The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-01-22
Gomez Goes and Daes as He Pleases.
Advices from Havana, under date {


January 16, cay:
AS the news of the ruin and de-
vastation wrought by the rebels
throughout this and adjoining provinces
slowly reaches this city I'M spite of the
omission Of most of it from the news
papers the people are beginning to
realize that Gomez and his followers
go where they will, destroy what they
please, and have not once been round
ed up and properly chastised by the
vast army which has been sent over
from Spain, they have begun to wonder
where it will all end.
The Spanish residents do not for a
moment believe thai Gomez can, defeat
the armies of Spain and win the free
dom of Cuba; but they now realize
that he can wreck her resources. They
see that he has kept his word and
burned their sugar crop; that he has
burned small hamlets, then towns, and
now even cities have been given over
to the torch. He has decreed that rail-
roads carrying troops will be destroy ed,
and as the companies had either to-
carry troops or forfeit their charters,
they have fallen under the ban, and
are now stopped after losing trains. en-
gines, bridges and stations, amounting
in value ITO many hundred thousand
dollars.
The owners of plantations who have
defed the rebels and have attempted to
grind cane have had their buildings
burned and their costly machinery de-
stroyed.
Towns of 5000 inhabitants down to
hamlets of a dozen huts, which have
refused to surrender, have been looted
and then burned
Bejucal, fifteen, miles from here, IL
Illustrates Comes methods. He sent
word to the Alcalde calling upon him
to surrender There was a meeting Of
citizens and white flags We're hung out
of houses all over town. The Spanish
volunteers, numbering 15O turned over
their arms without firing shot
A small detachment of Spanish regu-
lars in a wooden fort refused to sur
render and held out. Gomez entered
the town and occupied all of it except
the plaza about the fort. He was leav-
ing town when shot was fired from
a house, killing one of his men. He
them ordered all of the houses In that
part Of the town burned, and thirty
six were laid in ashes. He burned the
railway station and a loaded train Of
| freight cars.
At the seaport of Cahanas, about
twenty miles west of Havana, detach-
nent of marines which had landed from
the gunIboat Alerta joined the Spanish
regulars and took UP their position in
church, where they were attacked by a.
body of insurgents under Maceo The
church was burned, and those of the
marines and soldiers who escaped
sought refuge on the Alerta
The rebels occupied the town, and it
is said got 1,000 rounds of an1muni-
ton. The Alerta fired several shells at
the insurgents in the town, but the Of
| fetal reports only give the rebel loss
as three men. BY taking this town the
insurgents captured a port and had
they been able to retain it would have
afforded an argument for their friends
| in the United States who are working
| for recognition by congress. But with
out cannon and without an armed YES
sci they were compelled to evacuate the
| town, and the little gunboat Alerta won
| the distinction of having been the first
| of Spain's navy to engage the enemy