Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1898-04-20
TELL OF WOE IN CUBA.
Facts from Reports of United State
Consuis on Spanish Brutality,

1
Consuis on Spanish Brutality.
| On Jan. of the present year Consul
| Lee reported: THE reconccntrado order
of Gen. Weyler transformed 100000 self
| supporting people. principally women and
| children, into a multitude. Their homes
were burned, their fields destroyed, and
their live stock driven away or killed. l
| estimate that probably 100000 of the
| rural population of the provinces of Pinar
! del Rio, Havana, Matanzas and Santa
| Clara have died Of starvation. In some
| parts of the island l am told there is
scarcely any food for soldiers and citi-
zens, and that even cats are used for food,
| selling for 30 cents apiece"
On Dee. Consul Lee reported: II see
| no effect of the governmental distribution
to the rcconcentrados. Reports from all
| parts of the province s., w 80 per cent
| have died, and most of these are women
and children"
In his letter of Nov. % Gen. Lee said:
IF any young girl came in Ito Los Fosos)
| who was nice looking she was infallibly
condemned to the most abominabie of
| trafics."
On Nov 27 Consul General Lee report
ed: ''In Los Fosos (the ditches), in Ha-
vana, AGO women and children were
thrown on the ground heaped pell-mell as
animals, some in dying conditiC-4, others
sick, others dead" Deaths averaged forty
or fifty daily, and on the average there
were only ten days of life for each person.
No one was given food until after remain
ing eight days i'll the bitches. During
these eight days they were obliged to sub
sist on the food which the dying had re-
fused"
L. Sagua Ia Grande Consul Barker re-
ported there are $4,000 starving people.
Whole families, without clothing to hide
nakedness, are sleeping on the ground
without bedding of any kind. Fully so
per cent are ill., without medical attention
OF medicine.
Consul Brice at MatanZas, on Jan. 1S,
1898. reported that in his district there
were 10000 people in an actual starving
condition. In addition he said, there
We're thousands of families of the better
classes living on one meal a day. The
daughter of Il former Governor is begging
food on the streets.
Consul Hyatt of Santiago de Cuba said:
"a census of the island taken to-day, as
compared with the one taken three years
two-thirds of the residents are missing,
and the Spanish army would make no
better showing"
In Sagua la Grande province, accord
ing to the adviccs of Consul Barker sent
to the State Department on March "a,
1898, within sixty days 80 per cent of the
remaining population will reach a state
of craving hunger. In this estimate he
includes the Spanish soldiers as well as
the paciicos and reconcentrados.
On Dec. II. 1897. Consul Hyatt report
ed that in the city of Santiago de Cuba
from 80 TO 40 per cent of the inhabitants
were afflicted with paudal fever Out of
the total of 5000 soldiers at Manzanillo
nearly $500 were in hospitals. The Unit
ed States sanitary inspector reported 12,-
Geo people sicl; in bed.
/ In the six principal cities of Sagua Ia
Grande province the death roll from Jan.
/. 1897. to Nov. 15, 1897. was S0.S51.
This, says Consul Barker. is official, and
folly % per cent should bc added to cover
deaths Of whi,h no rec ,rd was kept.