The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 59, December 23, 1897

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.

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.

The stone house at Tappan on the Hudson River, in which Major John André was imprisoned before he was hanged as a spy, is about to be opened to the public.

For forty years it has been owned by a gentleman who absolutely refused to allow any one to enter it.

A few weeks ago a heavy storm of wind and rain threw down the whole front of the house, and immediately scores of relic-hunters descended upon the house, and, delighted that they no longer need be deterred from satisfying their curiosity, roamed at will over the ruin, carrying away scraps of wood and stone as mementos of their visit.

Disgusted that he could no longer keep his property to himself, the owner sold the old house. The present proprietor intends to rebuild the front wall and preserve the rest of the building as it is, using it as a picnic resort.

This old house has a very interesting record.

During the Revolutionary times it was known as the Mabie Tavern, and the old tap-room, with its ancient bar, is still as it was in those troublous times.

Major André was the officer who, as the representative of the British general, Sir Henry Clinton, made arrangements with the infamous traitor, Benedict Arnold, for the surrender of West Point.

On returning from his interview with Arnold at Stony Point, André was arrested at Tarrytown and taken across the Tappan Zee. He was tried by court-martial and sentenced to be hanged as a spy. The sentence was carried out in October, 1780.

The tavern was used as a prison, and the room in which André was visited by Alexander Hamilton, and the window from which the doomed man was supposed to have looked out on his place of execution, are still in good preservation.

    G.H. Rosenfeld.

THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

On Monday, December 6th, the first regular session of the Fifty-fifth Congress began.

At twelve o'clock precisely the Senate and the House of Representatives were called to order by their respective presiding officers.

The usual form of business was then gone through.

After a prayer by the chaplain, both bodies appointed two members to inform the President that Congress was in session, and ready to receive any communication from him.

At half-past one the President's secretary presented the Message to the Senate, and a few minutes later handed another in to the House of Representatives.

The Message, which is President McKinley's first annual message, was listened to with the closest attention.

After a greeting to Congress, and congratulations on the good work done in the extra session last summer, the President took up the

Currency Question.—You will remember that he was very anxious to make some changes in our money system, which he did not consider satisfactory. He asked Congress to appoint a committee to examine into the subject, but Congress referred the matter to the Committee on Finance, and no special committee was appointed.

The President realized from this that the country was not ready or willing to have changes made in its money system, and therefore, in his Message, he treats the currency with the utmost care.

He warns Congress that the present money system is unsound and needs changing. He reminds the lawmakers that the country has undertaken to pay out a certain amount of gold every year, but that it has not made any arrangements for receiving gold. The consequence is that the treasury has every year to buy the gold it needs to pay its debts.

This the President does not approve of.

He suggests that some arrangement should be made whereby debts due to the Government shall be paid in gold, so that the treasury may receive enough gold for its needs.

He leaves the matter in the hands of Congress, suggesting that it might help matters if the bank-notes which the Government has to redeem in gold shall only be paid out again in exchange for gold. He also asks that earnest attention be given to the plan of the Secretary of the Treasury.

The Cuban Question is treated in a very impartial and statesmanlike manner.

The President goes over its history in a way that is most interesting to us, because he is in possession of facts that no private citizen can obtain. We print a portion of his remarks:

"The story of Cuba for many years has been one of unrest, growing discontent; an effort toward a larger enjoyment of liberty and self-control; of organized resistance to the mother country.