Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-05-10
HORRORS OF CIRt
me Hiot On SDain's Escutcheou ~
Seen Through British Ewes.

| Inc Hot On Spain'S Escutcbe,u a..
| Seen Through British Eyes
"i'eciai Correspond nee of the LONDON Chronicle
| ClE&ftEGnS Cuba, January :. 1s.,S.
| Last week marked two great Cuban
| flestas-' Noche Buena'' tChristmasl and
Aho NueVa tNew Year,; but the pen re-
fuses 10 describe the painful irony of a
| peiiou o. peace and goodwill in this APP
| p1ihiis waste Of war and famine once
| KNOWN as the Pearl of the Antilles
| have just completed an extensive tour
'hfoush the western and central provinces
or Spanish Cuba, and the misery and des-
| truction make one fear that action is too
late-that Cuba will simply be an I'M
| peopled, ravished desert for a new race TO
reopen and civilize. Where in August
| saw towns with 1900 reconcentrados now
| there are not 800 left, and the residue can
not last many weeks longer. General
| Bl2Hco has improved matters to this ex-
| tent: cultivation zones have been provided
| IN which the few CubaRs strong enough
| may cultivate vegetables and Starye on for
| weeks until the crop be ready The pacifi-
! cos are also allowed to so beyond the forts
| 70 search for sweet potatoes, risking out
| rage OF women by the guerrilla. or GER
| tam robbery Of their sleanings by the hun
| cry soldiers at the first fort. AS an enor-
| nous majority Of the starving are women
and girls, every boy capable of bearing
1
| lighting brothers in preference to being
| starved with his family. few dare venture
| outside lines, and the labor of digging is
! beyond the strength of the hapless Great
| ures.
| In Pinar del Rio, near large towns the
| tobacco crop locks very promising. and
| though the cultivation is limited it Will
| give work TO few. At Artemisa and all
| towns on The western railway. and closed
| in by tie Mariel Trocha, the distress is
| fearful. AT every settlement dead bodies
! lay awaiting intcrment: in the huts skin
| clothed observation-disclosures mcckcries of
| cnildhood-ie on the nv Idy ground their
| ahdomenS distended, feet sv,eiied and Lair
gone. while a fe'. stronger women and
| chhdlcn .upp!-ate for AIMS that are so
! seldom forthcoming. In Havana province
tie northern coast, ii is even worse
/ :r-.d at GUineS ard towns on the Central
! railway also the distress is terrible to VIII
| ness. The desert of ashes is losing some Of
| its biackness. as tn. rains have started the
| grass growing to hide the effect of Wey-
| lers torch, but the silent ruined houses
and sacked villages. now deserted, :elI
! their own tale. In Matanzas a few in
| genios are working. and there has been
| a meagcr output of sugar. but beyond
| these fortified ''centrals' the province is
| a waste. and even the insurgents are laV-
! ing a very hard time. General BetenCo curt
| however. and his officers show no signs OF
HaVeTine, though the occasional prisoners
! brought in are like the Spanish soldiers
mera skin ard bone. In Matanzas city
! 5000 people are on hill. in Il filthy settle
menJ In which over 100 die weekly of star
| walton.
In Santa Clara province more signs of ac-
tual war abound. Firing is constantly
heard Spanish guerrillas ride in and out
the towns. tired. traVeI-stained columns
plod YEARLY along the socalied roads while
the few trains that run are loaded with
sick and dying soldiers. At every town
| visited tie authorities. bota military and
civil, showed al ignorance, real or as
sumed. as to the number of dying or dead
| or measures for relief. and at several points
| Witnessed great brutality OF the police
who dashed the little skeletons that waited
ROM the stranger for a chance dole
At Colon | was forced to report the matter
to the aloa!de. 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 mambis (rebels) all
said the military oommandante 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 'reconcen-
TRACTION" better than the white farmers
In many places the whites have all died
leaving few families of negroes, who GER
tainly can exist on roots for consdera-
BILE time. AT CaZcar many bodies lay
awaiting interment. In Cimarrones, Quin-
.tana, Guimatas and many smaller settle
ments the bodies are only covered with a
thin layer OF earth, and the stencil is in
tolerable
In Santa Clara City 5000 people have
died from; starvation. In Sagua la Grande,
6,o0 are in direst need, and, though the
acaide. Senior Alters, has begged for help
from Havana, none is forthcoming. At
Lajas the cultivation zones are bringing in
stock of potatoes and relieving the suffer-
ing but in Cruces and a hundred fortified
| centrals near by the people are dying like
flies.
Near here I witnessed an officially styled
10
ban patrol. who burst through. killing one
Spaniard. His comrades rode in with the
body and made no attempt to follow the
enemy they outnumbered six 10 one. The
day before Lieutenant Vasquez of the
Bailen regiment there seized a cart con-
tanning seven bodies all relatives from
one hut, going to be buried. He threw the
naked corpses out and carried off the cart
to transport fodder. BuZZards soon start
ed to eat the bodies right in sight of the
town of Condada. AT Santa Domingo an
old Daciiico went outside town We'd
nesday, seized, and brought in as a
rebel. Captain Lassa Of the local cavalry.
rode forward, and drove his sword through
the prisoners body, and a volley ended mis-
misery. The corpse was then recognized
as that of Manuel Fruitora, rich farmer
before the war, whose wife and daughter
were starving in town, and the father went
out with a special permit to dig potatoes.
Thus are General Blanco's DEGREES treated,
and he may well punish this brutal officer,
who dominates the town of Santa Domingo
with impunity. The people here told me
they dared not go out. Colonel Carreras
at Sagua also kills prisoners every other
day.
AT Santo Marcos. a town burned by wey-
Ter two families only remain-most of the
inhabitants are dead. Near Trinidad vuI-
lures were tearing to pieces the corpse
of an old woman. while her daughter law
beside Ii. too weak to move or cry out
At Camerones I saw a boy of thirteen whose
leg had been cut off by a soldier who tried
20 rob him of some sweet potatoes going
to his sisters, who were nearly dead when