The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-03-17
Died OF GRIEF.
Mrs. ThurstOn, Wife of the Ne
braska Senator,
Was So Overcome at the HOrri-
BILE Scenes of Starvation
AT SAGUA LA GRANDE.
That Tt Resulted in Her Sud-
den Death.
She Wore the American Flag
Over Her Heart.
NO SUCH BARBARISM
Was Ever Practiced by Civil.
lied Nation
AS the Treatment of the I'm
happy RecOncentradOs.

Havana, March ia correspondent
at sagua la Grande says that the real
| cause of the death of the wife of Sen
ator Thurston was horror at the sights
witnessed among the starving recon
centrados.
Mrs. Thurston had been much affect
ed at the scenes of suffering she wit
messed at NGatanzas. and especially in
the case Of the skeleton-like children.
Mrs. Thurston, conscious that her end
was near, said:
II am not sorry to go to rest; but
am grieved that my own children will
be motherless.''
Mrs. Thurston has worn a small
American flag next to her heart ever
since the trip was commenced, and
when she died the flag was clasped to
her breast.
She was noted for her great humanity
and when at Matanzas saw a gaunt
mother sadly embracing her dying child
The feelings of Mrs. Thurston were
much excited by this sad scene, and pro-
badly this incident helped to hasten the
end.
The congressional party had made ar
Sagua la Grande, but tie death of Mrs
ThurstOn changed all the plans.
Washington, March 17.-Col. Myron
M. Parker, who was Senator Proctors
companion on his trip to Cuba, in an in
tervieW with a Star reporter today,
said;
You might believe, but you could not
realize the condition of the recOncen-
urados in Cuba. It passes the compre-
hensiOn of man accustomed to the
usual phases of life. Their emaciation
is terrible; their suffering indescriba BILE.
We saw warehouses full of starving
women and children. These people have
been forced into the villages and towns
by the Spaniards, and the whole coun-
try where they lived has been devas-
tated.
In the ride from Havana to sagua
Ia Grande, a distance of about 200 miles
or more, the country presented pic
ture of desOlatiOn. For miles and miles
the charred stalks of the burned sugar
cane showed where the torch had been
applied by the Spanish and the insur-
gents alike At intervals are block
Above each block house is a cupOla
where a Spanish soldier is always on
the lookout. If a recOncentrado at
tempts to go out from the village and
cross the trOcha, he is shot, and if an
insurgent tries to come in, he is treated
likewise.
THE trocha serves, however, to pre-
vent sudden dashes by the insurgents
into the villages at night to burn them.
The Spanish army is largely employed
along the railroad, but, as closely as the
road is guarded, the insurgents can do
with it as they please. 1t is generally
understood in Cuba that the railroad
company pays tribute to the insurgents
for running the passenger trains. but
they are alert to interfere with freight
and troop trains. The day before we
reached Matanzas the insurgents blew
up a sugar train only three miles out of
town. They cross the railroad at any
point they desire and whenever they
please. In my opinion, Gomez is vir-
tualIy in control of the island. There is
not an estate under cultivation, so I
was reliably informed, that does not
pay tribute to the insurgents
1.-The best people in Havana told me
that the young men of the best Cuban
families in the island were in the ranks
of the insurgents, just as the represen-
tatives of our best families were in the
southern and northern ranks during the
war.
MY informant also told me that the
:nsurgent army was never as firm and
as strong as it is today. 1t gets very
large proportion of its medical supplies
right from Havana, and its discipline is
said to be all that can be desired. The
insurgents have complete control of the |
provinces of Santiago de Cuba and |
Principe They claim to have all the |
supplies necessary for their subsistence, |
having great herds of cattle, besides |
cultivating a large proportion of the |
land in the provinces mentioned. What !
they need is arms, ammunition and |
clothing. It is generally understood in |
Cuba that the insurgents known as pre-
sentados who came in and gave them |
selves up to the Spaniards in response |
to the offer of pardon, were all men who |
had met with the disfavor of Gomez be- |
cause they had disregarded the disci- !
pline he so rigidly enforced in his |
army"