The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-11-09
WOE, MISERY AND DEATH.
Awful Picture of the Situation Among
the People of Cuba.


NEW YORK, Nov. S.--A dispatch to the
World from Havana says: Though Butch
err Weyler has left the island, his purpose
of exterminatirg Cuban patriots is being
fulfilled. Starvation is killing the concen-
trados by tens of thousands Hunger is do
ing what Spain's 100000 soldiers cannot ac-
complish- Women and children, the weak,
the old, are dying like sheep; the rural pop
ulation concentrated" in the towns has
filed the graveyards and it's dead now lie
unburied. The frightful sufferings of
those who survive cry out to the mercy
of the civilized world. The physicians Of
Havana are now forbidden to give starva-
ton, 'inanicion," as a cause of death.
Women and children starve, but the re-
ports of their death are falsitled.
A correspondent in the town OF San
Domingo writes in the Diario de la Marina:
IA multitude of sick fall dying upon gar
bage in the streets here, and there they
lie until, after having served as igno-
minious spectacles for some hours, they are
collected and hauled away in the oXcarts
used for garbage to the dumping grounds.
If the bodies are admitted to the cemetery
they reach there only in this undue manner.
The church cemeteries are full. So most
of these dead bodies are thrown into the
fields, to be eaten by the birds and dogs"
The birds of which this correspondent
writes are vultures. The vultures are
gorged; the dogs can eat no more. Both
the newspapers which supported Weyler
and those which opposed him are now
forced to tell half the truth about the starv
ing concentrates" Here are some truths
that are undenlable: Since WeylerS procla-
nation driving the country people into the
towns was issued half the rural population
of western Cuba has died HALF OF those
who survive are so weak, SO enaclaIeu,
that the fiickering spark OF lfe III them
will surely soon be extinguished. They
cannot survive, although Blanco the
new Governor General, has ordered that
service rationS be issued TO them-rallonS
such as his soldiers get. Ihe HVeS OF the
other half of the survivors Blahco VIII VIII save. save.
He has acted promptly, but such has been
the fatal effect of Weyler's savagery that
Blanco cannot undo or counteract 1t.
photographs OF starving children speak
louder than anv words. These photo
graphs are taken at GLanabacoa, within
an hours travel of the palace here. Re
member that with natural deVotloh lntensl-
fed by suffering and danger, the parents
of these children had given to them every
morsel of food ghey could scrape together.
The mothers of these children denied them
selves food, refused to eat the miserable
scraps Of meat and bread, that they might
keep life in their children. The ch1ldren'S
legs are like pipe stems. one can count their
ribs Their Joints, dispropOrtiOnately large
nv their extreme emaciation, seemed i'm
mense These are notable cases. There are
thousands and thousands like them The
assistant mayor of Havana says that there
are Is, 900 concentrates in this city. Ragged,
thin and starving, these people are hud-
died in the public buildings. There and in
archways Of houses they sleep by day, only
to be driven by hunger to beg at night
The hospitals here are as full as the
graveyards. Certainly, not more than 50
per cent of the deaths among the con-
centrados in this city are reported. But
from these official figures 1t is easily
learned that the death rate among the chill
dren of the concentrates in hospitals and
public buildings is 50 per cent; among the
adults 80 per cent And the death rate
in the smaller cities and towns. where no
meat is received from the United States,
is even larger than this dreadful percent