The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-03-21
TERRIBLE FATE OF INSURGENTS
Doom That Awaits the Patriot Cubans in
axr They Are Captured.

Doom That Awaits the Patriot Cubans IN
Ease They Are Captured.
From the New York Recorder.
The desperation of the Cubans who
are fighting Spain for the liberty of
their island excites wonder at times in
the American mind. and some are in
clined to think them bloodthirsty in
their system OF warfare. 1t is true very
little quarter is given the Spanish sol
diers in any of the conflicts where the
insurgents have the upper hand, but
there is a good. substantial reason for
this seeming heartlessness.
The soldiers of the insurgent army
know that a fate blacker than death
will be theirs IL they fail. The king
dom of Spain has never displayed a
gentle hand to its enemies. Dark relics
of the inquisition permeate its treat
ment of malefactofs, for as such the
Cuban insurgents are regarded. The
prison system of Spain is more bar
barous to-day than that of either Tur-
key or Russia, and that is saying a
good deal
For more than a thousand years the
Spaniards have made a study of tor
ture. and the long accumulation of
knowledge handed from one generation
to another and elaborated upon by
each. makes their prisons the worst on
earth. There are men forgotten and
dungeons to-day.
Men who took part in the previous
Cuban rebellion. nearly a generation
ago, may still be living in the dun
geons. Thirty years hence some of the
men who are now fighting so valiantly
in Cuba may be rotting in the same
pest holes. 1t is this prospect which
makes them desperate and bloodthirsty
and eager to accept a thousand risks
10 shake which awaits
them.
Each week patches of Cuban sus-
poets are forwarded to spain. To be a
suspect is equivalent to being guilty,
and those who go will, in all probable
ity, never return. II a wealthy planter
is suspected of furnishing financial aid
to the insurgents, he is bounced upon
and shipped off. Infinitely better would
have been his fate had he Joined the
insurgent army and been killed on the
field of battle. The ordinary suspect
is not executed, but II ne be proved
guilty of treason the garrote will speed
lily end his troubles. The garrote is the
official form of capitaf punishment in
Spain.
Nearly all of the death sentences are
executed in the Pradera de la Ysidro,
in Madrid. All executions are public.
and are usually held early in the morn
ing. The criminal is mounted upon the
back of a tiny Spanish pony and goes
to the place of execution in a procession
which consists of citizens, priests and
soldiers.
Prior to leaving the prison in which
the condemned has been confined mass
is celebrated and the death sentence is
read to the guilty wretch. When the
prisoner reaches the place of execution
he mounts a scaffold a black handker-
chief is tied over his face and he is
! manacled to a chair. Then around his
neck is placed the band of the garrote.
Two turns of a powerful thumb screw
brushes the neck of the victim and al
most sewers the head from the body.
Death is claimed to be instantaneous.
After the execution the body of the vic
| tim is allowed to remain several hours
/ in plain view of the crowds which have
| seen the accomplishment of the deed of
| justice. All executions are looked upon
| by the lower Spaniards as being excel
/ lent entertainment.
| While torture has been nominally
abolished. the prisons themselves, COM
/ bined with the system, are such that
/ the agony of the culprit is continuous
/ and long enduring. AS rar as possible
4 the Spanish government sends all of
/ her greater criminals to her great con-
| vict colonies i'm Africa. or in the Canary
or Balearic Islands. In the few towns
] WHICH remain To oDilIl ltOIil Ici Noil-
I quest of Northern Africa. she houses
her desperate convicts. They are hard
~ a fitting relic of the once magnifi-
| cent colonial colony of the kingdom
The largest penal colony of the king
dom. is on the two islands Of the Be-
leares. situated in the Mediterranean
near the coast of Valencia. In Spain
There the convicts are housed like dogs
i'm kennels. Day and night they are
. ] foraad 70 chains n foot lOnv which
are suspended from a girdle.
They work in the cultivation OF
| wheat, barley, yams dates and figs
and in coffee plantations, the result o
their labor being shipped TO Europe
when i'm African colonies, and till the
soil for it's products equally i'm Canary
and Balearic islands. The largest pena
colony in the Canary islands is on th'
island of Fuerteventura, which is g.
square leagues I'm dimensions and ha'
a population of 5000. nearly all being
convicts
Deportation I'm these penal colonies &
made i'm the most shiftIess and crue
manner From all parts of Spain tn
prisoners who are TO be sent TO the pc
nal colonies are marched through rail-
or snow to the sladera. or detention
prison, at Madrid. Then they ar
marched. with insufficient clothes AM
with absolutely no provisions for food
to Valencia.
Here they are shipped TO the colonie
in old antiquated ships. which are over
crowded TO the verge OF positive dan
ger. Herded like cattle in pens. heater
I by ignorant soldiers. they go to a liv
ing death in the colonies. where stripe
are given more often than food an
where brutality is looked upon smil
ingly by the superior officers. No won
; der that suicide is the natural though
, OF the Spanish convict. The politica
prisoner fares worse than the crimina
; guilty Of assassination. The latter 1
, regarded merely as an enemy Of the In
, dividual. while the former is regarde
? as the enemy OF the king.
Most Of the political prisoners ar
sent 10 Ceuta. Africa. Ceuta is an oil
Moorish seaport town in Morocco OF
posite Gibraltar. The town is on tn
{ side OF the ancient mountain Abyls
. which forms one OF the Pillars Of Her
P cules. the rock Of Gibraltar being IN
! other. II is almost impregrable. and