The age-herald., 1897-08-08
THE CUBAN PACIFICOS Ht aas.s
 as-44Fs Description of the People Whom WeyIer Is Killing. THE WORK OF THE BUTCHER Most of the Men Are Over 50 Years 0Id-They
 Have Taken No Part in the War
 100000 of Them Killed.


 a sanguinary tyrant than th- pacificos of Cuba during the eighteen months in which General Weyler has been massa- creing them.
 Before the present revolution began ths pacifeos were known by the general name of guajiros, applied in Cuba to all the inhabitants of the country; but they We're the poorest class of Cuban country people. They worked hard on the sugar plantations or tobacco estates for very small wages or raised vegetables for their own support around their misera- ble. dwellings. They lived some miles out of the towns and villages, crowded into small huts under slender roofs made of palm tree leaves.
 More prosperous guajiros owned small farms and some cattle and so when the armies of Gomez and Maceo swept over the island from east to west they had resources sufficient to send their fam lilies to the large towns, and they them- selves joined the triumphant patriots. All the hapless inhabitants of the huts could not do this. While the younger men followed the flag of the older star their elders resolved not to let the wo- men and children die from starvation
 
 fiercely around them. Leaving to others the gloriss of battle, they engrossed themselves in their family duties. With out knowing anything of international law, they felt that they had some rights as non-combatants which ought to be respected by civilized soldiers.
 They remained neutral, In the hope that both armies would allow them to q. country. Then they were named the pacificos, which means in Spanish "the peaceful" and under Genl=ral Martinez Campos, they were, as a rule, well treated by Spaniards and Cubans alike B The pacifiico, as general thing, is 50 years old or more. His family is very large. Ths Cubans and those in the country more than the residents of the cities. marry very young, generally un- der 20. The Cuban women are very pro- life. It is not uncommon to sse in Cuba a man not yet 50 years old with twenty five or more children. The Cuban coun- tryman, moreover, always marries for love a girl of his class. who Is as poor as himself, and when his wife Is the daugh- ter of a widow and has unma rried sis- ters, he becomes the support of his wifes relatives.
 The Cuban guajiros are endowed by na- ture with a great love of family and heaiibh. They never complain of the hard burden tfpay have to bear. They have also a kind of fataNsm common to all in- habiltants of l.he tropics. They believe there is a Providence that will never forsake them in their struggle for life. If they win today thsy are happy enough. a,rJd confident of the morrow. So when they see that all ',heir family have safely reached the night with shel CT and with cut hunger. they go to rest repeating cineerfully: Tomorrow, God will pro- vide. 'iAIanan ma Dios daran'
 r To this he oic devotion to those who so absolutely depend upon his strength of arm the pacitico sacrifices all Oher feelings. He loves Cuba and freedom. and admires the Cuban heroes, but he Keeps these secret in his heart for the sake of his wife and children It Is one of the many lies uttered by General Wey- Ter that the pacificos were employed by the Cuban revobu tionis-s as sph,s and agents in the country. The paclfico may be sympathizer wlah the revolution, as everyone is in Cuba except the Spanish officials and those who share in Spans piunder of ,tlps colony. The cause of Spain is so unjust that Spain has npo dis in, crest ed friends But in this war the pacifico is strictly non- -comba ta mt. To murder him, and more than that. 10 massacre his wife and children is horrible crime a ainSt humanity.
 s The only precedent for such a crime in tlhe history of Cuba was that General ValnHaseda, who, in 1872, issued cruel de- crees against the country people of the province of Puerto Principe, which elicit ed a formal protest from the United Stat g Government. General Weyler, who served under Valma sed'a as a colonel, and who then committed his first butchering of defenseleSS Cuban women, has imitat- ed Valmaseda, but, like all imitators, he has gone furthsr than his model. Val nlaseda, compared wilh Weyler, was @ humane soldier. Weyler's principal aim and to that end 1t is easier for him to begin with th= pacificos than with the armed foes of Spain in elhe field.
 Compelling the pacificos to concentrate out afforddng them any means of procur- Ing food. Weyler ihas sentenced them to the most cruel death in Dante's hell to the death by hunger, from whose bangs they tried to save those they loved most. When in thedr long, hopeless agony the Spanish columns for a piece of bread, the sharp bayonets of the soldiers put 8 merciful end to their wretched lives.
 These barbarities. surpassing those of the Turks In Europe and AsBa, are con- stantly reported, not only by trustworthy American, English, and even Spanish press correspondents, but also by official representatives of the American gov ernment. There is not the slightest doubt about the truthfulness of these reports. Humanity may not inspire a stronger power than Spain to stop such horrors, but history will not hesitate to couple in It's records the nameof Weyler with tn, se of Alba and Torquemada!
 MT. Stephen BoIssal, who has witnessed the sufferings of the pacificos. describes ths scheme of a. Spaniard he met in Ha- yana, who proposed as the only solution of the war new massacre of Saint Bar tholomew against the Gu bans, beginning in the capital itself.
 MT Bousal did not give the name of the author of this infamous proposal but he described him so we'll that no one we'll acuuainted with Cuba can fail to reoog- nize the uncompromisdng Spanish colonel of volunteers, Don Eugento Vandama.
 But the end of that story Is not yet told. The scheme was proposed to Gen. Weys- Ter by some other butchers like himself before his last unsuccessful trip to San- fZ.I