The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1897-08-25

Sent for Twenty Years.

trial demanded that she be sentenced to
twenty years Imprisonment at Ceuta, the
African penal settlement The with
holding of the verdict is almost certain
evidence of her conviction. Even the
Spaniards in civil life here are horror
stricken at the idea of a young girl be-
ing condemned to awful prison, but
there is very little chance of her escape
from this fate. Public opinion has not
the slightest weight with a military
court such as tried her.
Eyangeliua Betancourt Cisneros, young,
beautiful, cultured, guilty of no crime
save that of having in her veins the best
blood of Cuba, is in imminent danger Of
being sent to SPANS African penal set
Element for twenty years.
This true daughter of the revolution
is now undergoing trial by a military
tribunal at EaYana on the charge of re-
be.li0n after a hdeOus Imprisonment of
nine months in Jail with the yilest wo-
men Of Havana.
There is nothing against the black
eyed, Sweet-faCed young girl except that
she was in the Isle of Pines when an
outbreak of Cuban prisoners occurred,
and that she is the niece of President
CisnerOs y BetanCOurt, who heads the
civil government of the rebels in the Jun
giles of Camaguay.
Her conviction is a fOregOne cOnClu-
sion. Under the Spanish system of tri-
al Of military prisoners there is no
chance for acquittal. The accused never
hears the evidence, never c1nfrOnts the
witnesses who appear against her. In,
represented by COusel she makes her
statement TO judge, who asks her what
he pIeases and leaves unasked what he
pIeaSes. The fiscal prosecutor has de.
manded a verdict of guilty from the
court with a sentence of twenty years
Imprisonment at Ceuta.
10 woman has ever been sent TO this
African hell. 1t is just across from Glib
Ta.JaL on the Morocco coast, with a
desert secured by wild Moors behind it
and the Atlantic ocean before 1t, With
great care it has been arranged by the
>panlaCds that the penal population
Shall consist Of nearly equal parts-tl
worst and lowest criminals Of Spain ana
political eXiles Doctors, lawyers and
literary 10 IN Of Havana break stone and
shove. in the trenches shoulder to shout
der with muTderers, rayiSberS and rob-
0er> fro n the peninsula.
They work in chains, keeping entire
silence. A single word brings the lash
OF t-a guard down ON the offender and
Waa. his day work oa the stone pile
IS ..ue he is uIoed mp p the prison yard
and logged till he tatnJs. They are fed
on food That has become foul under the
fearful heat Of the African sun, and they
are ItuTed, with all the ingenuity and
ler5oIty of the iuquisition, at the pleas
uIe Of their guards and governors when.
ever anything goes wrong at the prison
OF which they may have knowledge.
Their guards in many instances are
colyicts, who are more brutal if posi-
BILE than the soldiers. These guards
are held to no accountability for the
lives Of their charges. Every traveller
who has bribel bis way to a sight Of the
poor wrelches toiling at Ceuta has re-
marked Of the dry blood on the faces and
IN the hair Of the prisoners They are
housed in cells cut in the damp rock,
crowded in like steers in a cattle car
Their food is cast in through the bars
as he animals at the 10 are fed They
cannot even wash their hands and faces,
let alone battle. Cultivated, scholarly
men. who know as much OF civilization
and comfort and clean linen as the aver
age clubman Of New York, have been
kept so for years. There are prisoners
there who have been undergoing this
treatment ever since the ten-years' war,
ans that struggle for Cuban freedom
was crushed thirty years ago. The
backs OF nearly all the prisoners are