| Show AN awful SCENE the word picture conveyed in the telegraphic dispatches regarding the i e exodus X 0 dus of non combatants from santiago santie is a very painful one to think of what must it be to witness old men and women young boys and girls on foot and wading through the all prevalent mud of the trails hungry and dejected and with a haunted expression upon their countenances that they ther may escape the thralldom thrall om of life in that wretched place is a spectacle which does not fit into this enlightened age it is sadly reminiscent of earlier days when the circumstances and opportunities tuni tunit ties les of mankind had kept mindi heart and aad soul in narrow and unholy grooves and is one more of the multitudinous inous object lessons of the curse of spanish sway in any land where it la in stained ita ined it to is not a justification to say that those people who escape from the city are not forcibly ejected in a physical sense perhaps they are not but the pressure upon them to is no less lesa severe than if they emerged at the point of the bayonet they are nearly starved an indictment against the ruling power which would doubtless meet with the response that the defenders of the place and their commanders were also alao nearly starved it if so it is but adding infamy to infamy there Is abundance abroad and enough tor for present purposes right at their doors the amert amerl ans will soon be in poss possession esdon of santiago and the immediate rigors of the situation will terminate then why waw not now why put off the at the price of continued wan want t ase misery ry aud and death itself because of a murderous d rous fatuous sen sentiment the agony is being prolonged in the face of the protests of presence of the writing on the wall which even the ignorant spaniard MU can read if there were even a remote hope that the investing enemy might yet be beaten back and communication opened so that the place could be ed it would belll be a desperate an inhuman thing to cling to at under the circumstances merely ehing out to a phantasm while suro our rounded constantly by an actuality in the shape of the demon want gut but th there ere is no such hope the town isasi anut fall fal 1 the american flag must 9 as surely wave over the battlements and ana buildings of santiago as that ta bombs bursting in ate air again reach the ears of the people A late dispatch announces in substance that the spanish commander com mandey has placed or Is placing himself in communication with the home government having in view the consideration of a surrender this would go to show that he appreciates the situa situation tiou and is willing to capitulate if he obtains consent from madrid it is a most wise and humane thing to do and if such permission is withheld it will relieve the commanders of an awful responsibility and increase that now resting upon the home government to a fearful extent it is to be hoped that that government will be held to strict accountability as doubtless it will be the bombardment will begin at noon tomorrow if in the meantime no word of surrender comes from the spanish ea capital pital |
