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Points of Pictures: Cuban

Santiago, it will be remembered, is the scene of the Virginius massacre, and the beauty of the place is referred to in the farewell letter of the Cuban martyr, Captain Fry, to his wife. The view selected displays the distant hills and waters and a quaint country house on a commanding point. The vegetation in Cuba, stimulated by a soil of incomparable riches and wet seasons, during which the rain fall is enormous, and a sun just fiery enough to be invigorating to vegetables, whatever it might be to animals, prepares millions of ambuscades, and the tree-tops are sometimes used because the underbrush is so thick it is difficult to aim at an enemy from the ground. There are many palms in the Cuban forests, and the tendency of the trees generally is to throw out tops resembling spread umbrellas. The insurgents are as expert in preparing places from which they can, in comparative security, fire with deadly effect upon columns of regulars, as ever the North American Indians were, and they have crafty ways of concealing themselves and giving and taking warning that certain roads are safe and others perilous. The view of a cell in Moro Castle is in the nature of news. The journalist, Charles Michelson, who was confined there in a case of mistaken identity on a military report, and released on the intervention of Consul-General Williams, has a keen eye for details, and was able to draw his surroundings faithfully. He illustrates one of the possible embarrassments attending enterprise in seeking Cuban intelligence from original sources.

The prevalent stories of the young King of Spain are that he is a lively and self-willed child who improves in physical condition and bids fair to be a strong man, though born after the death of his father, who was of feeble constitution, perishing of pulmonary trouble. His mother is in vigorous health, and has won the regard of the Spaniards by her modesty and wholesome devotion to her public and family affairs.

The resemblance of the boy king to his mother is evident in the family group, and the fact that he is like her is held to be of happy omen. The young king is, therefore, a little Austrian. The sisters are amiable girls of a more Spanish type than their brother.