The brilliant feat that General Garcia has accomplished is that he has made a force of nearly three thousand Spanish soldiers come out to meet him, and after pretending to fall back before them until he had lured them to a certain place, he has turned upon them, and chased them into the mountains, until he has finally forced them into the Algones Valley. In this valley they are completely cut off from their friends, and he has them at his mercy. News is hourly expected that the entire Spanish force has either surrendered or been killed. If this is true, it will be a very severe blow to Spain. Reliable news has come that another part of Gomez's force has captured the town of Holguin, an important town in Santiago de Cuba, and one of the few strong-holds the Spanish still held in that province. It is said that quantities of stores and ammunition fell into the Cubans' hands. A telegram from Havana says that Fondeviella, now a lieutenant-colonel, has been made Chief of Police in Havana. The Spaniards must certainly approve of this horrible man's conduct, and Havana is likely to feel still more uneasy with such a person in power. A later telegram reports the capture of General Ruis Rivera, who was in command of the Western Division. If this is true it will be a sad check to the Cuban successes. [Footnote A: A very good map of Cuba may be purchased on news-stands for 10 cents.] * * * * * Reports have come that the dynamite-gun, of which the Cubans were so proud, has proved a failure. The various nations, all over the world, are watching the trial of this gun with the greatest interest. It can be so easily handled, can be carried by ten men, and put together and made ready for firing two minutes after it is unloaded, that other nations are anxious to see if it is really the valuable weapon it is claimed to be. Besides the advantages of being light and easy to handle, it can be fired without noise or smoke, and therefore its whereabouts are not easily discovered by an enemy; and moreover, if it has to be abandoned in a retreat, it can be disabled with one sharp blow of a stone, so that it can never be turned on its fleeing owners by a victorious enemy. If the report about it is true, it has one fault, that is so serious that it outweighs all the virtues. This fault is that the dynamite-gun has a habit of going off at both ends; that is to say, it is liable to explode both at the breech and the muzzle. It may therefore be quite as destructive to the army firing it, as to the enemy at which it is fired. Of course this will render the gun very unpopular, if it is true; but people who understand the weapon declare that the fault lies, not in the gun, but with the climate of the West Indies. The three tubes of this gun (which we described fully in Number 6 of THE GREAT ROUND WORLD) are fastened together at the breech with a clasp which holds the whole mechanism of the gun in place.