Evening star., 1898-05-16
Grcets His Friends,
DESPAIR IN HAVANA,
People Are Growing Desperate. Over
Scarcity of Food.

People Are Growing Desperate. Over
Scarcity of Food.
A copyright Associated Press special from
Key West yesterday says: The conditions
in Havana resulting from the block
sde are being gradually brought out by in
formation obtained from fishing smacks
and other small vessels captured off the
coast.
Affairs at Havana now appear to be
worse than at any time since the WevIer
regime. The fisherman who at first brayed
the blockade for the high price which fish
brought in Havana now run the risk not
for money. but for the food which they OBJ
tain from the sea. A number of these men
have been captured at different times by
the vessels of the blockading fleet, nearly
all OF them being released after having
been questioned by our officers. They all
unite In picturing the state of things at
Havana as being pitiful in the extreme
The Associated Press dispatch boat Kate
Spencer has accumulated all the facts OBJ
tainable along the blockading line, the
latest news being obtained through the
captures made by the United States gun
boat Machias, which has just returned
mere for the first time since the blockade
opened. making the longest single service
OF any blockading vessel off Cuba.
Fishermen Wanted Bread
The Machias caught two fishing boats off
Havana, DUST before her return here The
Americans offered the fishermen money for
part of their catch, us the fish Were needed
on board. But the fishermen demurred at
taking money; they preferred to have
bread, and added that they were desper-
ately hungry.
When questioned as to the prevalence of
yellow fever at Havana, the fishermen said
there little sickness I the m ha
ital but they added there was much star
Vation. The reconcentrados they said, are
nearly all dead, or have been expelled from
the city TO die in the suburbs This agrees
with other reports from Havana and Ma
tanZas. to the effect that the Spanish
authorities, on the departure of the Ameri-
can consul, seized all the relief supplies
and applied them to the uses of the army
The Spaniards then drove the reconcentra-
dos into the desoiated sections of the coun-
try, between the coast towns and the in
surgent lines. the regions described by Sem
ator Proctor and others as being too bar
rem and deSolate to support grasshoppers-
Without Friends Anywhere.
The insurgents themselves have been
ckary of receiving reconcentrados, and
hundreds of the latter who had no personal
friends in the insurgent camps had been
left to sta1ve between the lines, which they
did.
worse. Hundreds of reconcentrados from
Los Fosas, the big reconcentrado bar
racks in Havana, were too weak to walk
out of town, and fell in the streets or died
in the suburbs. where docks of yultures
c'Weyier's chickens" as they are now
termed in Hayana) have feasted on the re-
mains.
In Matanzas this feature of the situation
Is equally distressing.
The fishermen who have been brought
here are mostly soon reconciled TO capture,
which means food and decent treatment.
They say that if the blockade continues
much longer bread riots must follow in all
the large towns, food is reserved ex-
clusively for the army, thus forcing many
people to enlist who would not otherwise
do so.
Finally, the fishermen say that certain of
the most desperate of the Spaniards threat
en- to burn Havana or blow the city up in
the event of the authorities deciding to ca
pitulate to the American forces.