The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-18


would as soon approach our Supreme Court
in regard to a pending case as hat board.
They are as competent and trustworthy
within the lines of their duty as any court
ii the land, and their report, when made
viii carry conviction to all the people that
the exact truth has been stated jdst as far
as 1t is possible to ascertain it: and until
then surmise and conjecture are idle and
improbable. Let US calmly wait for the
report.
There are six provinces in Cuba, each,
with the exception of Matanzas, extending
the whole width of the island. and having
about an equal sea front on the north and
south borders Matanzas touches the Ca
ribbean sea only at it's southwest corner,
being separated from 1t elsewhere by a mar
row peninsula of Santa Clara province. The
provinces are named, beginning at the west,
Pinar del Rio, Havana, MatanZas. Santa
Clara, Puerto Principe and Santiago de
Cuba My observations were confined to the
four western provinces, which constitute
about oRe-haif of the island. The two east
ern~ones are practically in the hands of the
insurgents, except the few fortified towns.
These two large provinces are spoken of to-
day as Cuba Libre.'
Havana, the great city and capital of the
island, is, in the eyes of the Spaniards 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 in the country. Everything
seems to go on much as usual in Havana.
Quiet prevails, and, except for the frequent
squads Of soldiers marching to guard and
!. police duty and their Astounding presence
81 all public places, one sees little signs of
war.
Outside Havana all is changed. 1t is not
peace, nor is it war. 1t is desolation and
distress, misery and starvation. Every
town and village is surrounded by trocha
(trench), sort of rifle pit, but constructed
on a plan new to me, the dirt being thrown
up on the inside and barbed-wire fence
on the outer side of the trench These
trochas have at every corner and at fire.
quent intervals along the sides what are
there called forts, but which are really
small blockhouses, many of them more like
a large sentry box, loopholed for musketry,
and with guard Of from two to ten SOL
oiers in each. The purpose of these trochas
Is to keep the reconcentrados in as we'll as
to keep the insurgents out. From all tie
surrounding country the people have Leen
driven into these fortified towns, and held
there to subsist as they can. They are
virtually prison yards, and not unlike one
IN general appearance, except the walls are
not SO high and strong; but they suffice.
Wnere every point is in range of a soldiers
rife, to keep in the poor reconcentrado
women and children.
TRAINS ALWAYS GUARDED.
Every railroad station is within one of
these trochas, and has an armed guard.
Every train has an armored freight cas.
a1opholed for musketry and filed with SOL
uierSs and with, as l observed usually and
was informed is always the case, pilot
engine mile or so in advance. There are
frequent Lighthouses inclosed by a trocha
and with guard along the railroad track
With this exception there is no human life
or habitation between these fortified towns
and villages, and throughout the whole of
the four western provinces, except to very
limited extent among the hills where the
Spaniards have not been able to go and
urive the people to the towns and burn their
dwellings, / saw no house or hut in the
four hundred miles of railroad rides from
Pinar del Rio province, in the west across
the full width of Havana and Matanzas
provinces, and to Sagua la Grande, on the
north shore, and to Cienfuegos, on the south
shore of Santa Clara, except within the
spanish trochaS. There are no domestic
animals or crops on the rich fields and pas
lures, except such as are under guard in
the immediate vicinity of the towns. In
other words, the Spaniards hold in these
four western provinces just what their
army sits on Every man, woman and
child, and every domestic animal wherever
thelr columns have reached, is under guard
and within their so-called Notifications. To
describe one place is to describe ALL To re-
peat. 1t is neither peace nor war; 1t is con-
centration and desolation. This is the 'pac-
lied condition of the four western prov
inces.
West of Havana is mainly the rich to-
baccc country; east so far as l went,
gar region. Nearly all the sugar mills are
destroyed between Havana and Sagua. Two
or three were standing in the vicinity of
Sagua, and in part running, surrounded, as
are the villages, by trochas and forts or
guarded Toward and near Cienfuegos
there were more mills running but all with
the same protection. 1t IS said that the
owners Of these mills near Cienfuegos have
been able to obtain special favorS of the
Spanish government in the way of a large
force Of soldiers but that they, also, as
we'll as all the railroads, pay taxes TO the
) Cubans for immunity. 1 had no means of
verifying this. 1t is the common tax
knowiedge.
..AlI the country people in the four West
efl1 provinces, about 100000 in number, re-
maining outside the fortified towns when
VIEWERS order was made were driven into
these towns. ana t9Sse are n on@ menv Of
them farmers, some land owners, others
renting lands and owning more or less stock
small patches; and even q small patch in
that fruitful cline will support family
ii is fair to say that the normal condition
Of these people was very different from
that which prevails in this country. Their
standard of comfort and prosperity was not
high measured by our own. But, according
10 their standards and requirements, their
conditions of life were satisfactory. They
lived mostly in cabins made OF palm or IN
wooden houses. Some of them had houses
OF stone. the bIackened walls of which are
all that remain to show that the country
~was ever inhabited.
WEYLER'S CONCENTRATION ORDER
'"The first clause of Weyler's order reads
as follows:
& order and command all the inhabitants
OF the country or outside of the line of forti-
dcatsans Of the towns, shall within the
period Of eight days concentrate themselves
in the town so occupied by the troops ANY
individual who. after the expiration or TINS
period, is found in the uninhabited parts VIII
be considered rebel and tried as such.
'sThe other three sections forbid the trans
portation of provisions from one town TO
another without permission of the military
authority, direct the owners of cattle 70
bring them into the towns, prescribe that
the eight days shall be counted from the
publication of the proclamation to the head
town Of the municipal districts, and state
that If news is furnished of the enemy
which can ile made use of Ii will serve as a
Recommendations Many doubtless did not
learn of this order. Others failed to grasp
fts terrible meaning. Its execution was lett
largely to the guerrillas to drive In all that
had not obeyed, and / was informed that in
many cases a torch was applied to their