The news & observer., 1897-08-27

inmates however. is intrusted to tins
huge negress, who was selected Tor her
ability to beat any of the other women
She has two general assistants ana nve
other aids, all of them prisoners Ike
herself. The duty of the five aids is to
keep order at night in the five apart
ments, one being assigned to each and
being, as it were, its captain.
These eight women have practically
the lives Of their fellow prisoners in
their keeping They can beat them
with impunity and do. and they can i'm
pose any conditions they please. Spain
finds this system particularly advan-
jtageous one in her bankrupt condition,
because these women, being prisoners,
can be made to serve without pay. They
enjoy the authority that they have.
ORDER OF THE DAY.
The order of the day in the Recojidas
lis as follows: At in the morning these
women open the doors, and the prisoners
must Immediately go out into the court
yard. naked. or half naked There are
two hours before the first meal These
two hours are employed by some of the
women in washing their clothes. All
must use the same large tub. others
sew. The majority chat, lounge, sing,
smoke.
At 8 each gets a piece of bread and
nothing more. At 10 two men bring in
huge tin pail containing soup-like
mixture of rice. potatoes and another
yegetabl Each of the women has
tin plate and large spoon. AS they
are called by name they go up to this
pail and take as much as their spoon
will hold They can dip in only once.
This latter process is repeated at
o'clock, when a piece of meat is added.
At at night the chief woman guard
blows whistle and all must hasten to
the dormitories. Until this hour they
are permitted to pass their time as they
please in the courtyard, and the air is
filled with quarrellings, cursing, bicker-
ings and cries, for fights are of almost
constant occurrence, and fierce fights at
that.
1t is among such women and amid such
surroundings, and in such conditions
that Evangelina Cossio Cisneros-every-
body says she was the most beautiful
girl in Cuba--has had to live these many
months. And her life has been made
even harder in Recojidas than it might
have been, for since her incarceration
there she had the misfortune to attract
the attention of the Marquis de Cervera
and de Villaitre-he holds the two titles,
which are among the highest in Spain.
PERSONALITY OF THE MARQUIS.
The Marquis is reputed to be of monu-
mental degradation. His name is syn
onymous in Cuba, not only among the
l.
with vileness, viciousness and dishones-
ty. He has served terms in Havana pris-
ons for robberies and gambling frauds.
He was degraded from his rank of colo
mel in the Spanish army for having filch-
ed money from fellow army officers in
the barracks. But he ingratiated him
self into the Infanta Eulalia's favor
when she visited Cuba in 1893, after
having been the guest of this country on
the occasion of her visit to the Chicago
Worlds Fair, and through her interces-
sion with the Queen Regent the Mar
quis was restored to his rank in the
army.
Decent Spaniards in Cuba, as all Gu
bans, shun the Marquis of Cervera as if
he were poison. He is one of Weyler's
most intimate companions, however. The
Marquis went to the Casa de Recoji-
das and offered Miss Cisneros, with
whose beauty he was impressed, his pro-
lection. The young girl spurned his ad-
vances and the offers of his assistance.
BOASTS OF HIS CRUELTY.
He is known to have boasted that in
consequence he has had the few privil-
eges that she had previously been allow
ed withdrawn; that he had her removed
from one of the small rooms in the Re
cojidas to one of the larger; that by
his influence with Weyler he got the
Recojidas authorities to make the girl
scrub the floors once a week, as the more
hardy prisoners do, and as she had not
had to do before, and that to him would
belong the credit Of having broken her
naughty spirit!