The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-05-12

by the Spaniards, Mr.. Da-
Wis warns the people of the United
States, because the stories of newsps-
per correspondents who may never
have left their hotel in Havana, or
who manufacture news at Key West,
may be shown to be false, not to adopt
the conclusion that therefore atrocities
of the most inhuman kind are not con-
stantly perpetrated in Cuba. Mr.. Da-
Wis narrative of his own experiences
and observations, and the accounts of
the correspondents who have dared
every peril in Spanish and insurgent
camps to get at the truth, settle the
question of atrocities against the Span
iards with q conclusiveness that lacks |
no element of cruelty and inhumanity. |
The shooting of prisoners taken in bat
tie is the mildest form of Spanish bar
barity. 1t is within bounds to say that
if the particular atrocities the newspa-
pers have published were not perpe-
trated, others just as horrible have
been committed, and the greater part
of them have never reached the knowl-
edge of civilization. Besides Mr.. Da-
Wis., testimony, there is the evidence of
a dozen other correspondents and wri-
ters who have risked disease and
death-and some have died-in their
efforts to find out the truth. Why not
listen to these men? President Nc
Kinley's special envoy will not find
out half the facts, nor discover half
the truths these men can tell him.
There is one feature of the situation
in Cuba, more cruel and more dreadful
than the shooting of prisoners, the
numbering OF Cubans wounded in their
hospitals, the daily martyrdom of pa
triots by every barbaric devise tyranny's
minions can contrive, That is the
wholesale devastation of the island
which was the idea and has been &C.
complished by order of General Weyler.
The pacificos, or non-combatants, were
ordered into the large towns, or the
proximity of the forts, their houses
were burned and their fields of corn or
potatoes were destroyed. The purpose
was to deprive the insurgents of food
and harbor, and refuge for their wound
ed. The result was to drive every
able-bodied neutral or acknowledgement
into the camps of the insurgents and to
leave the women and children, the sick
and the aged, to the tender mercies of
the Spanish soldiery, and to impose
them as burden upon the charity of
the towns. A dead line is drawn
around these herding places. Instead of
the cottages that have been burned, the
wholesomesair, pure waters, grateful
shade and nourishing food of their
homes, out under the blue skies, these
unfortunate beings are stalled like cat
tie around the outskirts of the towns,
or are huddled like sheep in ware
houses by the coast.
cit is easy to imagine" says Mr..
Davis, "what happened when hun
dreds of people, in some towns thou
sands, were herded together, on the
bare ground, with no food, with no
knowledge of sanitation, with no cover
ing for their heads but palm leaves, with
no privacy for the women and young
girls, with no thought but as to how
they could live until tomorrow" The
huts of these pacifcos, with from four
to six people in each, were jammed to-
gether in rows, in one town, within ten
feet of the cavalry barracks, where men
and horses had lived for a month.
Filth, ankle deep, covered the streets.
Deaths from smallpox and starvation
averaged seven day in December.
This town was only little worse than
the others. In seaport town these
people were lodged in warehouse
along the waterfront. Their condition,
the writer says, was so pitiable that it
is difficult to describe it correctly and
hope to be believed. Below was pool
of sewage covered with thick green
slime, with damp fungus spread over
the wooden posts and up the sides of
the wall. Above this stencil and corrup-
ton were living three hundred women
and children and few men, driven in
from their homes in the fresh and
healthful country, after they had seen
their cottages go up in fire and smoke,
in obedience to Weyler's internal
scheme of devastation. Disease, in
cool December, was holding high car.
nival among these wretched people.
What will be the condition of those
who survive till the heat of tropical
summer come? The Cuban coast is
one extended pest region, breeding yell
low fever and every kindred horror,
and within eighty miles of the shore of
these United States. If the time shall
ever come when this country ought to
| interfere, that time ia at hand and hoe