The age-herald., 1897-08-21
TECHNICS FROM
 CURRENT TOPICS

Evangelina Betancourt Cisneros, the
 beautiful, aristocratic Cuban girl who
 was tried for her life before a court
 martial ordered by the Spanish captain general, has been sentenced to imprison-
 ment for twenty years at Centa, the Af-
 rican penal settlement Spain, in her
 warfare with the Cuban patriots, has employed the methods of the savage, 1 instead of those of the brave soldiers of
 the nineteenth century; and this last act
 of barbarism, the consigning of a culti-
 vated, refined, lovely Cuban girl, to all
 the horrors of the prison pens at Centa.
 is the darkest, vilest blot upon her his
 tory. Evangelina Cisneros was guilty of no crime; she was Innocent of evil, but she had the misfortune to be a rela-
 tive of the president of Cuba, and to
 have been at th4 Isle of Pines, when the
 Cuban prisoners attempted to escape sey-
 era1 months ago. She is Cuban of the highest type, and bluest blood, and her
 sympathies naturally ara with her coun-
 trymen in their struggle for civil lib-
 
 erty.
 At the trial before the court martial,
 Evangelina Cisneros was denied the priv l ilege of hearing the evidence against
 her; she could not confront the witnesses who swore to her hurt, and she was not permitted to have the services of a law l yer. She made her statement to the | judge, answered the questions pro- pounded to her and there her case rested with the court. The sentence of twenty | years ssrvitude at the penal colony for l this innocent girl, has aroused the in- dignation of men and women, in all parts
 of the world. That a young woman
 should be condemned to a fate so horri- ble, has shocked Americans of every class.
 This penal settlement, at Centa, Africa,
 is across from Gibralter, on the Morocco | coast, and is surrounded by a dreary desert. There Spain sends her political exiles, as well as her lowest criminals; all fare alike in this awful place. Men Ol euuCdIlOn, DlllIl, dIu llle HlSuSSl lflOl- ary attachments toll, and break stones
 with the most miserable and depraved
 convict. They are poorly fed, are hud- dl=d together at night like beasts of the field, and the slightest infringement of a rule is punished with a severity barely | credible to other nations. Spain has al- | ways exhibited a genius for torture, and | in the prison at Centa she has rivaled the
 horrors of the inquisition.
 No woman was ever sent as a prisoner l to Centa until Evangehua was sem fenced to this Hades Her death under 1 the treatment that will b+ accorded her, 1 is only a question of time, and a very | short time at that. Weyler has been | petitioned not to confirm the sentence, | but thus far he is deaf to entreaties. For nine weary months Evangelina has lan- l guished in a cell with the most depraved | women, awaiting trial, and in a short 1 while, unless she is reprleved she will | sail for the African prison. She is de- 1 scrbed as a radlently beautiful young woman, with large, soulful, dark eyes, | exquisite eyebrows, masses of wavy, | black hair small feet, shapely hands, and | a graceful, grlish figure. Shs is viva 1 cious and magnetic and everything about
 her indicates her gentle breeding and | culture. That such girl should be fed | lilSs beast, break stones like @ crim- | inal in the day and sleep in 8 damp,
 rocky cell at night and yet be innocent of
 any fault or misdemeanor, save that she
 is a friend of free Cuba-if that be fault--is a blot upon the civilization of this boasted nineteenth century. It is
 the darkest tragedy in the history of
 cuba's fight for freedom.
 l President Mckinley has brave, in
 trepid member of his cabinet in Sec
 retary Lyman J. Gag, who stands boldly
 for honor and purity in. private life, as
 requisite attributes for a man who as- | pires to high official position. Secretary Gage threatens to resign his portfolio if
 Hanna's friends appointed collector of l customs at New Orleans. Besides nu-
 merous other protests against MT. Vim
 berly's appointment, 800 women of New l Orleans, the wives of the most promi-
 nent men of that city, have sent a signed 1 petition to Mrs. Gage by personal rep l resentative, begging that this man shall | not be given this important and lucrative i office because of his low moral character, | charges of gross immortality have been | preferred against him, and Secretary | Gage has proven himself a high-toned,
 pure-hearted American, by asserting
 that the appointment of such a man to
 high official position would be a disgrace
 to ths country, and 10 the republican
 party. Whether Senator Hanna or Sec 1 retary Gage shall triumph, remains to 1 be seen, but the secretary has placed