The age-herald., 1898-05-16
Terrible Condition of Affairs Ex-
 isting in Havana.
FISHERMEN RUN BLOCKADE
For the Sake of the Food Which They Obtain From the Sea-ho Yellow Fever Now Prevalent on the
 Island.

:. Key West. Fla, May 15.-The condition in Havana resulting from the blockade are being gradually brought out by infor- nation obtaineed from fishing smacks and other small vessels captured off the coast.
 Affairs at Havana now appear to be worse than at any time since the regime. The fisherman who at first braved the plock- ade for the high price which fish brought in Havana, now run the risk not for money but for the food which they obtain ron the sea.
 A number of these men have been cap- tured at different times by the vessels or the blockading fleet and nearly all Of them being released after being questioned py our officers. They all unite in picturing the state of things at Havana as being pitiful in the extreme.
 The Associated Press dispatch boat Kate Spencer has accumulated all the facts op- tainable in blockading line, the latest news being obtained through two captures made by the United States gunboat Machias' which has just returned here for the hrst time since the blockade opened. making the longest single service of any blockad- ing vessel off Cuba.
 If1E1 ASAe&S~@0'
 The Machias caught two fishing boats off Havana just before her return here. Ine Americans offered the fishermen money for part of their catch, the fish was neeoeo on board But, the fishermen demurred al taking money. they preferred to have bread and adding that they were desperateiy hungry.
 When questioned as to the prevalence of yellow fever at Havana the fishermen said there was little sickness at the Cu- ban capital; but they added, there was much starvation. The reconcentrados, they said, are nearly all dead or have been ex- pelled from the city to die in the suburbs. This agrees with other reports from Ha- vana and Matanzas to the effect that the Spanish authorities on the departure of the Americans seized all the relief supplies and applied them to the uses of the army. The Spanards then drove the reconcentrados into the desolated sections of the country between the coast towns and the insurgent lines. the regions described by Senator Proctor and others as being too barren and desolate to support grasshoppers.
 THE INSURGENTS CHARY.
 The insurgents themselves have been chary of receiving reconcentrados and hundreds of the latter who had no personal friends in the insurgent camps had been left to starve between the lines which they did.
 About Havana the situation is even worse. Hundreds of reconcentrados from Los Fesas, the big reconcentrados bar racks in Havana, were too weak to walk out of town, and fell in the streets or died in the suburbs where flocks of vultures. "Weylers chickens as they are now term ed in Havana, have feasted on the re- mains
 In Matanzas this feature of the situation is equally distressing. The fishermen who have been brought here are mostly soon reconciled to capture. which means food and decent treatment. They say that if the blockade continues much longer bread riots must follow in all the large towns, as food is reserved exclusively for the army. thus forcing many people to enlist who would not otherwise do so.
 Finally. the fishermen say that certain of the most desperate of the Spaniards threaten to burn or blow the city up in the event of the authorities deciding to cautiulate to the American forces.