The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-04-28
A CUBAN PATRIOTS STORY
REV. 4. J. DIAz RELATES HIS EX-
 PERIENCES IN THE ISLAND.


 Many Interesting Facts.
 It is not every day that New Haven audience has an opportunity to listen to the story of an eye witness of the Cuban struggle, and so a large audi ence greeted Rev. A. J. Diaz, M. D., at the Calvary Baptist church last even- ing.
 Rev. Dr. Diaz has spent many years of his life in Cuba, and was banished some time ago from the island by order of General Weyler, He is a very enter- taining speaker, possessed of a strong itate to employ His language is read- fly understood, though there are traces of the Spanish pronunciation in his English. His topic was "The War and the Gospel in Cuba" and he thus de- scribed the condition of affairs in the island:
 ''In Cuba the Spanish government taxes everything, even the air that we breathe. There are about million and a half of people in the island, and Spain collects $2O,O0O,OO0 in taxes from them, or nearly $2O per capita. These taxes are levied ostensibly to pay the interest on the Spanish debt, but no one will ever know how much that Spanish debt amounts to.
 We have no fair representation in the government of the island. The gov- ernment will not allow us to plant wheat, which we could well do, because they say they want to supply us them- selves.
 "They restrict our trade with tho United States, so that barrel of flour which would be worth $4 or $5 in New York would cost us $34 in Cuba. The Spanish say they will supply us with flour at $25 barrel, but they don't raise the wheat themselves. You ought to see the barrels the Spanish flour comes in. It says on them, St. Louis, Mo- and we know that St. Louis. Mo- is not in Spain.
 They also tax you for the signs with which you advertise your business. if the letters are very large they tax you three or four dollars for it. If there are no letters there is no tax.
 ivy IeI<A OAAC D C1iS3AO1l dlSOs < WcllG to Cuba to preach the gospel, and they began to persecute us. When we hold a meeting we cannot have the doors or the windows open. We can't sing loud or preach loud, lest we should attract the attention of the people on the street. When we disperse we must go out by twos, lest we attract attention in this way; and as our meetings are largely attended it sometimes takes three or four hours for HIS to get out of the church.
 No bells, no clocks, nor anything of the sort, are allowed in our churches4 In spite of these prosecutions our con- gregations are larger than theirs, and when 1t rains, instead of there being fewer people present, there are more, for then we can sing louder and have more freedom.
 Tn my sermons I have to be very careful as to what say about the in- stitutions or the government or it's pol- icy, for I do not care to go to jail, you know.
 "The Catholic people usually go td church three times-once when they arc baptized, again when they are married. and a third time when they celebrate their funeral-and this is what the gov- ernment wants, because it can keep such people in ignorance. 'It was proposed a while ago to ca
 nonize Columbus and I thought 1t my
 duty to antagonize the plan, so read up on the subject of Columbus and de- livered a sermon against his being ca- nonized When got through police- I ttn1xy fo11 tlnot .yt fra jail with him, as had treated Colum- bus rather harshly in my sermon. went and stayed a day, and since that lexperience~I have not preached against Columbus.
 We have no enemies, but they per- sectue Us so as to scare us, but they don't scare us and we still continue to prosper.
 There are 5000 people waiting to be- baptized in Havana now, but we are | waiting till they show signs of regen- eration before We baptize them. | The reason is this. The Roman | Catholic church in Cuba is political | institution and when I tried to start church there they thought I was trying to establish the political institutions of the United States there and people | flocked to join 1t in great numbers, say- | ing: 'Dr. Diaz, I want to be baptized.
 I want to become an American citizen.' "The people have very jealous dis- 1 position. The women are always jeal- ous and the men are worse than the | women. If you want to start choir | you will have to take in all the con- gregation.
 T wanted to select seven deacons to
 assist me in the work, but when went | to appoint them the others came about
 me inquiring why they could not be ap- pointed deacons
 q finally preached a sermon on the
 duties of deacons, in which I said that
 it was the duty of the deacons to care | for those who were suffering from
 smallpox, hoping that this would scare
 them out from wanting to become dea- cons.
 When I asked at the close of the
 sermon how many would like to be
 deacons, the congregation which was
 a large one of three or four thousand, rose in a body to it's feet I said go ahead, you are all deacons. Go and do your duty.
 "We have organized a hospital and
 founded a cemetery for the benefit of
 Havana, which Is very unhealthy.
 "They Dersecute us so as to make