The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-04-12

At Catalina De Guines the statement re-
ports the condition of the reooncentradoes
as sad and desperate. There are. it says,
mo zones of cultivation and the recon-
centradoes are not allowed to leave the
town in search of work or food even with
military pass.
Food is so scarce that one must walk
four or five miles before finding a sweet
potato. In these districts the relief Civ
en- to the reconcentradoes by General
Blanco is a farce
The land near the town comprised in
the zone of cultivation. the statement
says. has been rented by four Spaniards,
who have wealth and influence, and they
employ the few reconcentradoes who are
able to work at thirty or forty cents per
day. but nobody can leave the town with
out a pass good for a month and which
costs twenty cents. The workmen have
TO leave at six in the morning and not be-
ing able TO take meals with them. are OBJ
Eged TO work until six in the evening
without food. The women who leave in
search of vegetables are sometimes de-
prived OF them on their way back by
guerrillas. In fifteen days two hundred
reconcentradoes have died in Guines from
starvation.
ONE HUMANE SOUL.
''One of the few protectors of the recon
centradoes, in fact heroic one" says the
statement, ''is a young man named Jose
Amohedo, whose father and mother died
attending the suffering poor and who him
self has given up eight houses belonging
to him as dwelling places for the recon
centradoes, all the contents of a grocery
store which he possessed and which is as
destitute as they are. but always attend
ing TO those who suffer"
GOMEZ's LETTER TO MKINLEY.
On February 10. General Lee transmit
ed to the department a letter, with its
translation, signed by the insurgent COM
mander-in-chief, General Gomez, address,
ed to President Mckinley.
General Lee says the letter was deliv-
cred by messenger who at once depart
ed before he saw or had any communica-
ton with him.
The letter Qn translation is as follows:
ITO William Mckinley, President Of the
United States:
"Sir:-The Cuban people possess a char
acteristic quality OF its moral being and
developed to a high degree in one of the
most noble sentiments. namely. gratitude;
whoever has done well for Cuba wins for
himself forever the lovely recognition of
the sons of Cuban soil.
Your great people has given to the
whole world an example of lofty virtue
and to the shame and stain of Spain. not
only has It shown comparison, before the
great misfortunes brought on Cuba by
the ferocious Spanish policy, but has ex-
tended a helping hand to the unhappy
victims OF the warfare carried on by the
army Of that nation.
THE gratitude OF this people must be on
a par with that great and generous i'm
pulse. and if Cuba, by its geographical
situation and the necessity of its CONNER
cial existence, is called to maintain. once
that it is free and for the mutual benefit
OF both countries. closer relations with
your great republic than with any other
nation whatever from this day forward,
Cuba will consider herself bound by IA
closer tie in the affection it bears for the |
noble American magnanimity.
However true and minute may be the |
reports that you have heard. never will >
you be able to form a just conception Of |
all the bloodshed, the misery, the ruin |
and the sorrow caused to the afflicted |
Cubans, to obtain her independence, and |
how the despotic spirit of Spain, irritated |
to the last degree before the most just Of |
all rebelnons has yelled in the most i'm
placable destruction of everything, lives I
and property. Tho nation which at one
Cd ba
its tortures lastly conceived the concen-
tration scheme, the most horrible of all /
means to martyrize and then to annihilate
an entire people, and il it has stopped in
the path OF destruction it is due in a great
m easure to the cry of indignation which
the knowledge or such horrors unani-
mously drew from the states over which
you govern.
The people who is saved from extinc-
ion and whose evils your gift assuage,
) the people for whose liberty we daily
she'd our blood on the fields OF battle: the
country whose independence we now con-
luer at the point Of the sword. for them.
5 also for US; blood of our blood, and
lesh of our flesh, we must rejoice with
hem IN their joys as we weep and sym
,athize with them in their sorrows and
;riefs. Be not surprised, then. that as
he general-in-chief of this Cuban army
am SO deeply moved at the wave of
which agitates your noble
ounury and that ! accede TO the request
# the patriots l command 10 appear be-
ore you. the representative OF the great
ation, as the exponent Of our immense
-ratftude. I have therefore. sir. 20 fulfill
(Conainued on Sixth Page)