Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 January 1910 — ARNOLD BROTHERS RETURN FROM TRIP TO CUBA. [ARTICLE]

ARNOLD BROTHERS RETURN FROM TRIP TO CUBA.

Learn Particulars of Brother’s Death and Enjoy Trip to Island of Emit and Flowers. Charles and Eli Arnold returned this Friday morning from their trip to Omaja, Cuba, where they had gone to ascertain the cause of the death of their brother, Chris, which occurred on November 24th. They left here on December 19th, buying tickets through 16 Havanna, each paying 579.90 for

the round trip. They went by' the way of Knights Key and Key West, Fla. Havanna is only 107 miles from Key West. They found that Omaja was about in the center of the island, 450 miles from Havanna and about 100 miles from Santiago. Cuban railroad fare is 3 cents a mile and no reduction on round trips, in fact, the tickets are sold for only one way. Omaja is in the orient of Province, and is a small town of only about 30 families, mostly American settlers from Ohio and Indiana, who have small fruit farms. Chris had a farm of 250 acres about a mile from Omaja, on which was a new settler’s house he had had erected, and one Cuban shack. Chris’s death took place at Las Tunas, about 17 miles west of Omaja. He was working for a man there by the month, driving a team of mules. Some one saw him bending over, apparently fastening up a girth strap under one of the mules, and saw The mule start to run and Chris being dragged behind. He was apparently dragged about 30 rods and when those who witnessed the accident reached his side he gasped but a time or two and passed away. Evidently his feet had become entangled in the chain trace. He had been kicked and trampled on by the mule and his body was badly bruised and cut. His brothers visited his grave and were surprised to find a part of a skull and several human bones lying on the grave. They were informed that it was not uncommon there in burying a person to dig up the bones of another that had been buried in the same spot before and that very little attention was paid to the discovery of human bones, and that the grave diggers did not go to the trouble of re-interring the bones thus brought to the surface. They were unable to do much toward the settlement of the estate left by Chris, but left the affair in the hands of a lawyer at Holgyn, which is the seat of government for the orient of Province. They were informed that Chris’s farm was worth about $35 or S4O per acre. They brought home with them a trunk of fruit, part of which was sent by a man formerly at North Whitley, this state, to relatives living there. They had about a day and a half at Havanna and to<|k the sight-seeing trip in an automobile. They saw the bent mast of the old Maine in the harbor and visited the graveyard where the American sailors who lost their lives when the Maine was blown up were temporarily buried. The trip was a very interesting one and aside from the sadness of their mission was much enjoyed.