The evening times., 1897-05-03
.CUBANs' P|T|ABLE PLIGHT
Towns Rayaged by Smallpox and
Inhabitants Starving.
WEYLER'S CRUEL METHODS
Sick and Starving People Driven
Into Overcrowded and Unsanitary
Over Again for the Burial of Vic
tins of Presidential Diseases.

| Havana, Cuba, via Tampa, Fla, May g.
/ Now that the reforms are about to be put
in operation in Cuba, according TO Captain
General Weyler, the question which Ameri-
cans throughout the island are asking is
wnat the new measures will do to feed the
i not afford either separate beds to die in or
coffins for burial This extract from La
| Lucha, which the censor overlooked, tells
| few of the ugly facts:
AT meeting held by the health junta in
| Guines, April 3, was decided TO appoint a
| special committee to Investigate the real
| sanitary Conditions OF the population Of
that town. The report made 10y that COM
| mittee shows conditions which are simply
| awful
.'In the first house which they entered in
Luisa Delce street, they found twelve per-
sons sick with smallpox, lacking not only
medical assistance, but also food. ThcIe
were father and his two sons, who were
actually starving; three living skeletons.
Almost everywhere they went they met
similar sights. AT the reservoir for the
water supply they were shocked to see it
full OF filth From the reservoir they went
to the hospital, where there We're only
fort ty-three beds for forty-eight patients. In
one ired there were three persons One of
them had been dead four and one-half hours
and was lying with the other two, who
were yet living.
''One man was in charge OF all the sick
and there was woman to do { lie washing.
When the members OF the committee IN
uuired about the kitchen they were sur
priscd to hear that there was no kitchen
The food for the patients was brought
from a Chinese rest aurant in the nei-hbnr-
hood, and consisted OF cabbage, soup,
potatoes, and occasionally some meat. In
one house where there were two persons
sick with the smallpox, woman was do
ing washing for the neighbOrhood.
AT the Plaza De La Villa, where there
are two hundred huts, in every hut there
was one, two or even five or six persons
i'll with smallpox, and all Of them In
wrctched condition. Everywhere hunger
and illness rdgned.
''In one house was a coffin against the
wall, and the woman Of the house said she
had already used it TO bury three members
of her family, all victims Of smallpox. She
had brought the coffin back home TO use
for the next one, and just Their there was
on the bare floor another man who had
died Of smallpox awaiting his turn. The
woman bought the coffin for 80 cents,
knowing il had been used several times
before
''As a result of the report made by tho
commttce, a new hospital was built. Put
frcm a more recent report we learn that
patient had been there thlrty-siX hours
without any food whatever
In Matanzas, where they shoot an inSur-
gent daily, it has been found necessary to
drive z. 900 reconcentrados out 1f the city
to relieve temporarily the congestion of
starving persons. This only agsravatSS
the condition of those expelled
particularly cruel style of warfare was
begun in the Sagua district as soon as Gen.
Wcyler left on April &c. The military
commander sent for Mrs PereCa Sixry-fivc
years old, Il cultured Cuban, now an in
valid, and told her that if she did not
induce her son, an inSurgent chief, 10 sur
render within three days she would be de-
ported. 4 similar notice was served on
Jose Robau. father OF BriEadier General
Robau. Mr. Robau is Seyenty-five years
old and his wife is sick, but young Robau
is active in the hills, and, as Weyler
has just declared the province pacified, he
wars on the Insurgents whom he Cannotde-
feat. through their a ged parents. Theelder
Rubau is a Spaniard and served his
country in the ten years war.
In Sagua recently the American consul,
shocked by the desperate distress he saw
about him, Offered TO contribute through
the mayor three thousand ioaveS of bread
to feed the hungry. The offer was re-
fused, although the mayor had said in
public that a thousand persons were dy-
ing of hunger in the city. The refusal o:
Officially "a state of affairs which would
cause criticisms of WeyIer's style OF war
fare.
Insurgents maCheted the garrison OF the
Santa Sima estate, near Trinidad, few
days ago, killing nineteen out of twenty
five men, The place is in the center of n
''paCified'' district, the factis thatin most
places in Cuba there is a condition like that
in great city during ariot A certain street
is quiet until the police 90 around the cor
ner.
The force OF rebels which recently en-
tered Pinar del Rio from the eastward is
variously estimated at from 1000 TO
5000 Gen. Weyler, who was talking Of
going east, probably to Cabanas, may be
called to Pinar del Rio now
The country awaits the reforms and the
rains. The reforms may help the Cubans
The rains will surely do so.