Arizona republican., 1898-05-20

another tree close to this mongrel which is also seeding almond, but the fruit of which Mr. Bettler pro nounces very superior article. It has tha flavor of the English walnut.
 HORRORS OF CUBA.
 The Blot on Spain's Escutcheon as
 Seen Through British Eyes.
 Last week marked two great Cuban fiestas- 'Noche Buena (Christmas) and Ano Nueva (New Year); but the pen refuses to describe the painful irony of a period of peace and good will in this appalling waste Of war and famine once known as the Pearl of the Antilles.
 I have just completed an extensive tour through the western and central provinces, or Spanish Cuba, and the misery and destruction make one fear that action is too late-that Cuba will simply be an unpeopled, ravished desert for new race to reopen and civilize Where in August I saw towns with 4,0O0 reconcentrados, now there are not 800 left, and the residue cannot last many weeks longer. Gen eral Blanco has improved matters to 1 this extent; cultivation zones have been provided in which the few Gu bans strong enough may cultivate veg etables, and starve on for weeks until the crop is ready. The pacifcos are also allowed to go beyond the forts to coo rch fOr CWnof nofofOo, <,,4
 rage of women by the guerillas or cer- tain robbery of their gleanings by the hungry soldiers at the first fort. As an enormous majority of the starving are women and girls, every boy cana ble of bearing arms having now slipped out to join his fighting brothers :n preference to being starved with his family, few dare venture outside lines. and the labor of digging is beyond the strength of the hapless creatures. In Pinar del Rio, near large towns. the tobacco crop looks very promising and though the cultivation is limited it will give work to a few. At Arte- misa and all towns on the western i railway, and closed in by the Mariel trocha, the distress is fearful At every settlement dead bodies lay
 
 clothed skeletons -hideous mockeries of childhood lie on the muddy ! ground, the abdomens distended, feet swelled and hair gone. while q few
 stronger women and children suppli- cate for aims that are so seldom forth ! coming. In Havana province. on the northern coast. it is even worse, and | at Guines and towns On the Central | dicfra ir ;l>1 | to witness. The desert of ashes is ios- 1 ing some of it's blackness, as the rains have started the grass growing to hide i the effect of Weyler's torch; but the silent ruined houses and sacked vjl-
 lages, now deserted, tell their own tale. In Matanzas a few "ingsnios'
 are working, and there has been a
 meager output of sugar, but beyond l these fortified ''centrals" the province
 is waste, and even the insurgents
 are having very hard time General
 Betencourt, however, and his officers show no signs of wavering, though
 the occasional prisoners brought in 1 are, like the Spanish soldiers, mere skin and bone. In MatanzaS city 5000 people are on a hill, in a filthy settle
 ment in which over 100 die weekly Of l starvation
 i In Santa Clara province more sigEs
 Of actual war abound. Firing is con- l stantly heard, Spanish guerillas ride
 in and out the towns, tired, travel stained columns plod wearily along the 1 so-called roads, while the few trains
 that run are loaded with sick and dy- | ing soldiers. At every town I visited 1 the authorities, both military and civil, showed an ignorance real or as- sumed, as to the number of dying. or dead, or measures for relief, and at several points I witnessed great bru- tality of the police, who lashed the lit tie skeletons that waited round "the stranger" for a chance dole. At Colon l was forced to report the matter to the alcalde. At Magagua a corporal of Civil Guardia Espana kicked a tiny child who approached me for help, and on every hand the Spanish officials treated the poor wretches as pigs.
 ''Pish! They are mamous (rebels) all," said the military commandante at Santa Domingo; you don't know these people" This was to excuse the beating of starving women and girls. The negro cane laborers (ex-slaves) stand the rigors of "reconcentration" better than the white farmers. Tn many places the whites have all 1ied, leaving few families of negroes, who certainly can exist on roots for a COL siderable time At Cazcar many bod ies lay awaiting interment In Cim- arrones, Quintana, Guitmatas and many smaller settlements the nodies are only covered with thin iayer of earth, and the stench is intolereble.
 In Santa Clara city 5000 r2op!e have died from starvation. in Sagua la Grande, 5000 are in direst need, and, though the alcalde, Senor Alters, has begged for help from Havana, none is forthcoming. At Lajas the culti7a- tion zones are bringing in stock Of potatoes and relieving the suffering but in Cruces and hundred fortified cen trals near by the people are dying like flies.
 Near here I witnessed an officially styled battle" The guerillas sur rounded a Cuban patrol, who burst