pearance, and calmly moved
between his fleet and the shore, he changed his mind and granted the
desired time--which was wise, seeing that the English vessels could blow
his squadron out of water with little trouble and not much injury to
themselves.

The railroads which go out of New York, while perhaps adequate for all
purposes of traffic in time of peace, are scarcely equal to the removal
from the city of several hundred thousand women, children, sick and aged
persons within a period of even five days. People of this description
cannot be moved as easily as armies; and hence, when the morning of the
fifth day dawned, fully one-half of the non-combatant population was
still in the city.

This, however, was attributable not only to the inadequacy of the means
of transportation, but to the singular apathy--it was not
fearlessness--of the people themselves. In the great tenement districts,
it became necessary to send soldiers into the houses to drive people out
of them.

Among the Irish and Germans there was actual rioting, when force was
thus used. The impression was general that the missiles of the enemy
could not reach the populated parts of New York.

The crowds, however, at the Grand Central Depot, trying to leave the
city, were enormous. People were placed in cattle-cars, on wood cars--in
fact, every sort of conveyance adapted to the tracks was pressed into
service.

The Thirtieth Street Depot, on the west side, also was crowded, and
trains were leaving thence every few minutes.

Just before noon, the city was horror-stricken by the news of a
frightful accident at Spuyten Duyvil. An overloaded train from the
Thirtieth Street Depot there, through a broken switch, came into
collision with another overloaded train from the Grand Central Depot.
The slaughter was horrible. Twelve cars were derailed, and more than a
hundred and twenty people, mostly women and children, killed.

While people were repeating this news to one another with white faces
and trembling lips, the Spanish squadron was taking position and
preparing to attack.

The English squadron moved outside the Spanish ships, and stood off and
on under easy steam.

At precisely noon the white flag was lowered from the mast-head of the
Spanish flag-ship and the Spanish flags were hoisted by all of the
vessels. Immediately afterwards the "Numancia" delivered her broadside
full upon the Coney Island battery.

Instantly the flag from the general's stati