The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-06-08

A strange appeal on behalf of the
starving and dying reconcentrados IN
Matanzas, who. excited pity in the
hearts of General Lee and Mr.. Calhoun,
has been made to the people OF the
United States
Since the United States government
has beSun measures for the relier Of
its citizens in Matanzas, the desperate
plight of the Cuban recorcentrados
there has resulted in a petition, signed
by 100 of them, in which they beg in
the name of common humanity that
they may be included in the charity
The petition is headed An appeal to the
United States" 1t is now on its way
to Washington. The principal part of
it is:
Fer some time past we have been
contemplating the idea of appealing to
your charitable feelings for relief for
those Of our people who are bitterly
suffering the consequences of most
inhuman way of waging war. The fear,
however, that our representations might
be received as passionate and eXagger-
ated, has restrained us from under
taxing the task. but since General Lee,
Commissioner Calhoun, his secretary,
Mr.. Fishback and Mr.. Alexander
Brice, the American consul at this
place, have seen with their own ewes
the misery existing here, we do not
hesitate any longer to speak to you.
If, as is to be hoped, these gentlemen
make their reports TO the United States
government of all they have seen, you
will find full confirmation of the state
ments we make.
First and foremost, let it be said
that in unhappy Cuba we can do moth
ing TO help our suffering countrymen.
The pacificos that have huddled in our
city would be looked upon as traitors
for so doing, and as such we would be
summary dealt with. We must not
feel for them; we must be blind and
deaf to their sufferings, and do nothing
that can in any way interfere with
General Weyler's policy of extermina-
ton.
We have to witness day after day
scenes OF horror which no man can
describe and yet no voice can be lifted
to protest against them. To Spain We
cannot apply for succor. She is well
acquainted with the present condition
of affairs in Cuba and SO far not a
farthing has come to US from her, and
whenever the Spanish people have been
in want or distress.
But what are we to expect from
Spain when her worthy representative
here, General Weyler, Indifferent, cold
and deaf to our misery, cooIy says that
his mission in Cuba is not to look after
the starving population, but simply TO
end the war according to his own no
tons.
He has converted into deserts sec
tons of country where abundance once
reigned: thousands of happy towns
have been looted and burned down by
a savage soldiery, and her desolation
meets the eye wherever you
look and, people of America, vultures
feed on unburied corpses strewn in the
ruined fields.
Upward of 10000 of the victims of
this savage system of warfare have
been crowded into Matanzas without
providing for their most natural wants
and after they have been compelled
to abandon all they had in the world
they are to be seen in crowds from 8
o'clock in the day until late at night,
imploring charity.
Many a child perishes in the streets,
unable TO stand from many and such
long continued privations. Indeed, it
looks as if our graveyards had turned
out their dead upon US, such
is the dreadful look of the
multitudes that franticaily go about
begging for a morsel OF bread.
and whose only guilt is TO have been
born in Cuba.
1t is impossible to give detailed ac-
counts of the misery that reigns SUI
preme here and in other cities and
towns. 1t is enough TO state that the
reconcentrados or pacificos are living in
huts erected in the outskirts of our
cities For beds they have the bare
ground and in it they eat, if they hap
pen to be relieved by some charitable
source.
In any other country this state of
affairs would have brought on dis
turbances and riots; vet the people,
suffering as they are, have not done
anything in any way disturbing order
Can there be a better illustration of
a peaceful disposition
Tender loving mothers of America,
to you in particular we appeal in our
humane undertaking. Send US the
mighty aid of your motherly corpora
ton; enlist in our crusade against
crime and barSarity, and the blessings
of thousands will rise to heaven as a
fit hymn in your praise Think that at
your very doors there are mothers who
love as dearly as you love. and who
day after day see their little ones per-
ish in our streets OUT uI sheer hunger
and in most cases, without a piece of
rag TO cover their nakedness.
AS for us we cannot do our work
openly. We have to beg for feeding
the hungry and clothing the naked.
concealing ourselves and our names as
if we were doing something wrong. and
We therefore suggest that if any re-
lief is to come it should be entrusted
to the American consuls for distribu-
ton. and we would also suggest that
the sending of help in the way of pro-
visions or clothing has its inconveni-
ences, and it might give the officials an
opportunity to interfere and thwart the
object in view.
Very respectfully,