ement that
had taken place at 10 A. M. in a distant part of the island, remote
from the telegraph stations. I wondered how he could have known,
and later learned of their systems of signaling by kites. For night
messages the kites are illuminated. They are expert, not only in
flying, but in making them.

Their schools are like pandemonium let loose; all the pupils studying
aloud together, making a deafening, rasping noise. Sessions from 7
to 10 A. M., 3 to 6 P. M.

The large Mexican dollars are too cumbersome to carry in any ordinary
purse. If one wishes to draw even a moderate sum, it is necessary to
take a cart or carriage. A good sized garden shovel on one side and a
big canvas bag on the other expedites bank transactions in the islands.

At the time of the evacuation of Jaro by the insurrectos, our officers
chose their quarters from the houses the natives had fled from. The
house which we occupied had formerly been used as the Portuguese
Consulate. Like all the better houses the lower part was built of
stone, and the upper part of boards. There was very little need of
heavy boards or timbers except to hold the sliding windows. I should
think the whole house was about eighty feet square with rear porch
that was used for a summer garden. The pillars of this porch were
things of real beauty. They were covered with orchids that in the
hottest weather were all dried up and quite unsightly, but when the
rainy season began they were very beautiful in their luxuriance of
growth and bloom. The front door was in three parts; the great double
doors which opened outward to admit carriages and a small door in one
of the larger doors. There was a huge knocker, the upper part was a
woman's head. To open the large doors it was necessary to pull the
latch by a cord that came up through the floor to one of the inner
rooms. I used to occupy this room at night and it was my office and my
pleasure to pull the bobbin and let the latch fly up when the scouting
troop would come in late at night. Captain Gordon said that he never
found me napping, that I was always ready to greet them as soon as
their horses turned the corner two squares away. The entrance door
admitted to a great hall with a stone floor, ending in apartments
for the horses. On the right of the hall were rooms for domestic
purposes, such as for the family looms, four or five of them, and for
stores of food and goods. On the left there were four steps up and
then a platf