The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1876-03-15
THE CUBAN VOLUNTEERS.
Tho Mon who Leave Spain to Servo In u
Army In Cuba.

Tho Mon who Leave Spain to Servo In tho
Army In Cuba.
A correspondent writing from Spain
SAYS: The system OF recruiting. Tor the
army of Cuba Is as follows: Each yoiun-
teer receives, on enlistment, $50, he en-
listing for one or two years service; II,
at the end Of one year, he likes to en-
oaee for another, he receives another
S50. When the lad in bright Cadiz City
receives this sum, knowing that he has
10 embark within q fortnight, and hav-
inc no care, no definite love OF home
and parents, he goes to the bad TOR three
days. You see cab rattling down t the
narrow streets of Cadiz, and 10! hVe
Cuban volunteers (peasant Lads OF
eighteen years) are its occupants; you
enter q wine shop and half dozen OF
these boys come in and buy their tum
bier of Moutilla or sherry. In three
DAYS they have spent, what with cabs,
wine, women and sweets, every s1penee
Of their $50. They are amazingly proud
even before they are habited as soldiers
saw four of them-boys of eighteen o,
twenty-sitting on the Cadiz wharf the
other day: A gray-haired, courtlJ
Spanish gentleman passed, and SAID
HAre Won conscriptsl" "No," said the
spokesman, who had soldiers cap, eve
are n.ilitaires." OF the four, one was
barefooted; one only had a military
badge-a blue, red tasseled: cap. These
lads are, almost without exception, rom
the interior Of Andalusia. They cannot
get work; $50 is q heaven upon earth
they have no idea what Cuban Life 1s
they volunteer, 60, and only twenty o,
every hundred return at the end o.
the two years. The rest die OF vomltc
and fever. If one comes back minus 6
leg or arm he must beg for his ivell
hood for pensions there are none, save
for those who have served for twenty.
four years. The government pays, S2(
for the passage and food Of each private
soldier, and the boats generally carry Sot
men each, and make the passage to Cube
in sixteen or twenty days. On boare
they are not badly treated. Two days II
each week they have bacon or pork, ane
during the rest rnncho-s. e., pottage O
beans, rice and dried chick peas. They
sleep in the hold on a long row o.
sloping planks, each man having 8 rue
and hard pillow. At seven 4. Y. al
are summoned upon deck. At sundow1
all are ordered below, and at eight P. n
the order is passed along the dark ano
reeking hold: "Silence-not word.
The volunteer in Cuba generally sue
cunbs to the climate-twelt lty per cent,
only Cit is calculated} return yet, during
this and last month, no less than twenty.
five thousand have been drafted OF tc
Cuba. It is wrong to say that the Cuban
volunteer is ill-heated.i The treatment
is not bad. These fellows are well fed
It is the climate which kills them.
Among the ranks of these men are found
faces and men of the worst and Lowest
criminal type-men who have enlisted
simply because they do not care whether
they live or die, but only want the
"fifty dollars :" men who, the moment
they can get into the hold Of some YES
sci bound for New Orleans, escape to
free State. But the mass, the majority
of the Cuban volunteers are idle or un
fortunate peasant lads, who, spurred OF
by the scarcity of work, and tempted b,
the promising bait of $50 down, q year
service, snd at the eld of that $50 NOR
gratuity if they chose to re-enlist, or
free passage home, give in their name
and 20 to Cuba, to be turned into in
human and, wicked brutes; to be hard
ened by gazing upon tortures and hor
rors which would make their mothers
blood curdle; and then to go into tn
teeming swamp-beset military hospita
and die.