Cuba's Deadly Climate

Siboney, Cuba, July 27.- The predicions so freely made before the invasión oí Cuba that the climate would prove the worst foe of the American army has come true. Within the last few days the numjer of fever cases which have developed has been uncomfortably large, and has given the officers in charge ol ;he expedition much concern. At Gen. Shafter's headquarters alone there were in the fever hospital 293 cases this morning, with every prospect that many additions would be made in the course of the day. Of these the great majority were of the malarial type; :he remainder were typhoid, witii three exceptions. These were said to ae non-malignant yellow fever. The patients had been brought from the [ront within a week. The advice given probably to eai-h and every soldier before he left Iha United States as to how he might avoid the climatic dangers of Cuba could not in most instances be followed. The water, which was apparently good, was not boiled, for the good reason that there was nothing in which to boil it. One Massachusetts company was fortúnate enough to have pots and kettles enough for the purpose and a captain energetic enough to enforce the order, and the men drank nothing but fluid which had gone through the heating process. The remainder of the army used the raw liquid. Neither did the soldiers refrain fronl sleeping in the open air at night. On thelr foreed marches they threw away1 nearly everything they had except their rifles, cartridge belts and can' teens. When the halt came they sim-. ply threw themselves on the ground and slept there. Big camp fires were not and could not be built, for the simple reason that they would be beacona to the enemy and also because dry firewood is scarce in a country so thoroughly saturated with moisture as CuJ ba is at this season of the year. A most serious error was not prompt' ly burning all the old buildings in SIboney as soon as the town was occupied. The same should have beeiT done with the partially ruined housedt at Seville and El Paso. Instead they were taken possession of by soldiers correspondents and others unprovided with tents and used as sleeping places and for shelter from the heavy ralns. Had all the old "shacks" been destroy-' ed at the start the outbreak of yelloV fever would probably have been pre vented.