The San Francisco call., 1898-03-18

 and vacant places within the trochas and left to live if they could. Thelr huts are about ten by fifteen feet Tn size, and for want of space are usually crowded together very closely.
 'They have no floor but the ground and no furniture and after year wear but little clothing except sucn stray substitutes as they can eAlein- poriZe. With large families or with more than one in this little place, the commonest sanitary provisions are ln- possible Conditions are unquestlon- able in this respect. Torn rom tnelI homes, with foul earth, foul ar, loui water and foul food, or none, what wonder that one-half have dled anu that one-quarter of the iVlng are so diseased that they cannot be saved. A forn, of dropsy is a common form or disease resulting from these conditions. Children are seen walking about Wltn arms and limbs terribly emac1ated, eyes swollen and abdomen bloated 10 three times the natural size. Ine Dny sicians say these cases are hopeiess.
 Deaths in the streets have not peen uncommon. I was told by one of our Consuls that they have found dead about the markets in the morning, where they had crawled, hoping to get some stray bits of food from the carry hucksters, and that there nau peeii cases where they had dropped ueau III side the market, surrounded Dy loou; These people were independent anu self-supporting before Weyler's order. They are not beggars even now. There are plenty of professional beggafs III every town among the regular resi- dents, but these country people, the reconcentradoS; have not learned lne art Rarely is a hand held out to you for aims when going among thelr nuts, but the sight of them makes an appear stronger than words.
 .The dividing lines between parties are the most straight and clear cut that have ever come to my knowledge. The division in our way was by no means so clearly defined. It is Cuban against Spaniard. It is practically the entire Cuban population on one slde and the Spanish army and the SpanSh citizens on the other. do not count the autonomists in this division, as they are so far too inconslderaDle Tn numbers to be worth counting. Gen eral Blanco filled the civil offices with men who had been autonomists and were stjI classed as such. But the march of events has satisfied most of them that the chance for autonomy came too late.
 It falls as talk of compromise would have fallen the last year or two Of our war If it succeeds it can only be by armed force, by the triumph of the Spanish army, and the success of Span ish arms would be easier by Weyler's policy and method, for in that the Spanish army and people believe. There is no doubt that General Blanco is act ing in entire good faith; that he de- sfres to give the Cubans fair measure of autonomy, as Campos did at the close of the ten years war. He has, of course, a few personal followers, but the army and Spanish citizens do not want genuine autonomy, for that means government by the Cuban peo- ple And it is not strange that the Gu bans say it comes too late. l have never had any communication, direct or indirect, with the Cuban junta in this country, or any of it's members, nor did I have with any of the junta which exists in every city and large town of Cuba. NCsle of the calls l made were upon parties of whose sym pathies I had the least knowledge, eX- cept that I knew some of them were classed as autonomists. Most of my in formants were business men who had no sides and rarely expressed them selves I had no means Of guessing in advance what their answers would be and was in most cases greatly surp- rised at their frankness.
 ''I inquired in regard to autonomy of men of weatn, and men promf- nent in the cities of Havana, Matanzas and Sagua, and bankers, merchants, lawyers and autonomist officials some of them Spanish born, but Cuban bred, one prominent Eng Iishman, several of them known as autonomistS and several of them tell ing me they were still believers in autonomy if practicable, but without exception they replied that 1t was too late for that. Some favored a United t0 n some free Cuba, not one had been counted as favoring the insurrection at first They were business men and wanted peace, but said it was too late for peace under Spanish sovereignty. They characterized Weyler's order in far stronger terms than I can. l could not but conclude that you do not have to scratch an autonomist very deep to find a Cuban. There is soon to be an election, but every polling place must be inside a fortified town. Such cleo tions ought to be safe for the inS. l have endeavored to state in not intem- perate mood what I saw and heard, to make no argument thereon, but leave every one to draw his own conclusions. To me the strongest appeal is not the barbarity practiced by Weyler, nor the loss of the Maine, if our worst fears should prove true, terrible as both of these incidents are, but the spectacle of
 
 tire native population of Cuba, strug- gling for freedom and deliverance from the worst misgovernment of which I ever had knowledge. Whether our ac- ton ought not to be influenced by any one or all these things, and if so, how far is another question.
 "I am not in favor of annexation, not because I would apprehend any particular trouble from 1t, but because it is not a wise policy to take in any people of foreign tongue and training and without any strong guiding Amer ican element. The fear that if free, the people of Cuba would be revolutionary is not so well founded as has been sup posed, and the conditions for good self government are far more favorable. The large number educated and patriotic men, the great sacrifices they have endured the peaceable tempera- ment of the people, white or black, the wonderful prosperity that would come surely with peace and good home rule, the large influx of Americans and Eng fish immigration and money, would all be strong factors for stable institutions. But it is not my purpose at this time, nor do I consider it my province to sug- gest any plan. I merely speak of the symptoms as I saw them, but do not updarta La to DrpScrjhe Such remedial