Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-07
pretentious Latin the announcement that

pretentlOus LaLln Lne announcement tnSS
the precious dust is in the vault below.
In another part Of the city, near the boat
landing and the palace of the Captain
General, is a miniature chapel, not more
than u or 10 feet square, which is said to
be the spot where mass was first offered By
Columbus after the discovery Of Cuba. The
place is inclosed in a high iron railing, and
the gate, which swings under marble bust
OF the explorer, is never opened but once
year, and then on the anniversary, when
mass is celebrated by the Archbishop with
great ceremony.
Cuba has splendid system of railroads
1000 miles of track, penetrating nearly all
the fertile valleys and giving the sugar
planters easy and cheap transportation to
the sea-but of wagon roads she has none.
Road-making is lost art among the Span
iards.. There isn't highway in all Cuba
outside the cities that will permit the pass
age of anything wider than a mule. She
has the finest harbors in the world, yet at
the great port of Havana, the center and
focus of West India navigation, there is not
a quay or dock or pier at which YES
sci can land. All the steamers are anchored
in the harbor and every pound Of freight as
well as every passenger is sent aboard and
ashore in small boats.
FAMOUS MoRRo CASTLE.
At the entrance of the Havana harbor,
guarding narrow gateway not more than
200 yards across, stands a massive rock,
rising perpendicularly 1855 feet from the
sea, against which the waters of the gulf
cast their incessant spray. Upon this rock
stands the famous Moro Castle, the scene
of horrors as barbarous as those of the in
QUESTION, and If rumor may be accepted as
truth its dungeons to-day cover acts as cruel
as those OF Caligula.
This castle is not so ancient as one of a
similar name and character that guards the
entrance to the harbor of Santiago de Cuba,
on the south side of the island from which
Cortez sailed when he went to conquer
Mexico. The Havana castle was originally
built in the sixteenth century, but the En-
glish blew it up 100 years ago, and made its
re-erection necessary. But 1t is even grander
and gloomier than the original struct-
ure, the deep crevices in the rock which
were widened out by the explosions being
utilized for dungeons from which it is said
no one who enters ever escapes. The castle
is full of political prisoners, Cuban
''patriots" as they are called, who have
taken part in revolutions or have been
heard to breath reasonable sentiments
against the Spanish power. How many
men are confined in those damp walls no
one can discover. It Is tradition that those
are there whose existence has even been for
gotten, for the records of the prison are as
mysterious as the book of Fate. The Span
ish officials claim that such records exist,
but 1 could find no one who ever seen them,
or would venture to say where they are.
Some say the books are kept in Spain, and
that when prisoner is sent to Moro Castle
a record of his crime, conviction and sem
tence is forwarded to the Minister of Justice
at Madrid, whose silence is accepted as
assent, and whose edict alone can open the
prison doors.
A LIVING TOMB.
There are people in Havana who claim to
have had friends sent to Morro Castle for al
legged conspiracy or kindred crimes, of whom
no trace has ever been discovered, either
here or in Spain, and they cannot say
whether the victim of Spanish tyranny are
still in the dungeons, or have been released
by the hand of death. All agree, however,
that when one enters the castle under a
military. guard for whatever crime, he
leaves all hope behind. Men have been re-
leased in rare cases, but they tell of their
experience in whispers only to their nearest
friends, One man who was imprisoned for
reasonable talk, was foreigner, and the
consul of his government interceding Sc
cured an order for his release. The COM
mandant and his ieutenants afterward
made oath that the order was executed, that
the man was released and was last seen bar
gaining with boatman to carry him
across the bay to the city, but his friends
never saw him again. They firmly believe
he was shot before the pardon reached the
castle, and that the affidavits of the officers
were the rankest perjury. A long cores
pendence was conducted over the case, but
it was finally dismissed.
Visitors are shown the parade grounds
where military executions take place, but
no one dares guess the number of bodies
that have been taken from the turf and