the ruling force among the people.  Children run naked until they are six years old.  Every one wears white linen clothing and most, of the people go bare-footed.  The men wear straw hats and the women go with their heads uncovered.  There are not a few English and Americans here, and they scrupulously maintain the Anglo-American costumes.  News does not reach us for ten days or more after you read it in the newspapers in the States.  We are just reading the Indianapolis papers of July 31 and August 1, and the news is perfectly fresh to us.  The marriage rite here is a very loose affair.  A man may have one or two families, as he may elect.  One of these may include the progeny of a wife of his own class and the other by a negro woman or half-breed.  All he has to do is to pay the prescribed duty.

There are no bad fevers here, but small-pox sometimes is prevalent in certain localities, although they have not had the scourge for three years.  Leprosy, elephantiasis and diseases arising from a bad condition of the blood prevail to some extent.  Ruins of sugar mills and plantations abound on every side, once great money-producing establishments, but destroyed by Spanish avarice and the American tariff.  Cattle-raising, fruit-growing, coffee, and rice culture furnish the principal money-making vocations in Porto Rico.  There are no railroads that amount to anything.  The wagon roads are all military roads and the freighting is carried on with pack mules and bull-carts.  The latter are of the clumsiest character, the yoke resting on the horns of the animals instead of upon their necks, as in the old farm districts in the United States.  They carry from two to three tons or more at a load.  The horses and mules are small, but willing and patient animals.  The natives are sharp traders and boys of from six to ten years of age can drive close bargains.  One of our American dollars will purchase exactly twice as much as a Spanish dollar.  The one particularly cheap product is the cigars.  “Smokes” of a good quality sell for one cent each.  Bananas and lemons are cheap, and of the latter fruit we partake plentifully.  Cocoanuts sell for five cents each; milk, five cents; bread, twenty cents, and sugar, four cents.  These prices are on a basis of the Spanish money.

This letter was written by one of the soldiers of the Sixteenth infantry, five captains of which led the particular charge in which this regiment participated: 

July 24, 1898.

We are in bivouac near our trenches, within half a mile of Santiago.  The fighting is all over and we are just waiting for something to happen.  The latest newspaper we have seen was that of July 3, so you see I write like a person of the past generation.

We have had a hot time.  The Spanish got drunk and put up a pretty good fight.  At least I have heard they were all drunk in the battle of the 1st.  I don’t know whether it is true or not, but I do know that they did not run as quickly as we wished them to do.