The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-03-18
Weyler's Cruel Rule.

General Weyler has removed the al
calde of all towns in whom he had not
absolute confidence and has appointed
the ranking military officers of regular
troops or volunteers alcalde or major.
These men are of the grade of major.
They possess arbitrary powers. Under
the last proclamation the life or death
of any man, woman or child in their
zone is in their hands. A large proper
ton of these commanders believe Wey-
Ter TO be a man of severe measures, q
man who will quickly approve any ex-
IRENE act on their part. They look
upon his circulars as intended for effect
in the United States. They look for no
punishment for summary executions of
Cubans who sympathize with the insur-
gents. They expect praise and promo
ton for shooting war prisoners as soon
as taken.
In their reports they are careful to
have the prisoners or the peaceful ciu-
zens killed found in the field after an
engagement, but between the lines the
manner in which the victims meet
their death is not difficult TO decipher.
General Canela was sent back to
Spain by Woyler, either Tor having
shot down seventeen prisoners, or for
having reported seventeen bodies
were found afterward in another part
of the field -; but the man who con-
fessed to bis friends here and probably
TO General Weyler of having killed a
number of people in cold blood receives
no more severe punishment than being
deprived of his command.
When the horrible story of the butch
cry of eighteen peaceable citizens in
the little hamlet of Guato was published
in the United States and wired back
here, General Weyler announced that
he would make q thorough examlna-
ton, and would severely punish who
ever was responsible for the outrage if
one had been committed. Two weeks
have gone by since the affair occurred,
and no official has lost his stripes.
In dozen cases refugees from towns
where fights have occurred state that
after the rebels are driven away citi-
zens who took nopart were shot down
and counted in the official reports as
dead insurgents.
The government officials deny these
stories, ana while it is common talk in
Havana that certain affairs were butch
cries, the correspondents are, in most
cases, obliged to accept the govern
ment's version.
81 have visited towns" says the
United Press correspondent, "where
nearly every family had fed in terror,
leaving dishes standing upon the tables,
and everything in disorder, showing the
haste in which homes were abandoned.
| talked with the few who remained
and was told that the people did not
dread the insurgents, but fled from fear
of the excuses OF the Spanish troops.
"On the other hand, in some sections
where towns have been used by the
Spanish, the insurgents have burned
the whole town, and the people were
left homeless. Other towns, which
have harbored the insurgents, have
been destroyed by the Spanish troops,
and the wreck and ruin which is being
visited upon the fair island of Cuba is
pitiful to contemplate. But for the
warmth of the climate and the ease
with which life is sustained in the trop-
les, thousands would have persisted ere
this, and the island would be a charnel
house long before the end was reached
SIN many towns there have been nc
provisions for weeks. People have
lived by sucking sugar cane. Families
have camped for days upon the ruins
of their homes in the burned districts
sleeping upon the ground at night and
crawling under thatch during the heal
of the sun.
"Those who could have sought g
refuge in the cities, and the few in
proportion who had the means have
escaped to the United States, Mexico
or some other country where peace
able citizens are not liable to summary
execution"