The record-union., 1897-11-23
Not Half the Story Of Suffering Has
Been Told.
The Awful Results Of the Reign Of Captain
6eneraI Weyler.
Streets Of Havana and It's Suburbs
Dotted With Beggars, Hospitals
Overcrowded With Starving In
nocents and the Spare Barracks
Filled With the Destitute and
Dying.

NEW YORK, Nov. 22.-A dispatch to
the World" from Matanzas, Cuba,
says: The half of the story Of suffer
ing in Cuba has not been told.
In Havana and it's suburbs the
streets are dotted with beggars, the
hospitals are overfiowing with starv-
ing innocents, and the spare barracks
are filled with the destitute and dying.
But from Havana to this place there
is a succession of small cities almost
free from sickness and hunger. No
body is left there. The swarming pop
ulation is gone They are cities of the
dead.
Protecting forts overlook empty
houses Pallid, ragged Spanish SOL
diers guard a few-a very few-human
skeletons. Very soon they Will have
only themselves to protect. They need
it. 1t j. almost a question whether
Weylerism has not been as awful for
them as it has been for the peaceable
Cubans.
The towns of Campo Florida, San
Miguel, Minas. Jaruco, Bainoa, Mocha
and Buena Vista were trebled and
quadrupled in population by Weyler S
concentra ton of the surrounding coun-
try people under the rifles Of their re-
spective sets of little forts.
The loyal obedient farmers took
their furniture and their babes in OK
carts their cows and pigs, wives and
children on foot and built long streets
of palm pillared, raftered, thatched
and sided houses. To-day nothing re-
mains but the wood. The animals have
been eaten, all articles of value have
been changed into bread. and the pao-
pie, everything having been used up,
are dead.
Our train stopped at each place men
toned. We counted only twenty five
women and children and three men in
the palm house lanes. There are two
trains a day They are the great
events of each miserable twenty-four
hours. and we counted twenty-eight
spectators. There should have been
visible 5000 There were at least b.
. 600 to 20. coo reeoncentradoes in those
palm bark villages when Weyler's VIC
Tins first began to die. and We counted
twenty-eight survivors.
Even the Senator from Spain can be
convinced of the determination of a
people in which he assisted when he
supported Spain in supporting Weyler.
He needs but to take a train from Ha-
vana to Matanzas. a three hours rida
through a beautiful but abandoned
country The squalid, abandoned
villages are proof enough. Three years
of silence and ruin would show him
determination, even though he never
before had heard of Cuba or claimed
there had been no war.
The facts. the awful facts. the al
most unbelievable facts. are every
where. They force themselves upon the
sight, the smell the hearing and the
reason.
Matanzas. a city of 10000 inhabi-
tants. has given it's reconcentradoes
much better chances for dying gradu-
ally than have any of the silent VII
lagos first mentioned Much meat has
come here from Florida. The people
are rich. the sites of the palm bark VII
lagos of the hungry are elevated and
healthy. the water is good: some organ
ized charitable efforts have been made
Nv the citizens the city government has
filled in swamps and made boulevarls
to give work to the destitute. The lit
tie hamlets mentioned have had none
of these araeliorations
Yet in Matanzas. out Of 1900 men.
women and children from the country
there are to-day not more than 900
left. and these are barely alive. The
streets are full OF tottering ones. The
rafe doors frame squads OF begging wo-
men and children: the public square has
a living skeleton for each of its beau
fiful shrubs and trees: the dead carts
go to the cemetery loaded with bodies
three deep.
The civil register of the city only
hints at the awful loss of life. It is
official and does not record the many
quiet burials in the fields to avoid the
danger of waiting days to secure the
permit necessary for poor mans body
10 be allowed its six feet of consecrated
ground. III shows 2.349 deaths Of recon
centradoes. or about one-third the ac-
tual sad fcure
The present death rate of forty starv-
ing ones daily. had it been constant
since the beginning Of Wevler. would
have wiped out the entire 10000 before
now. The total daily death rate varies
from fi5 TO 10 On November 9th 123
died. Physicians claim the daily aver
age should be so.
At this rate. in little more than a
year Matanzas will he graveyard.
and in less than three months there will
be no more reconcentradoes. Although
the conditions may change for the citi-
zens of Matanzas. there is little hope
for it's inforced visitors. General Blan-
cos relief measures. although humane.
are wholly inadequate. If carried out
by the local authorities they come too
late. Soldiers rations even with jerked
beef and cornmeal added. will kill
more than they will cure. The starved
condition OF the wretched bipeds here
IS such that expert medical testimony
dooms one-half of the 5000 concentra-
does left to death. and. If the rations
issued are the same as the Spanish SOL
diers here now barely exist on the same
testimony declares that at least 1000
will die.
The starving are not likely to get
even that much. One of the highest Of
feials. who would be entrusted with
the issuing of rations. has said within
three DAYS:
1--WE are not going to pay any atten-
x... 90 IaIapco'S order"