The age-herald., 1897-09-12

eouchsd in the most loving terms. with assurances of his protection to my fath- CT and me. finally inviting me to his house, saying Icou1d give as an excuse. that I had gone to plead for my father. It is needless to describe the indigna- tion I felt wh=n reading the offensive mlsslve. and I spurned it with contempt. This made him desperate, so he resort ed to the base and eowaTdly means of wr'eaking his veng anee on my poor father, hslpless and innocent victim of his wrath. He first had him arrested and locked up In the ealaboose. Moved with compassion at the condition of my aged father, his fellow prisoners plead ed with Befriz for him, but he would not listen to them, and told thsm that I must make him a personal request I took courage and went to him. After saying that he could refuse me noth- ing, BerIiz ordered my father releas5d at once
 '"Things went smoothly for some time until I received another of his insinuat- ing letters in which this time he hint ed that my fathsr would be exiled to Chafarinas, the penal. colony in Africa, My alarm can easily be imagined. l went to see him at once, and received the assurance from him that my father would be placed at liberty, and express ed the hope that I would return to ex- press him my gratitude.
 "On July 26 my father was again ar rested and taken to an unknown place. It was late that night, and I was sitting at the window wondering where my father was, when heard the footsteps of a man approaching. The door was opened and I found myself alone in the presence of Berriz. raised loud cry for help, upon which he jumped at me; but no sooner had he laid his hands on me than he was violently seized, and after much struggling was finally pin toned to a chair. After recovering from the shock I looked up to see who were my deliverers, and found they were some friends who had rushed to my as- sistance on hearing my cries My friends were so indignant at the dastardly as- sault made on me that they decided to kill Berriz outright. I averted this by appealing for his life. fearing the terri ble consequences 1t must bring. While we were discussing the point it was amazng to see how that man acted. He even cried with fear, and begged us to have mercy and spare his life, prom ising that nothing would be done to us if we would let him go, and asking par don for what he had done. But when he saw that my friend Vargas would not listen to my entreaties, he became desperate and raised loud cry of help, which brought to my house a group of guerrillas, who were patrolling the streets. AS we were unarmed we were unable to make any resistance, and we had to abandon the house as fast as we could: Poor Vargas was captured when Jumping over the rear fence, and after being dragged to the street was killed on the spot. Other persons who were simply looking on, and had nothing to do With the affair, were taken for con- spirators, and shot without mercy
 Twelve of them perished thus. The guerillas, in order to create the impress sfon that there was an uprising in the town, raised the cry of Cuba Libre
 themselves, and began firing right and lett at everybody found about the house. talh ,
 T managed to escape out of the town and remained in hiding in a cave until D o'clock the next morning, when I was discovered by the soldiers, who bound my arms behind my back and took me to the town, where I was locked up in cabaibosa. Other parsors Cover 200) who were entirely ignorant of the affair, had been arrested that night and were awaiting transportation to Havana The next day, July 2S, in the afternoon, they were all chained together and placed on the steamer which was to carry them to Batabano on the mainland I was also bound and escorted to the steamer. On the way we suffered terribly, as we were badly fed and had very little water to drink On the road from Batabano we were constantly insulted by the guer- rillas, in whose hands we were placed and who threatened to kill us if the train was fired upon. We arrived at Havana at 1:S0 D. m. the next day, and under the escort of couple of police men was conducted to the Casa de Re- cojldas. (This is the house of correction for disreputable women)
 My experience in the place beggars description. It is too horrible to d+- I met several ladies of distinction who received me with great kindness, and cheer5d and comforted me in my mis- fortune. When I arrived there was no distinction made of classes or colors and we were all mixed up, to the extent that once it was ordered that ws, shoudl do the scrubbing and cleaning as we'll as the rest of them. This we f1atly re- fused to do, and on this account we were insulted and pe1ted with all sorts of missiles, until th+ police arrived and put @ stop to the disturbance. This af- fray created some excitement in Ha- vana, and the papers taking up the case, an investigation was ordered, and the result was that since then we have been placed in separate quarters and have enjoyed better accommodations than be- fore
 ''If on any occasion you should write about my case I wish you would make it clearly and distinctly understood that the charg+ of conspiracy, and worse still, that of enticing Berriz to my home to get rid of him, is deliberate false hood on the part of Berriz and his SUD- porters to hide their cowardice and mis- doings."
 Such were Miss Cfsneros words at parting when she left the jail. As I was unable to follow her case on account of my detention, I am not prepared to make any statement of the facts con- cerning her trial. Nevertheless, it would not surprise ms if the Fiscal had really demanded a twenty years sen- tence in Ceuta for her. But cannot believe the judge-advocate would have enforced the sentence, nor that she would have actually been exiled to that terrible penal settlement in Africa Her