The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1898-03-23
CUBA'S AWFUL STATE.
Horrors Of tbs Island Described By ssna-
atoT Proctor.
TELLS WHAT he saw THERE.

atoT Proctor.
TRLIS WHAT HE saw THERE
Senator Redfield Proctor. OF Vermont, 7
gave the result Of his recent trip through
Cuba 70 the senate in carefully prepared
address Thursday afternoon. II was calm
and slispsssionate and aroused intense
interest in the crowded senate chamber
and galleries. Senator Proctor opened
his address by stating that his trip to Gu
ba was entirely unofficial, and that no
one but himself was responsible FOR any
thing in his statement. After paying a
high tribute 10 Consul General Fitzhugh
Lee and also 10 Consul Brice at Matanza,
and Capt Barker, consul at Sagua Ia
Grande, the senator said:
SIT has been stated that I said there
was no doubt The Maine was blown up
from the outside. This is a mistake. I
may have said that such was the general
impression among Americans in Havana
In fact, have no opinion about it myself
and carefully avoided forming one I
gave no attention TO these outside sur
AAAAccc- tA1Ck tlAc AilclAlOCIS VI tuO 1OulN
on their boat, but would as soon approach
our supreme court in regard to pending
| case As that board. They are as compe-
tent and trustworthy'within the lines Of
their duty as any court in the land, and
their report when made will carry convie-
ton to all the people that the exact truth
has been stated just as far as it is possible
60 % ,fr.,
and conjecture are idle and improbable.
Let US calmly wait for the report"
Describing thesituation in Cuba outside
of Havana. Senator Proctor stated that
it is not peace nor war, but desoiation
and distress, misery and starvation. The
people have been driven into the fortified
towns aud kept there under guard TO
starve TO death. The four western prov
inces have been desolated by the Span
iards, who have left no human life or
habitation, no domestic animals or crops
between the fortified towns. Nearly all
the sugar mills and plantations have
been destroyed. Senator Proctor says of
the results of Weyler's brutal coneentra-
ton order and the condition Of the con-
centrados:
| Their huts are about 10 by Is feet in
size, and for want of space are usually
crowded together very closely. They have
no floor but the ground and no furniture,
and after a years wear but little cloth
ing except such stray substitutes as they
can extemporize. With large families or
with more than one in this little space
the eommonest sanitary provisions are
impossible. Conditions are unmentiona-
bic in this respect. Torn from their
homes, with foul earth, foul air, foul water
and foul food, or none, what wonder that
one-half have died, and that one quarter
of the living are so diseased tha: they
cannot be saved. A form of dropsy is a
common disorder resulting from these
conditions. Little children are still walk
ing about with arms and chests terribly
emaciated, eyes swollen, and abdomen
bloated to three times the natural size.
The physicians say these cases are hope
less.
''Deaths in the streets have not been
uncommon. Twas told by one of our con =
suls that they have been found dead
about the markets in the morning. where
they had crawled, hoping 10 get some
stray bits of food from the early hnck-
s:ers, and that there had been cases where
they had dropped dead inside the market,
surrounded by food. These people were
in dependent and selfsupporting before
Wsyler's order. They are not beggars
ev en- now. There are plenty of profession
al beggars in every town among the regu-
lar residents, but these country people,
the reconcentrados, have not learned the
art. Rarely is hand held out TO you for
aims when going among their huts, but
the sightof them makes an appeal strong
er than words.
''Of the hospitals 1 need not speak.
Others have described their condition far
better than can. II is not within my
narrow vocabulary TO portray it. 1 went
TO Cuba with a strong conviction that the
picture had been overdrawn; that few
cases of starvation and suffering had in
spired and stimulated the press corre-
spondents, and they had given f ee play
TO a strong. natural and highly cultivated
Imagination. Before starting, 1 received
through the mail a leafiet Published by
the Christian Herald with cuts of some
of the sick and starving reconcentradOs,
aud took il with me, thinking these were
rare specimens got up to make the worst
possible showing. / saw plenty as bad
and worse many that should not be pho
tographed and shown. could not believe
that out Of population of 600 600, DOC, 900
had died within these Spanish forts, prac-
: tically prison walls, within few month
past from actual starvation aud diseases
caused by insufficient and improper food
My inquiries were entirely outside of
sensational sources. They were made of
our medical officers, of our consuls, of
city alcaldes, of relief committees, of
leading merchants, physicians and law
yers. Several of my infOrmants were
Spanish born, but every time the answer
was that the case had not been overstated
What I saw | cannot tell so that others
can see it. 1t must be seen with ones
own eyes TO be realized. The Los Pasos
hospital. 10 Havana, has been recently
described by one of my colleagues, Sena-
tor Gallinger, aud cannot say that his
picture was overdrawn, for even his fertile
pen could not do that. He visited it after
DIR. Lessar, one of Miss Barton's very
able and efficient assistants, had renOvat-
ed it and put in cots. I saw it when 100
women and children were lying on the
stone floors in an indescribable state of
emaciation aud disease, many with the
scantiest covering of rags-and such
rags-aud sick children naked as they
came into the world. And the eondi-
tions in the other cities are even worse.
Miss Barton needs no Endorsement from
me. had known and esteemed her for
many years, bat had not half appreciat-
ed her clpability and devotion TO her
work. especially looked into her busi-
ness methods, fearing here would be the
greatest danger of mistake; that there
might be want of system and waste and
extravaganza, but found she could teach
me on these points. visited the ware
house where the supplies are received and
distributed; saw the methods of check
ing; visited the hospitals established or
organized and supplied by her; saw the
food distributions in several cities and
towns, and everything seems 10 me TO be