The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-03-18
DES0LAT|0N, MISERY AND STARVATION
Senator Proctor Vivid
Description of He in
on Recent Trip.

frequent informal talks with him was
of great help to me. In addition to the
information he voluntarily gave me, it
furnished a convenient opportunity to
ask him the many questions that sug-
gested themselves in explanation OF
things seen and heard on our trips
through the country. l also met and
spent considerable time with Consul
Brice at Matanzas, and with Captain
Barker a staunch ex-Confederate SOL
dier, at Sagua la Grande. friend of
the Senator from Mississippi (Mr.
WalthalD. None of our representatives
whom l met in Cuba are of my political
faith, but there is a broader faith not
bounded by party lines. They are all
three true Americans, and have done
excellent service.
1T has been stated that l said there
was no doubt the Maine was blown up
from the outside. This is mistake. |
may have said that such was the gen
eral impression among Americans in
Havana. In fact, / have no opinion
about it myself, and carefully avoided
forming one. / gave no attention to
these outside surmises. / met the men,
bers of the court on their boat, but
would as soon approach our supreme
court in regard to a pending case as
that board. They are competent and
trustworthy within the lines of their
duty as any court in the land, and their
tion to all the people that the exact
truth has been stated, just as far as
it is possible to ascertain ii. And until
then, surmise and conjecture are idle
and improbable. Let us calmly wait
for the report
There are six provinces in Cuba,
with the exception of MatanZas, ex-
tending the whole width of the island,
and having about an equal sea front
on the north and south borders. Ma
tanZas touches the Caribbean sea only
at its southwest corner, being Sepa-
rated from it elsewhere by the narrow
peninsula of Santa Clara province My
observations were confined to the four
western provinces, which constitute
about one-half of the island. The two
eastern ones are particularly in the
hands of the insurgents, except the few
fortified towns. These two large prov
inces are spoken of to-day as Cuba
Libre.'
Havana, the great city and capital
of the island, is, in the eyes of the
Spanish and many Cubans, all Cuba as
much as Paris is France. But having
visited it in more peaceful times and
seen it's sights, the tomb of Columbus,
the forts, Cabanas and Moro castle, etc,
did not care to repeat this, preferring
trips~to the country. Everything seems
| to go on much as usual in Havana.
| Quiet prevails, and except for the fire.
quent squads of soldiers marching to
guard and police duty and their
| abounding presence in all public places,
one sees little signs of war.
Misery and Starvation.
"Outside of Havana all is changed.
1t is not peace, nor is it war. 1t is
desolation and destruction, misery and
starvation. Every town and village is
surrounded by the trocha (trench), a
nrf ~ ri nj hl1t CT t-rln tod
plan new to me, dirt being thrown up
on the outside and the barbed wire
| fence on the other side of the trench.
| These trochas have at every corner and
at frequent intervals along the sides
small forts. but they are really small
block houses, many of them like SEN
| try box, and with a guard of from two
! to ten soldiers in each. The purpose of
! these trochas is to keep the reconcen-
| trados in as well as to keep the insur-
| gents out From all the surrounding
| country the people have been driven
into the fortified towns and held there
to subsist if they can. They are yirtu-
ally prison yards. and not unlike one
in general appearance, except the walls
are not so high, and they suffice. where
every point is in range of a soldiers
rifle to keep in the poor reconcentrados,
women and children. Every railway
station is within one of the trochas and
has an armed guard. Every train has
an armored freight car arranged for
musketry and filled with soldiers and
with, as I observed usually. and was
informed is always the case. a pilot
engine a mile or SO in advance. There
are frequent block. houses enclosed by
the trocha and with a guard along the
railroad track. With this exception
there is no human life or habitation
between these fortified towns and viii
lagos, and throughout the whole of the
four western provinces, except to a
very limited extent among the hills
where the Spaniards have not been able
to go and drive the people TO the towns
and burn their dwellings. i saw no
house or hut in the 400 miles of railroad
rides from Pinar del Rio province in
the west, across the full width of Hav-
ana and Matanzas provinces and to
Sagua la Grande, on the north shore,
and to Cienfugos on the south shore of
Santa Clara, except within the Spanish
trochas. There are no domestic animals
or crops on the rich fields and pastures
except such as are under guard in the
immediate vicinity of the towns. In
other words. the Spaniards hold in
those four western provinces just what
their army sits on. Every man, woman
and child and every domestic animal.
wherever the columns have marched. is
under guard and within their so-calIed
fortifications. To describe one place is
TO describe ALL
Neither Peace Nor War.
ITO repeat, it is neither peace nor
war. 1t is concentration ami desola-
tion. This is the .pacified' condition Of
| the far western provinces.
West of Havana is mainly the rich
tobacco country east. SO far as | went,
is the sugar region. Nearly all the
sugar mills are destroyed between Ha-
Nana and Sagua. Two or three were
standing in the vicinity of Sagua. and
part running, surrounded as are the
| two villages by trochas and forts of
palisades Of the royal palm and fully
guarded. Toward and near Cienfuegos
| there were more mills running. but all
with the same protection. II is said
that the owners of these mills near
| Cienfuegos have been able to obtain