
The street cars look as if they had been dug up from the neighborhood of the pyramids. Ropes are used for reins, and the only substantial thing about the whole outfit is the great rawhide whip, with which the street-car driver labors incessantly. The people, as a rule, are opposed to excessive exertion, but they make an exception in the case of labor with a whip.
JOURNALISM, CLIMATE AND DOGS.
The town has one struggling newspaper, which is worthy of a better support. It is told of the editor that he came to Key West a barefooted boy from Georgia, and worked his way up to his present eminent position of instructor in etiquette and ethics to the four hundred.
Hundreds of dogs, cats, roosters, goats, and "razorbacks" run at large through the streets, and the three former combine to make night hideous. In the early evening the sound of negro meetings and jubilations predominates. Then the cats begin where the shouters leave off. Later, the dogs, sneaking and sore-eyed, and more numerous than any other species, take up the refrain. They howl and bark and keep on howling and barking, until sleep seems impossible. At last, when the wakeful man thinks the row is over, the roosters, the meanest, skinniest, loudest-mouthed roosters in the world, continue the serenade until death seems a welcome, especially the death of the roosters.
NEGROES ALONE ARE PATRIOTIC.
There is a strange mixture of races at Key West, but the negroes are the most patriotic class. They alone celebrate the Fourth of July and other national holidays. While the town has its enlightened and respectable people, it also has a shoddy class, whose ignorance of the rest of the world carries them to grotesque extremes in their efforts to proclaim their greatness.
Even in its schools Key West is peculiar. The schoolhouses are built like cigar factories, and each has mounted upon the roof the bell of an old locomotive. When the school bells are ringing it is easy to close your eyes and imagine yourself in one of the great railway depots of the north.
THE FIRST AUTHORIZED EXPEDITION.
Prior to the commencement of our war with Spain the United States authorities kept a close watch on the Cubans in Key West, and made every effort to prevent the shipment of supplies to the insurgents. But as soon as the conflict was begun there was a change in the policy and the government assisted the work in every possible way. The first expedition was a failure. Under command of Captain Dorst of the United States army the transport steamer Gussie sailed from Key West with two companies of infantry on board, in charge of 7,000 rifles and 200,000 rounds of ammunition, intended for the insurgents of Pinar del Rio. The supplies were to be conveyed to General Gomez by a force of insurgents encamped three miles back from the coast.