y design and delicate execution, queerly effective. The
tall glasses stood as if upon mantles. There were other glasses that
duplicated their splendors; through the open doors down the street,
which was the one for the contemplation of the gorgeous--and down the
street means into the modern end of the city--was the residence of the
Spanish Admiral of the annihilated fleet, Montijo. It had been the
property of and was the creation of a German, who got rich and got
away in good time with $1,000,000 or more, selling his house to one
of the rich Chinese, who had the fortune, good, bad or indifferent,
to become the landlord of the Admiral whose ships disappeared in a
vast volume of white vapor on the May morning when the Americans came
and introduced themselves.

General Greene's headquarters were in the house the German merchant
built, the Chinese millionaire bought, and the Admiral, without a
fleet since the 1st of May, rented. The furnishing was rich; there were
frescoes that were aglow with the tropic birds and window curtains that
were dreams. The vast mansions of the ex-officials were not, however,
such as would have been sought as accommodations for the management of
the military and other affairs, and there was much lacking to comfort;
but as the hotels after the siege were not tolerable, the officers
had to discover houses in which they could develop resources, and
the public property was that of those who conquered to the extent to
which it had belonged to those displaced.

The Americans got out of the chaotic hotels soon as possible, for there
were some things in them simply not endurable. They rent houses and
employ servants and set up housekeeping. The newspaper correspondents
have been driven to this, and they are comparatively happy. They have
found ponies almost a necessary of life, and food that is fair is
attainable, while the flowing hydrants remove a good deal of privation
and apprehension. The water is from an uncontaminated stream, and
though slightly soiled after heavy rainfalls, it is not poisonous,
and that is what many American and European cities cannot truthfully
say of their water supplies. The demand for houses by the Americans
has raised the views of the proprietors. The street on which the
official Spaniards meant to flourish, as Weyler, Blanco and others
had done before them, and had not time to reap a harvest of plunder
before the days of doom came, would be called by the citizens of
Cleve