The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-02-28
The Burial of DeIpado.

the correspondent of the New York Mail
and Express. Thus he ends his adventur-
Gus career
His story Is well known. Until the break
/ ing out of the instruction he was super
cargo on various Of the Ward line steamers
plying to this port, and thus became fami-
lar with the place and the people. Later
he resigned his position and Joined a fill
clustering expedition as a newspaper cor
respondent. He landed at Pinar del Rio and
joined Maceo's forces. Shortly after he
fell III. and was in a rebel hospital when
the Sapnish guerrilla Meiguizo captured it.
In accordance with custom. Melguizo butch
cred every native whom ne found, but
| spared two Americans and one German.
| pelgado was one of these three.
So begins dispatch from John Jordon
10 the Chicago Record. He continues:
Ever since his capture some weeks ago,
| Delgado had been suffering from an abscess
of the stomach. and had been growing
| weaker and weaker, and when an opera
ton finally was performed he was unable
| TO rally from the shock. The little group
of newspaper men in this city and the at
| taches Of the United States consulate at
| tended his funeral. San Ambrosio Is a
hospital for prisoners, and differs from all
| other hospitals in the city by being by no
means full. In this war, when rife and
| machete have done their work. there re-
main few captives to be imprisoned. To-
night there is one less.
"As we drive up to the gates we find the
hearse standing ready. 1t is not of quiet
| black and silver. as at home, but 1t Is gayly
| ornamented with gliding and artificial fiow-
| esr. DR.. Burgess Of the marine hospital.
kindly and skillfully leads the way to the
deadhouse, followed by half-dozen Ameri-
| cans. At their heels troops the crowd,
barefooted, tatterdemalions one and all,
drawn by desire to see the dead Arneri-
can. The lid of the coffin is screwed down
| and two Official pall-bearers lightly lift it
to their shoulders and carry t to the
/ hearse. II IS a daily, almost hourly, task
| for them. Pall-bearings is a profession in
Cuba, and its followers are paid. and wear
a regular uniform of red cap, jacket and
knee breaches, with stockings once white,
but usually sadly soiled by dust and dirt
| The drive to the cemetery is a long one,
but It is over at last. At the gate a bell
rings loudly. The carriage stops in front
| of an Office building just within, and a
priest comes out. He is fat and grizzly.
and looks as if the whole affair were a bore
/ to him. This is, perhaps, not remarkable,
] when it is remembered that he has more
| than 100 funerals day to attend to- Death,
| CHASTITY as it is. grows familiar with too
| much acquaintance.
THE padre hurr;es through the Office for
| the dead at full speed. No one can under
stand a word that is said. An assistant
| in his shirt sleeves-hands him a sprinkler,
| with which he throws holy water at the
Eearse from twenty feet away. Then he is
DONE and turns away to resume his talk
with a friend. Time-one minute and
| half from entering the cemetery gates.
'"The hearse and its attendant carriages
wind through the beautiful cemetery to
| where grave has been followed. The red
coated pall-bearers lift the coffin 10 the side
of the grave. The ropes are adjusted and
it is lowered to the bottom. One of them
take huge bucket Of lime and pour it over
the coffin, and then the grave-diggers be-
gin their task Of filing in the grave. For
five years it may not be opened. If the
body had been embalmed it might be taken
up and removed in six months, but now It
must remain practically forever. This reg
| ulation is wise one in this city, where men
die rapidly of strange and deadly diseases
and smallpox and yellow fever never are
absent. In five years the lime viii have
done its work we'll, and all will be safe.
Most of the graves in the cemetery are
built of solid cement, in paris, and are
sunk some eight feet, with an earth bottom
At the head of each is a square hole. also
surrounded by cement, and as deep as the
grave. When person is buried in one of
those the coffin is covered with lime and
the grave filed up with earth and a heavy
stone lid put on il. After one year this
earth may be dug up, the bones of the dead
collected and deposited in a casket in the
square hole at thestop, where there is room
for dozen SUCH This done, the grave is
ready for another occupant. Sometimes a
whole family-fafher, mother. children,
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. each other one by
one through the same grave, and are de-
posted one above the other at the head.
The bones of his ancestors are a veritable
reality to Cuban.
There are many beautiful monuments In
this cemetery. The most notable, and that
to which the strangers attention is first
directed is one erected TO fourteen students
who were executed during the ten years
war in this island. There was then in Cuba
one Casanova, editor of pro-Span.sh pa
per, who was bitterly hated by the Cubans.
He died and was buried In this cemetery.
His grave is forgotten, as he, too. would
be had it not been for these school boys.
Fourteen OF them, from u to 10 years of
age, went to the cemetery q week after HE
death. Being there, boy-like they yielded
to the temptation of, rejecting the hatred
OF their elders. They wrote with pencils
on the stone of Casanova's grave; they
drew faces upon it; they expressed their
scorn Of the dead in boyish phrases. They
ought 20 have been soundly whipped and
put to bed as they would have been in any
other land under the sun.
But not in Cuba, Here they were trail
tors! At the orders OF the captain-general
they were imprisoned. Then the ''volun-
teers'' of Cuba took a hand. These 'volun-
teers'' volunteer TO drill, not TO fight. They
defend Havana today, as they did thirty
years ago, against the rebels, by drilling
once week on the prado while their sweet
hearts look on admiringly. No doubt II Co
mez with his little army OF 5000 men should
defeat the 1900 Spanish in the field and
penetrate 10 Havana, he would find the
volunteers ready to meet him. But he VIII
never see them under any other circum-
stances.
We'll these volunteers Of ISL threw their |
influence into the scale against the lads. |
They insisted that their fearful crime be |
punished with death. Even the captain |
general hesitated TO go so far. Fancy a |
captair-general in Cuba hesitating al any
thing But he was a weak man, Duice by I
name, and he yielded. The boys were taken |
from prison one morning, stood up against |
a wall ard shot down. Years afterwari /
this monument was erected-to the inno- |
cents as the inscription says"
King George Comes second.
Frona Ponca City COURIER