The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-06-06
A SPANISH SOLDIER ON CUBA
WEYLER'S METHODS IND THOSE OF
THE INSURGENTS.

Why the Rebellion Could Not he Put
Down Guerilla Meth DDS of Lvarfa fare
Opinion of the Yankees.
A little later the retired soldier came
In and, accepting a cigar, sat down.
He was a powerfully built man, re-
ton, A fortnight's black growth was
on his sallow and cadaverous cheeks.
He had been some years in Cuba and
had seen the outbreak of the last in
surrection and the savage but futile
efforts made by General Weyler to
suppress it. The landlord and his
friends-the chief men of the village
who sat and smoked around the kitch-
en-, We're evidently only too well aware
of the privations and sufferings of a
soldiers life in Cuba, but they We're
animated listeners when 1 began to
question the ex-soldier about his ex-
periences.
What sort of people did you find
the Cubans?" I inquired.
1.-THE people of the country ola gentle
del campo) We're harmless enough.
They asked only to be let alone both
by government troops and the rebels.
That was just what neither would do.
The rebels levied taxes on them and
collected provisions, and if they did
not pay them burned their produce
and their homes; the government
troops made feeble Attempts at protec-
ton till Don Valeriano Weyler came
out to command us. He got together
the greatest rascals in the country I'M
der the name of Volunteers, and if the
regular soldiers under Weyler were
cruel to the country folk the Volun-
teers were far worse. The dregs of
Havana, they perpetrated every crime
on the defenceless country folk, and
women and children suffered every
outrage at their hands. Weyler be-
lieved in killing people wholesale to
strike terror into the insurgents, but
it did very little good The insurgents
played the same game. They killed all
our men whom they took prisoners.
Were the insurgents white men or
colored? you ask Well, I seldom saw
much of them, except when we sur
prised and shot them; but generally,
to judge from the dead, they were
white men, whittier than myself or any
of my comrades in the ranks There
was a fair number of colored men
among them, and it was said the col
ored men We're the cruelest. This Civ
ing or taking no quarter sounds very
bad but you get used to it. If the
Cubans gave us soldiers the mercy of
the machete we gave them dissolution
with the point of our bayonets.
He was certainly strong man,
Weyler, and a great deal harder and
crueller than Martinez Campos; but
he was just like the others, he filled
his pockets while he was in office, and
they say he came home with a big
fortune. Yes, that is the way things
are divided in the Spanish army in
Cuba; the officers take our pay, they
make all the money they can out of
the country-they don't care how-the
officers get a fortune, the soldier only
gets yellow fever. The money sent
from Spain to fortify the towns and
make military roads through the
manigua (the jungle) is all the sroiI
OF greedy officials, and not a perro is
spent on the purpose it was given
for
can you explain to me why your
soldiers are unable to put down the
rebels?" was the next question.
Very clearly, for this reason-we
could not catch them. We marched Til
we were tired out, and then Just as we
had given UP hope of finding them
they opened fire from the thick Jungle
on our rear. They could see and hit us
We kept firing into the jungle without
seeing any one. Then, we had to carry
off our wounded to save them from the
machetes of the Cubans You know
what the jungle is? 1t is just a great
thicket without a pathway through
but the insurgents know every inch OF
1T. In the rainy season it is a sort OF
swamp, reeking with yellow fever.
There war nowhere to shelter in these
expeditions. Villages, churches, plant
ers' houses, all had been destroyed by
the rebels or by our men. The insur-
gents used to raid the country and levy
contributions, and punish those who
did not pay them; then we others (the
soldieps) came and punished the
pacificos because they had paid taxes
or given provisions to the rebels. Wher
the pacificos were driven into the
towns or into camps by our soldiers
they suffered, without doubt, greatly
There was very little food for them an6
no proper shelter in the towns, and Ger.
tainly they died in heaps. But they
were nearly as badly off in the country
harried by the rebels one day, by the
troops another. Whenever any OF
these peaceful people were suspected
of giving information to the Spaniards
they were put to death with horrible
fortunes. 1t was not a proper war; il
was guerilla war, and our officers
never understood how to manage it
With a large army under them, they
failed to put down the rebel bands
who never fought fairly, face to face.
do not call it fair fighting to blow VI
trains full Of people with dynamite, as
the rebels We're always doing whel
they got a chance.
but, you ask, how did the rebels get
SO much dynamite, and also arms and
ammunitions? Ask the Yankees; they
can tell you. They are very honorable
the Yankees; they kept sending over
flibustering steamers by scores with