Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-05-26

count OF an encounter between the troops
| and the insurgents in the ''pacified" dis.
-trict of Pinar del Rio. 1t says that 12C
| Spanish soldiers dislodged 90 insurgents
The prefecture composed Of eight bohios
| was destroyed by the troops and two "car-
| retas' filed with families were captured
The names Of the families are given, but
later on only two prisoners are named.
This means that the Others women and
| children among them, we-e killed.
Other Illustrations of the way the war is
being carried on out in the country appear
There is the report Of fire at Consolation,
supposed to have been purely casual" N
which all the bohios, or huts, were burned,
| and 464 reconcentrados left shelterless and
without food. In the account of a surprise
given the insurgents in their stronghold of
Bahia-Honda, it is succinctly stated that
the insurgent hospital was destroyed" In
telling of the action at Cangre, which was
cabled to the United States as an import
ant victory for the Spanish troops, 1t is
stated that Col Canga-Arguelles entered
Madruga with twenty-three dead bodies of
insurgents, which were placed ..at public
spectacle" After the public had been suf-
fc!ently edited. the bodies were given
Christian burial. From Artemisa, where
the illustrious Col. Alamo is showing a
zeal second only to that of his chief. Gen.
Suarez 1nclan, the bringing in of the BODY
of an insurgent for exhibition and identif
catlon Is thought worthy to be chronicisd.
Mr.. Calhoun has not seen these things
Win his own eyes. He can only give hear
say testimony that this is the way military
operations are carried ON in the field by the
Faiorous and glorious" troops of Spain
out since the news is official and is pub
iished under the saction of the government
III the person OF the military censor, he
may give it credibility in informing the
President Of the actual conditions IN tho
island.
Information Given by Americans.
On some other points Mr.. Calhoun will
nave to depend fer the present on the tes-
tlmony OF 'meddling Americans" as Gen.
Weyler calls them. His work In the Ruiz
Inquiry delays his making a personal in
Festlgatlon CT reports which are brought
10 him. There is letter from an American
citizen telling of seeing the bodies of nine
persoEs' men, women and children, who
mad teen macheted by the troops within
twenty-five miles of Havana. The writer
Is given good character and later he NAV
nave chance to tell of what he has seen.
Ihen there is the account told by young
American of five deaths from starvation IN
one family at Punta Brava, a little town
hfteen miles out of the CITY. / can th,.
mere readily credit this because a Snanish
officer in an adjoining district told me the
other day that in the local physician's re-
port he had noticed three deaths set down
as due to lack of aliment' These are
merely individual cases. which one is ant
to remember when Minister de LONE com.
plains that the starvation and suffering
among the non-combatants in Cuba is
greatly exi ggerated,, that the stories
OF atrocities are unfounded
Awful Results of HerdinE the People.
1t is not necessary to go far away from
Havana to see the effects of the concentra-,
tionl order.+.5
An idea of it can be had at Guanabacoo
which Is only five miles away. The first
day that the commission went there to
begin the Ruiz inquiry l spent few hours
on the narrow, hlly streets, where the
pacihcos, or reconcentrados, have been hud-
died. Mr.. Calhoun and his companions
were told they had arrived too late to wit
ness the distribution of food, which is
made IN the early morning from the
church. One colored woman, who had
oeen TOO late, was waiting patiently for
1ood that had been promised. On her
arms was an infant year old. Its face
YES pinched and the skin was drawn tight
ly over the bones
Smallpox Is working greater havoc now
among the reconcentrados at Guanabacoa
than hunger: Having immunity from the
contagion I was able to visit the infected
quarters, where dirty yellow rags hung
out from the squalid huts gave notice of
Its presence. Little food was to be found
in the huts in this part of the town, yet
the occupants were uncomplaining They
made no show of their misery but the
evidences of their suffering could not be
concealed. Matters were little better
now, l was told. 1t was possible to get
some food by going to the church in the
morning and waiting their turn. This was
not always enough, but it was better than
nothing, and they were grateful
Street Scene in Guanabneoa.
Some of those who had partly recovered
from the smallpox were on the streets,
though 1t ought not to have been so. One
girl OF fourteen, clad in rags, was begging.
An older woman threw tattered shawl
over her head and face to hide what she
had been through. In several of the houses
1t was pos sible to look in the doors and
windows and see the sick ones who were
getting better. At one place was a woman
stretched on a cot who was not suffering
from the contagion. In another hut was
child. Both were sick with fever the
fever that comes from insufficient nourish-
ment.
Though good medical attendance has been
provided at Guanabacoa, the disease is not
yet under control. It will run its course,
and when there are no more victims left
for 1t to feed on will die out, as it has
done In other places where General Wey-
lers order has brought together country
people. insuficiently fed and ignorant of
the laws Of sanitation and by giene.
Consular Representatives Rcported.
I have digressed little from the war
and Its prospects. Starvation and disease
are Incidents of warfare which have their
bearing as well as military operations, and
they cannot be overlooked, But as a ques-
ton of military conditions. those who are
seeking information may be interested in
knowing that the most Of the consular
representatives in Havana are making re-
-