The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1897-04-10
CUBA LAID IN WASTE.
business Ruined and Houses and
Crops Destroyed.

0usiness Ruined and Houses ana
Crops Destroyed.
A special dispatch from Havana to
the Evening World gives detailed ac-
count of the devastation which has been
wrought throughout the island of Cuba.
1t contains a statement made to the
correspondent by Adolph w. Waldmann,
of Chicago, very observing and con-
scientious German-American, who has
just completed trip through the prov
ince of Santa Clara.
Il came to Cuba on January l." said
Mr.. Waldmann, ito buy tobacco. /
found only so bales in Havana, all poor
stuff, and decided to go to Santiago de
Cuba direct by boat and return slowly
by travelling through the country where
could, so as to pick up tobacco
if there was any,. Let me say there is
none.
"The trade in the states is utterly
misinformed on this point. l have been
two weeks getting 40 bales and have
searched the island from one end to the
other. The crop coming up has been de-
stroyed. There is a little patch here
and there around town, but the fields
are laid waste. l can safely say that
east of Havana there is not enough to-
bacco gathered or in sight to keep a
small factory in the United States go
ing for month. The reports of planters
to the west of Havana are such that it
would be useless for me to go there.
There is three times as much Havana
tobacco in the states to-day as there is
cut or growing in Cuba.
"As to the revolution the situation
looks to me after studying it with my
eyes to be this: The Spaniards seem to
be satisfied if they can hold the towns.
All the country belongs to the rebels.
And the rebels are slowly destroying
the towns. If they had few 12-pound
cannon only the big cities would be
standing in month. Nothing could
stop that.
''As it is neither side can win. I'm.
less change comes Cuba is certain to
be made a waste. 1t is pretty close to
that now. did not see farmhouse,
except there were soldiers in it for a
fort, standing in my whole trip. saw
hundreds upon hundreds that had been
burned down as / passed through the
country, often with half-charred sew
ing machines, cradles, furniture and i'm
plements strewn about. There is not
home with the family in peaceable
possession in the country SO far as
could see.
when was in the city of Santiago
de Cuba got acquainted with some of
the Spanish officers there. They were
very polite and nice to me. They took
me up in a tower and with a glass
showed me the earthworks and fortifa-
cations of the rebel strongholds: When
asked them why they did not attack
these places in plain sight they said the
troops could not leave the small forts.
II the soldiers go out they are shot down.
This was the reason they did not go out.
"One of the officers who seemed to
be an inspector examined the guns while
there and told me that the whole war
was on rotten basis and was an out
general, afterward expressed the same
hews. He said he was Disguised and was
going to resign and go home. They are
angry because the other officers sit
around cafes in Santiago and did not
lead the troops to the field. 1t was Just
the same in Trinidad, Cienfuegos and in
every large city.
Between Colon and Matanzas the
whole country is burned up. All the
villages on the line are DESTROYED ex-
cept two, and they have double stone
walls around them and are well pro-
tected by troops. Every farmhouse was
a ruin. There is not thing growing
nor planted. On the ride from Matan-
zas to Havana it was just as bad. There
was only one town, Jaruco, standing,
and portion of that is gone.
around the ruins of every town were
lots of soldiers and crowd of poverty
country people. Some of them
were absolutely naked, all were nearly
SO. saw any quantity of men wearing
only breech-cloths. l wondered why
these men did not go and join the rebels.
would rather die fighting than starve
10 death as they are doing.
Il can give you no adequate idea OF
the Indebtedness of these people. Weak
and naked, they are living, or, rather
dying, under pieces of bark. placed
leaning against trees. They crawl I'M
der this and lay in the mud and dirt
men, women and children. Huts in
Africa are palaces to these holes. 1t
was the most horrible sight l ever saw
and there were miles upon miles Of it,
N. Y. World.