The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-02-24
THOUSANDS DIE
OF STARV ALTON
Horrible Conditions in
One Province of
Cuba.
Death Rate in the City Of
Matanzas Is Forty-Six
a Day.
Laborers Have All Perished, and Men
Once well-to-Do Are Now
Begging for Food.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Feb. %
While the United States cruiser Mont
gomery was at Matanzas recently
board of officers was appointed to in
quire into the condition of the people
of that province. Although the exact
terms of the report are not known, 1t
may be said that in substance, it sets
forth that there are $4,000 people abso-
lutely without food and clothing within
the city limits. About 5000 of these
live in small huts of palm branches.
These huts form three separate villages
beyond the built-up portions of the
city. The other II, 900 unfortunates live
in the streets of the city, and are alb
Solutely without homes or shelter.
These $4,000 people are of the labor
ing class who have been driven into
the cities from their country homes,
which have been destroyed in the war
operations. Most of them are women
and children, and they are all enact
ated, sick and almost beyond relief, un-
less they can have the benefit of regu-
lar treatment in the hospitals. AS it
is, they are dying in the streets for
want of food.
According to statistics gathered from
the best official sources, the number of
deaths in the province Of Matanzas
from starvation is $4,000, and the num-
Der of starving people at present In the
province is estimated at $4,000, out of
total population of 253,616 in December,
1897, and the number of starving peo-
pie is rapidly increasing.
In the city of Matanzas alone there
have been about IL 900 deaths during
the past year, and the number Is in
creasing daily. The death rate at pres
ent averages fOrty-siX per day, as
shown by the reports from the ceme-
terry. The increase in the death rate is
due to the fact that the distress is no
longer confined to members OF the Ia
boring class, most of whom have al
ready persisted. 1t is now extended to
the people who, before the war, were
in moderately comfortable circum-
stances. Those now begging in the
streets were, in large part, Well-to-do
people or children of the well-to-do. In
addition, the citizens of the city of
Matanzas themselves are beginning to
suffer for the actual necessaries of life,
having exhausted their resources in or
der to supply the needs of the labor
ing classes who have been quartered
upon them.
The citizens of Matanzas have an
organized system Of relief for the
starving people, but it is entirely in
adequate and is daily becoming more
glaringly so, for the resources OF those
who were well-to-do are rapidly di-
minishing, while the demand for food
is constantly increasing. At one of
the stations the board of officers found
100 starving, this being the actual
number of people for which the citi-.
zens had been able to provide relief
there. Pans Of rice and fish are ar
ranged in rows ready for distribution
among the people who were waiting in
another part Of the house. But this
relief does not begin to supply relief
for the $4,000 people who are starving
in the streets, for the citizens are only
able to issue food three times a day
at each place and then to only about
100 at time. Consequently only about
900 of the destitute people receive food
in a day.
1t should be added that large num-
Der of the citizens of Matanzas have
fed the starving in the streets in front
of their own homes, but the citizens
themselves are feeling the pinch of
privation, and, unless assistance soon
comes to them, they will be compelled
in self-protection to cease the work of
charity in which they are now en-
gagged and which is seemingly the
only salvation for the starving thou
sands.
The only other public relief at Ma
tanzas is that given to the sick chill
dren by the management of the Elmer
gency Hospital, which is under the d.
rection of the Volunteer Fire Depart
ment of Matanzas There about eighty
children are treated daily and are fur
niShed with nourishment under the d.
rection of the city physicians. These
statements are the conclusions, facts
and figures arrived at by board Of
United States naval officers. When
the officers landed they were constant
ly followed by clamoring crowds of
starving men, women and children
who importuned them In the most
heartrending manner for a little food,
for the want of which they were slow
ly dying.
Demand for Modern Rifles.