The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-02-20
DEATH AND DIRE DES0LATI0N.
WEYLER LEAVES FRIGHTFUL
SCENES IN HIS WAKE.


The Whole Line of His March
ScOurged With Fire and the
SwOrd-PartialIy Destroyed Cities
and Towns Crowded with Misera-
BILE and Half Starved PcopIe-In-
human Butchery Charged Against
the Spaniards-GOmeE Reported TO
Have Again Crossed the TrOcha.
Key West Fla. Feb. ia passenger
arrived on the steamer Arkansas, who. on
reliable authority, is said to have come
from an extensive trip through the cen
tral provinces, Santa Clara, Matanzas and
Havana, and he gives the Impressions of
his journey in the following terms:
The ruin and desolation was frightful
to witness, he said, the country being pare
and wasted, cane fields and plantations
! burnt and no vestiges of the country
homes remaining, except those built Of
stone. blackened walls only remaining.
| Thatched huts were but heaps Of ashes;
villages, towns and cities were partially
| destroyed, but crowded with miserable,
! forlorn people, emaeiated, with hungry
looking, starved faces. They were all
huddled in small spaces without commo-
dties, with no hygiene and suffering from
diseases beyond all description and dying
| by hundreds daily.
All this state of things was brought about
| by Weylers brutal aud inhuman decree
/ ordering the concentration of the country
! people into the towns Weyler in his
march through these provinces has left a
trail of fire and blood. Horrible stories are
| tod of the outrages and butcherles COM
mitted under his direct personal orders.
| Such is the terror he inspires that the
mere fact of his approach creates conster-
nation and the alarm at once spreads to
all the people, who rush to the nearest
! town for protection. When this gentle
man left Sancd Spiritus, Weyler was re-
ported as encamped near Caibarlen, and
expected to arrived there that day. Wey-
! ler's forces numbered 1900 men and as he
marches without provisions, the result is
on the road his soldiers sack all the
| stores, as happened at Santa Clara city
which was left bare, with the natural re-
suit of increased misery and starvation
for the poor people there.
Near Sancti Spiritus, at a place named
Guayo, column of Spanish troops when
passing last Friday after killing all the
cattle, set fire to the buildings and ranch
ana butchered the owner, a planter named
Ramon Napoleo, a man of independent
means, well known and esteemed in that
district. This was reported as a rebel
camp captured and destroyed
The same column found party of
surprise, they only had time to escape
after desperate fight, in which Cuban
officer, Lieut.. Perez, made a brave de-
tense against eight soldiers. He had to
succumb, and was hacked to pieces with
the machete, after surrendering. Two
other Cubans perished. This was also
reported as a great encounter in which the
dreds.
The result of this destruction. and the
| m 10 Inv ha Gyna n
iards has been the increase of the rebel
forces in great numbers. All the able
bodied men in these provinces are rush
ing TO the Cuban ranks, and hundreds OF
families prefer to suffer hardships in the
woods than misery and starvation in the
At the estate Gibacoa, near Tunas, about
one hundred families were living in peace
heH t2I oEdered 70 move INT, into town they at
instance in hundreds of similar cases.
Meantime these shocking things on the
| spanish side only increase the Cuban
army, scores constantly fiOcking to them.
| The evident signs of weakness which
Spain displayed by Offering so-called re-
| forms has all the more determined the in
surgents TO continue the struggle.
From reliable sources it is learned that
Gomez will now initiate more vigorous
campaign. After arranging with the cuban
government the plans and purposes OF his
| future movements. Gomez ordered con-
centration of all the rebel forces prepara-
tory to his advance into the western prov
nce. His first step was to send the Cuban
| government back to Cubitas. with head
| quarters in Camaguey. The party started
with an escort of 200 men and successfully
crossed the central trocha Saturday night
near the best protected part of the line at
La RedOnda, under the very walls of a
| Spanish fort. This is another instance of
the uselessness of the Spanish trochas.
Gomez plan, it appears is to sneak
back through Weyler's line and once on
his rear guard commence his campaign
by attacking and destroying all the sugar
estates grinding against his orders. He
| will also II is rPDOTfpd. punish severely all
the local Cuban leaders, who have tolerat-
ed grinding within their jurisdiction.
| Gomez exact location is unknown, as
he is constantly moving from Remedies to
| Sancu SpirituS, watching Weyiers move
ments in order to seize the first opportuni-
ty to outfiank him. Weyler, as customa-
ry, has had no engagement with the reb-
els. He carries with him such strong
body guard that nobody cares to interfere
with his movements, and they leave him
to march along unmolested.
! GARLIC is reported encamped with 1900
men near Finuicu and Jose Miguel Gomez,
with about 1900 men, near the La Guasco
farm. This is the nucleus Of the rebel
forces operating around sanctt spiritus.
Their organization IS perfect; they are
fairly well supplied with arms and mu-
nitions, and they are complete masters
OF the field, to such an extent that moth
nit and the payment OF specified taxes to
the revolution.
siding near Saneu Spiritus, formerly a
rich cattle raiser, has been ruined by
| Spanish troops. Ills cattle rdnCn mas been
destroyed, the buildings burnt and all his
cattle carried away by Spanish troops. de-
spite the fact that he showed his papers
proving his citizenship. His protest was
of no avail He viii now file a claim
through the American consul
Washington, Feb. 19-Senor de LONE,
: the Spanish minister TO Washington. has
! received the following telegram from the
> president Of the chamber of commerce OF
? Havana;
"rhe sugar plantations IN the larger
manufacturing districts are grinding cane
Railroads and telegraphc communica-
, tiOns are regular. Fernadez"
The large sugar producing districts OF
, | Cuba referred 10 are Eastern Pinar del
, Rio, Havana, Mantanzas and Santa Clara
! Havana. Feb. 19--A report was in cir
culation to-day to the effect that the rebel
forces under Maxlmo Gomez had returned
70 the vicinity OF the city Of Santa Clara
| but Investigation showed that there was
no basis whatever for the report
WAGES or MINERS CUT