The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1897-01-19
THE lNHUMAN
Edict of Weyler Felt in Havana and Ma
tanzas Provinces-It .Deprives Peaceful
Citizens of Their iRightful Means Of

tanzas Provinces-,It .Deprives Peaceful
Citizens of Their lRightful Means Of
Existence.
KEY WEST, Fla, Jan. 16.-Advices
from Havana state that the effect OF
Weyler's famous Bayate edict Of the
tst instant is being felt with more in
sensity in the provinces of Havana and
Matanzas than in that of Pinar del
Rio, since these provinces being more
.hickly populated and with more farms
and estates than the former, the whole
sale abandonment of the properties
and the concentration OF the people in
the towns will not only augment the
misery already prevailing, but also
present the serious Inconvenience of
lodging so many people in towns al
ready full to OVERLOOKING.
Without discussing Weyler's inhu-
man measures in thus depriving peace.
tul and unoffending citizens o their
rightful means of existence, and hud-
ding them in already crowded spaces,
exposed to all the rigors of hunger AMI
disease, simply for the sake OF clearing
the country of so-called rebel sympa-
thizers, legal point has been sprung
by the foreign property owners, espe-
cially the Americans, who own large
properties in the provinces Of Havana
and Matanzas, which will surely lead
to complications and claims on the
Spanish government.
Weyler distinctly states in his decree
that those who wish to remain on
their properties must exhibit the
last tax bill paid. AS taxes are levied
on productive industries, and these
planters have not been able to WORK
on account of the abnormal conditions
in the provinces since Gomez invasion
in December, 1895, no taxes have
been collected since that time, the
government taeitly admitting such I'M
usual circumstances or being powerleSs
to collect them because the rebe S
were in possession of the country did
not press their collections, consequent
ly no taxes have been paid in the
country since the date mentioned.
Besides that Weyler has unofficially
ordered that no sugar crop should be
made and now he wants the sugar
planters to pay taxes on sn industry
which they have not been able to pro.
duce.
The result has been the managers OF
the sugar estate, San Antonio, near
Madruga, Havana, owned by Mr..
Antonio Terry, an American citizen
residing in Paris, presented himself to
Consul Lee demanding protection, be.
cause the military commander of Mai.
| L. -. 10
which is one of the most valuable
estates in the province, worth half a
million dollars, because he did moi
present the required tax bill
Consul Lee at once took the case un'
der hand and simultaneously presented
the same to the captain general and
the state department at Washington
No replies have been received yet
either from Weyler or Secretary OIL
MY. To depict the situation in Pinar
del Rio nothing can be better said than
to translate the report of trip male
to the city of that name by CORE
spondent of La Lucha:
Gail the way trav ersed by the rail
road from Artemisa to Consolation de-
Sur is, without exaggeration, the most
classified and undoubtedly has su :
fered most of the rigors of the war
The fields wasted and abandoned, the
bushes and trees burned, the huts de-
stroyed, the stone houses, in Other
times happy homes, converted by the
rebels and Spanish alike into heaps
of ruins, the cane fields dried up anc
covered with bushes, by the ravages O
fire; the townsville authorities o
which are making great efforts to rem
edy the necessities of the residents
full of people of poor families, wht
daily drop down from the hills, extern
uated by hunger and emaciated by TIT
fevers"