The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls | Page 5

were that the Cubans had won the victory, and General Pando had been killed.
This report was denied by the Spaniards, but nevertheless no news has been received from this leader since the engagement.
The Spanish authorities are awaiting information with the deepest anxiety. The idea is growing daily stronger that some disaster must have overtaken him, and that he has been cut off from communication with Havana; otherwise no one can account for the fact that no news of any kind has been received from him.
In addition to this, the towns of Guisa and Canto el Embarcadero have been captured by the Cubans. A force of Spanish guerillas, fifty strong, have gone over to the insurgents, carrying with them arms, ammunition, and a large sum of money. Gomez is busy in Santa Clara, organizing his forces to make a strong stand against the Spanish troops.
As we told you, the Government has issued an order permitting the grinding of the sugar-cane.
Gomez is determined to prevent this. In the Western provinces, the rebels have divided themselves into small bands, and are burning such cane-fields as the desolation of the war has left growing.
Gomez himself will destroy the fields of Santa Clara.
You probably remember the methods employed by the insurgents for burning the cane at the beginning of the war.
They caught snakes, which are very plentiful in the swampy districts of Cuba, and rubbing their bodies with kerosene, set fire to them, and then threw them into the cane-fields.
The agonized reptiles, in their efforts to rub the burning oil from their bodies, twined around the cane, twisted from stem to stem, and set the fields on fire in a hundred places at once.
A big engagement is reported near Sancti Spiritus, and it is also said that the rebels have hanged fifteen persons who have approached them with proposals of Home Rule.
This does not look as if the island would soon be pacified.
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The Government in Spain appears to be satisfied with the President's Message, the substance of which you will find in this number of THE GREAT ROUND WORLD.
You will see, when you look at it, that the President does not think it wise to interfere for the present, but thinks it right to give Spain time to try what Home Rule will do.
It is doubtful, however, whether the proposed reforms can be made acceptable to the majority of the Cubans.
A fresh proclamation, signed by a number of the lesser Cuban chiefs, has been issued. In it the insurgents state very decidedly that they are fighting for liberty, and will have nothing but liberty from Spain. They declare, in so many words, that their watchword is "Freedom or Death."
It is not going to be easy to pacify so determined a people.
The Havana volunteers are now giving the Government much trouble and putting fresh obstacles in the way of the success of the reforms.
We spoke about this body of men at the time of Weyler's leave-taking, and told you how opposed they were to showing kindness or mercy to the Cubans, believing only in Weyler's cruel methods.
These volunteers are violently enraged against the proposed Home Rule, and in addition have another grievance against the Government.
They have been in the habit of doing the kid-glove soldiering of the island, mustering and parading in handsome uniforms; their heaviest work has been to occasionally go on guard duty at the palace, where the Captain-General lives, or at the bank.
General Blanco is anxious to suppress the revolution, and, wishing to make use of every man who can carry arms, decided to put this idle force into the field.
This the volunteers refused to submit to. It is said that they will mutiny rather than undertake any useful duties.
Perhaps a little ashamed to state the true cause of their anger, they have laid it all to the score of Home Rule, and declare that if Spain cannot protect them they would rather submit to American government than be ruled by Cubans.
The disaffected volunteers have declared their intention of wearing the white badge of Don Carlos, and will appeal to him rather than allow the hated Home Rule to be carried out.
In Spain, also, the Carlist party is making strong protests against the establishment of Home Rule, and it is thought that Don Carlos will seize this measure as a pretext for coming forward and making one more effort to gain the throne of Spain.
Several of the Spanish journals have begun to speak of him as "the king," and, strange to say, this treasonable conduct has been allowed to go unpunished.
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The stone house at Tappan on the Hudson River, in which Major John Andr�� was imprisoned before he was hanged as a spy, is about to be opened to the public.
For forty years it has