Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-09-24
A LOOK AT NEW CUBA
The Interior of the Island as It is
Today.
THE AWFUL DESOLATION and RUIN
In Santa Clara Province Not a
House is Standing.
ROYAL ROAD MIS- MED
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star

the country between? Since the blockade
of Cuban ports began early in the war the
interior section of the island, so far as the
outside world is concerned has been a
place or vast silence. Correspondents with
pen and camera and military couriers with
dispatches went inland only far Gar
cia's camp, in Santiago province, or to the
headquarters of President Maceo and the
cuban government in the province of
Puerto Principe. Occasionally there were
brought to light small morsels of news
about Matanzas or Cardenas, on the north
coast, or about Cienfuegos or Trinidad, on
the south; but the interior all the inland
towns, remained in impenetrable gloom.
In shut-up Havana knowledge was less
than in the United States until the sign
ing of the protocol and the coming of
peace. Then the opportunity to move about
at will proved too tempting to be resisted
by the trio of American correspondents
who had remained cooped up in the Cuban
metropolis for over three months. We de-
cided to traverse this silent inland district
and to take look at new Cuba during the
first moments of it's freedom.
Between Havana and Santiago the dis
lance is 800 miles. The railroad extends
only half way, ending at Santa Clara. The
remaining go miles must be made in the
saddle. Santiago has never been connect
ed with the rest of Cuba by rail. Boats
seemed to be good enough for Cubans and
Spaniards. But an American company has
already sent representatives down there to
report on the best route for a railroad to
connect Santiago with Santa Clara and
thence with Havana.
The Change in the People.
The train was scheduled to leave Havana
at 6 in the morning. 1t started at 9, lit
tie reminder to the passenger that Cuba is
still manana land. Some of US had been
over this same ground in April, just before
the war. We observed now that the physi-
cal appearance of the country had not
changed. The rains had turned the ashes
that lay over the burned fields like a crust
from gray to black. That was all. The
real change lay not in nature, but in man.
In April an armored car full of Spanish
soldiers was attached to the train. Now
both car and soldiers We're left behind. No
fear now of a sudden rain of bullets no
need now of a scouting engine to precede
the train in search of bombs or broken
rails; for now we were journeying through
Cuba the new. Even though the country
is still all divine overhead and all deyasta-
ton under foot the condition of the inhab-
itantS is changed. The people are Free free
in their misery and their hunger to rove
over the blackened fields, over the ruin and
the desolatiOn, unmolested. At the stations
along the lire the surviving reconcentrados
gathered, mute, stupefied either by their
long suffering or by the news that relief
would soon come-with los Americanos
Desolated Country.
The train rolled slowly through Havana
province and into the province of Matan-
zas, into the sugar-caue valley. once the
Valley Beautiful, now the Vale of Death
In April when we were there before, the
smoke of hundred fires hung over the
valley in one great, black pail. But now
there was no smoke; the last embers had
sod dor ha Tot;
trails adobe houses, Were masses of black
ruins, the terrible autograp of fire and
sword. The whole province rescmb,ed
nothing 50 much as huge ash heap.
On. into Santa Clara province, into the
former garden spot of Cuba, perhaps of
the world. Here were the royal palms.
still dominating: but they were sentinels in
wilderness. This was the sugar paradise
In 1890 Gomez and Maceo ovorran it "a!
machete.' Today it is what the insurgent
chiefs left it, paradise burned. Not a ouse
Is standing, not q soul inhabits the region
Such is the desert that was created when
So,GoDWo worth of sugar cane became
drifting ashes. And such. indeed, IS the
condition of all the fifty thousand farms
Plantations and ranches that We're de-
stroyed throughout Cuba during the war
Machinery here, as well as all over the
island. is a thing of the past. What IS not
rusting in the fields has been broken up
and shipped to America old metal
Cuba must have a new outfit of machinery
But first she must get money Are the Gu
bans really so poVerty-stricken, all of
them? From my own knowledge, ] can
state that gold was boarded by many Gu
bans during the war, and that now this
gold will be brought from its hiding places
Spanish Glad to Get Out
Then cana Santa Clara city, where the
poorer people were standing around idly,
seemingly waiting for something to turn
up. Their countenances seemed to say:
''Wa0 no 81 pf 10
have buried our dead. and still there is a
reign of misery. What next?" Santa Clara,
being so far inland, had received no relief
for months. Upon this city Weyler's recon-
centration edict fell heavily as upon any
of the seacoast towns. Fifty thousand re-
concentrates we're gathered here In an area
OF five miles surrounding the city, called
the zone of cultivation. Fortunately, this
was nigh ground. Deaths harvest in Santa
Clara was much smaller than in Matan-
zas or in Cienfuegcs. SPANS soldiers still
daWdled through the STREETS; but they were
unarmed and they seemed cheerful. They
we're preparing to evacuate; and to every
Spanish soldier in Cuba the word eVacuate
means home. We saw no surliness; from
the conscript to the commandante, every
man of Spanish blood seemed delighted
with that significant word, evacuation.
business was at standstill. though bust
mss men were trying to effect a rallv
Americans with large interests in outlying
estates had arrived to look over their
property. Throughout the city we saw a
surprising number of negroes After a
glimpse of the black faces in the Cuban
army and look at the black faces in Santa
Clara, no one would have difficulty in be-
lieving that full half of the native popu-
lation of New Cuba is of African descent
The negroes in Santa Clara had drifted
tfere from the sugar estates in the out
lying province. When We learned that
each of the large estates in question used
to employ from 1000 to 5000 negroes at a
time, their great number was not so sur
prising. These Cuban negroes are mostly
un5ducated laborers, untitled, of course
Tor holding government positions Yet
many OF them are growing ominousiy
They did the lighting and now that indie
pendence has come. they want voice of
their cwn in the law-making Cubans
however, laugh at the idea of negro
problem. These niggers," said the Gu
bans in Santa Clara, will go back to the
cane fields ard work just as peacefully as
ever"
Spaniards Want Annexation,
Many of the estates through persecution
and confiscation, have fallen into Spanish
hands. The mere suggestion that Cubans
may now govern Cuba fills these Spaniards
with terror. Scores of them are in Santa