The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-12-09
WHERE SPAIN SENDS
HER CUBA CONVICTS
Something About One Of SPANS Island
Anders0uvilles.
THE DREAD LITTLE ISLE OF CEUTA
In II Cruelties Beyond Conception
Are Practiced Dnily..Hundreds
Would Welcome Dcath..Graphic
Description Of the Horrors Of Span.
ish Sovereignty in the American
Hemisphere.
From the New York Herald.

q
circled with impossible moats. Such
Is Ceuta-Spain's pet colony for con-
victs
Here, from dawn until starlight. day
by day, three hundred Cubans WELD
their heavy hammers over the granite
stone heaps, with the hard faced keep
ers lowering ever near with ready
lash and horrible blasphemy.
Here, night by night, from the heart
Of Ell Hacho-the prison hell-there
arise strange cries and means and the
hiss of the descending lash. The Span
ish priest, black robed and sombre.
hears 1t and smiles. muttering to him.
self, "DiOs gracias; another enemy to
the good king is catching it,"
When the half dead prisoners march
out to the stone heaps on the follow
ing day there are livid wounds and
dried blood on the backs of several OF
the gaunt ribbed tOilers.
COiled about Ceuta, like the cOnvolu-
tiOns of great serDents, are seven gray
walls. They are thick and high and
impossible, save by the arching bridges
that span them at intervals. Between
each wall there is deep moat of sea
water. silent, waveless. lifeless, and
sometimes odorOus with decay and the
damp drip of the sea ooze from the
Shiny stones.
The outer wall is Scared by the as
saults of the MOors, from whom the
island and the old ruined town We're
wrested in times gone by. Here is the
dull white scar where round shot
from some old bell mOuthed brass can
non has sDlashed and spread against
the stones. Here the DaraDet Is torn
and shredded away in the desperate
endeavOr to tear path to the heart of
the town.
At present every one of the seven
walls about Ceuta lis fortified, and
Spanish sentries roost like vultures
along the parapets, dreaming away the
hours and hoping against hope that
some one of the weary squad OF prison.
ers at the stone heaps may prove in
subordinate or run amuck at his keep
ers. Then pop! the rifles will go, and
the convict will roll over like shot
rabbit. Then the sentries will laugh
and reload and talk over the incident
during the rest of the day.
Here and there along the walls one
sees the frOwning muZZleS of cannon.
They are never used, however, eX-
cept for signals, and there are fine
chances of their bursting, even with
this exertion. They are ancient and
antiquated and oblique in pattern and
in accuracy.
The modern town of Ceuta is built
at the base of high. stony hill When
the Spaniards wrested the town from
the MOOrs they practically destroyed
the old city, building the present one
some distance away from it.
The ruins of the old city may yet be
seen. The walls of the ancient Moor
ish houses and mosques may be traced,
and the ruins of the Sultan's harem.
The new town of Ceuta is divided by a
great ditch connected by big stone
bridge. The city was at first built be-
tween the ditch and the hill, but out
growing these limitations. it spread
over the ditch. and the walls were ex-
tended to fence 1t in.
All that part of the town built be-
fore the extension was made necessary
is called by the Spaniards Intramuros
and the outside portion EXtramuros
The IntramurOs Is inhabited by the
lower class of the population, q great
many of them being fishermen. Their
nets may be seen everywhere, and
their boats bob around the island
in squads. The stencil of decayed fish
Is almost insupportable, until one be-
comes used to it.
TIE streets of the Intramuros are so
narrow and tortuous that it is i'm
possible for two water donkeys to pass
on the same street until one has
stepped out at the junction of the near
est thOroughfare and made way for
the other.
The military duties on the island
are performed by the Third Spanish
regiment Of Africa. under the command
of Colonel Antonio A. Condrera. In
the ExtramurOs there are two parks,
the Plaza de los Reyas and Our Lady
of Africa.
Outside the walled city the land is
covered with huge powders, gray with
moss and desolate in the extreme.
LASH SCARED CONVICTs.
At present there are sixteen thou
sand inhabitants OF Ceuta, including
the garrison and the penal colony. The
island is twelve hours from Cadiz. A
boat arrives at Ceuta twice week
from Spain, always landing at night,
when the convicts are all locked in the
depths of Ell Hacho.
At eight O'Clock every evening the
signal gun booms from Ell Hacho Then
there is a closing Of shops and slam
ming Of doors in Intramuros, and five
minutes later not light is to be seen
and not an open door may be discov-
cred.
All that one hears in the empty, peb-
BILE paved. streets after this hour is the
shrill challenge of the sentry, as he
halts some belated pedestrian. This
evening gun is also the signal for all
prisoners who are regarded as "trus-
ties" by reason of the divine influence
of money, to return to the prison for
the night.
Woe to them If they are not back
within reasonable time after gun
fire. Their backs will bear the marks
of the lash for many a day. Doubly
woe to them If file of soldiers is sent
to hunt them. Bayonet stabs. blows
over the head with muskets, fractured
skulls and even death are often the
portion of belated prisoners.
This signal gun has nothing to do
with the stone breaking squad, whose
lives are regulated in a far simpler
way, by means Of a time bell and the
lash. They march to and fro. they do
not speak, their hammers rise and fall
with mOnotonOus regularity, their
heads are bent in constant toll, and
their convict uniforms are coated with
stone dust. So it goes day by day and
month by month.
Happy the prisoner who has money
at his command. No matter what his
offence may be, for q certain cOmpen-
sation, presumably paid to the COVER
nor, he is allowed to go about the In
tramuros as he pleases during the day,
attended by a Spanish soldier as a SER
want. and only reporting to the prison
at the sound of the signal gun at even
ing.
FL Pacho, "the hell" as the Cubans
call it, stands on the top of high,
stony hill. Those who visit the prison
ascend narrow, stone stairway,
emerging in a sort of court, huge. DESC
late and echOing. In the very center of
this court, at your feet. is a square and
grated hatchway. through which you
look directly into the large and appar-
emily dOorless enclosure In which three
hundred prisoners are confined. 9
AN AWFUL PRISON. -
The dawn il gray on the roofs and