the rifles. The point is almost reached in modern
guns of 2,000 and 3,000 yards range where the friction of the gun
barrel and the speed of the missile at the muzzle are sufficient to
fuse unprotected lead, and at any rate so much of the soft material
would soon he left in the grooves as to impair accuracy and endanger
the structure of the arm.

Right ahead when the first stairs are cleared is a splendid hall,
with a pair of gilded lions on a dais, and some of the boys had
adorned these beasts with crowns of theatrical splendor. The arms
of Spain are conspicuous, and in superb medallions illustrious
warriors, statesmen, authors, artists and navigators, look down
from the walls upon desks now occupied by American officers. Above
this floor the stairs are blocks of hardwood, the full width of the
stairway and the height of the step, and this earthquake precaution
does not detract from the dignity of the building, for the woodwork is
massive and handsome. A marvelous effect might be produced in some of
the marble palaces of private citizens in our American cities by the
construction of stairways with the iron-hard and marble-brilliant wood
that is abundant in Puerto Rico, Cuba and Luzon. The hall in which
the city council met, now the place of the provost-marshal's court,
is furnished in a style that puts to shame the frugality displayed
in the council chambers of our expensively governed American cities,
where men of power pose as municipal economists.

In the elevated chair of the President, faced by the array of chairs
of the Spanish councilmen, or aldermen, sits the provost-marshal
judge, and before him come the soldiers who have forgotten themselves
and the culprits arrested by the patrol. On the wall above him is a
full-length likeness of the Queen Regent--a beautiful, womanly figure,
with a tender and anxious mother's solicitous face. She looks down with
sad benignity upon the American military government. There is also
a portrait of the boy king, who becomes slender as he gains height,
and rather sickly than strong. It may be that too much care is taken
of him.

In the corner room at the end of the corridor Major-General Otis
received at his desk the news that Generals Merritt and Greene
were ordered home, and that he was the major-general commanding and
the chief of the civil, as well as the military department of the
government. He had already found much to do and tackled the greater
task with imperturbable