The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-06-04

and Guanabacoa soldiers are on gpard
duty at all times. Their loaded mnskets
are stacked in the corners of the coaches
| With such conditions at the outskirts Of
Havana it is evident the insurrection has
not been suppressed. One side doesn Il
wish to end the war; the other cannot
| Between the insurgents and the Spaniards
lies hopelessness for the great populations
of non-combatants unless there is inter
| ference in the name of humanity.
| Guanabacoa is place of sufficient i'm
portance to have both electric and gas
| lights. Yet when night comes there is to
be witnessed the extraordinary spectacle
of every householder hanging beside his
| front door an oil lamp. From end to end,
each street shows as many lamps burning
as there are houses. 1t is the order of
the military governor, whose explanation
is that the insurgents in q night attack
might cut the wires or turn off the gas,
in which event the Spanish soldiers be-
hind the barricades could not see to shoot
them. This is the military necessity for
| the lamps 1t is town talk that the gov
ernor is partner i'll the store which does
the principal business in oil and lamps.
II this is not true, then the governor of
Guanabacoa is far behind the other Span
lsh officials of Cuba in private enterprise.
The sight of Guanabacoa which most
sadly lmpresses is the yellow flag.
d. iietO ulu you Se6 over UilCIO! lh
American was asked in Havana after his
return from visit to Guanabacoa.
Lots of yellow flags" was the reply.
In a drive through the streets OF the
town the yellow flag is never out of sight.
IN the poorer streets where the paclticos
have crowded, the yellow flags can be
counted by the score. They designate. the
But SO accustomed have the people be-
come to the presence of the pestilence that
they go in and out of the infected houses
with little regard for the flags. In
month more yellow fever will add it's ter
rors to small pox,. and then no one can
tell now rapidly these half clad and ill
nourlshed pacificos in their leaking hut
will die.
Around Guanabacoa are fertile and
green fields. The showers are becoming
frequent. The trees are renewing the
foliage, which never entirely falls in this
climate: But there are no crops growing.
In the journey from Havana only one
man was seen in the fields. The GUIANA
bacoa market house is a building that
BELTS the former well-to-do character of
the place. No great stretch of the imagi-
nation is required to fill the stalls with
the wonderful variety of fruits and vege-
tables of which Cuba is capable. But to-
day the appearance of the shelves is too
sickening for description. A sanitary
officer, II this was a market in an Ameri-
can town, would condemn and throw into
the garbage cart every sickly, with cred
thing in sight. Most Of the stalls are
empty. Those with a pretense of stock
had better be closed. In Guanabacoa,
once the abode of the wealthy and the
scene of plenty, the children of the poor
pick up the spoiled bananas and carry
them to the huts, where the women make
of them a soup to prolong miserable exis-
tence. In Guanabacoa the soldier of
proud Spain, who has seen no pay since
that which counted for November, stops
the American on the street, and touching
his hat, earnestly begs for cigarette or a
cigar.