The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1897-01-20
INSURGENTS WILL. WIN


!. the army by draft or conscript. They have
no interest in this fight. no hear. OF stom-
ach for IL. They have no spirit or dash. no
spark OF enterprise. looked at them,
They have bovine eyes. like cattle. and
act. most Of them. as IL they neither knew
where they were nor why they were
brought here. ! am not a military man,
but Weyler's troops struck me as the very
worst soldiers ever sat eyes OH.
They are utterly undriled and the army
lacks In organization. Their commissariat
is wrcte eed-almost as bad as none at all
] asked one day In Havana TO be shown the
Spanish drill ground. desired to see a
Spanish drill
Another matter which has Injured the
Spanish cause in Cuba 10 the cruelty and
savage inhumanity OF their methods. They
never take prisoners. They butcher the
wounded of the enemy with the machetes
on tho field OF battle. Every insurgent is
Killed who can't get away. Weyler makes
no secret OF this. The Spanish policy would
seem to be one of determination.
An English gentleman at Havana, becom-
Ing shocked at the atrocioms method Of the
Spanish and their butchery of wounded reb-
els. went to Weyler and offered at his own
expense. to found IA Red Cross society to ac
company the Spanish troops to the field as
hospital people. The Englishman offered to
pay all expenses and to take care OF the
wounded OF both sides with equal i'm
| Partially. Weylcr cut him short.
NO" said he. I'VE want no Red Cross
society We viii dispatch the wounded
rebels as they deserve. They are traitors
and deserve death. AS for my wounded
can take caro- OF them myself"
ON this subject Of hospital service and
..F.
sick and wounded ! have n word to say. |
might add here tia, r'rht now smallpox
I Is ct idemi, in Havana and IN Tie country
round about. | wss myself Immediately
| given an option when I arrived OF being
vaccinated or arrested, | was not arrested.
But to return to Weyler's hospital scrv-
ice. There is one OF the Spanish hospitals
across the bay from Havana. | paid 1t
visit and found Sick and wounded soldiers
1 there in great numbers. | did not enter tho
/ building. but saw many OF the inmate S.
! Tho story OF the hospital was freely told me
by physicians and people in charge. They
! told OF it in a guileless way. as II they
/ saw nothing astonishing or untpward in the
system. They said 1t was one Of the COM
mon hospitals. where men wounded and
men sick Of any and all diseases were re-
/ cciyod. There was no separation Of maln-
/ dies. Yellow fever. peludic fever small
FOX. rheumatism patients were all mixed
M with men suffering from wounds,
/ man with bullet through his knee
occupied the cot next to one suffering from
smallpox ny the time his knee might he
well he was in the raging midst Of small
| poN. and while escaping one malady took
another and died The hospital is very
evidently killing more than it curS, and
| the death rate each day was a fearful
thing to see. In this and the other Spanish
hospitals all OF which are managed or
J m ism 2 f-s1 IN no ion nj
there are IN the aggregate. fully 10000 OF
Weyiors men They might as well all be
deducted from SPANS fghtug strength In
Cuba. They will never take the field again
in this rebellion,
Continuing on Weyler's hospital methods
might say that 1t Is the invariablc Span.
ish custom to destroy nsurgent hospitals
wherever they find them They cut down
The nurses. the doctors. and XIII the pa
I iierts IN their cots They make clean
sweep Tho Spanish victory is decisive
Whenever they find an insurgent hospital
! have endeayored to relate the inane
( lis'lessrcss OF spirit as well as the UNI
drilled and Intellectual character of the
Spanish troops. What have said refers to
the privates in Weylcr's army. but II all
that is said of the officers be true. It would
make hut little difference what sort of
mcn they commanded The general i'm
main purpose of most of them Putting
down the insurrecton s merely Incidental,
iillng their pockets. so am informed. by
n system OF loot and plumber. is the main
purpose for which they strive.
1t would amuse Americans however. to
listen to the clap-trap gable OF some OF
he Spanish officers of inferior grade. The
possibility of a war with the United States
is frequent subject OF discussion with
these gentry, And they would seem to
hold us in vile repute as lighters. They
uDhositatngly declare that 10 600 Spanish
troops could easily capture all OF the prin-
cipal cities on the Atlantic coast. which
they say would end the war This valn-
able opinion comes from Spanish officers
who, with 200 600 effective troops in Cuba.
are utterly unable to corral capture or
cope with a scattered aggregate of 80 600
Insurgents. II speaks Well for the unintelli-
gent hraggadoclo of these same Spanish
officers
Now let mo say something about SPANS
financial strength and her resources II
should he borne in mind that this reh,llio
in Cuba is coating Spain 10000 000
month. Every week while the insurgont
nag ilolts II tlonts at an expense II Spaiu
of two million and half dollars How long
eau she stand 1t? The answer to that an. s.
zion wll go largely toward settling the
date of that ultimate Cuban success which
| prophescd
While the instruction costs Spain $40
| 900 a month"; and while she never re-
ceived more than S26.0 000 am ualy from
Cuba her income in the island now IL by
the very fact of the lnsurrectlon tire
mendously diminished Tobacco ana sugar
arc Cuban staples upon which Spain leaned
h.r MI tptl