The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-03-18


being thrown up on the outside and the
harbed wire fence on the other side. These
trochas have at every corner and at fire.
quent intervals along the sides what are
there called forts. but which are really
small block-houses. many of them more
ike large sentry box, loop-holed for
musketry, and with a guard of from two
&c ten soldiers in each. The purpose of
these trochas is 10 keep the reconcen-
trados IN as well as 70 keep the fnsurg-
ents out From all the surrounding coun-
try the people have been driven into these
fortified towns and held there 70 subsist
as they can. They are virtually prison
yards. and not unlike one in general APP
pearance. except the walls are not so high
and strong. but they suffice. where every
peril is in range of a soldiers rife, 20
keep in the poor reconcentrados women
and children. Every railroad station is
within one of these trochas and has an
armed guard. Every train has an ar
mored freight car loop-holed for musket-
~. and filed with soldiers and with. l OBJ
served, usually. and was Informed. is al
ways the case. a pilot engine a mile or
so IT advance. There are frequent block
houses enclosed by the t-ocha and with
guard along the railroad track.
NO HUMAN HABITATION.
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. ex-
cept 10 a very limited extent among the
hills where the Spaniards have not been
able to go and drive the people 10 towns
and burn their dwellings. 1 saw no house
or hut in the 400 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 Glen
fuegos, on the south shore of Santa
Clara, except within the Spanish trochas.
There are no domestic animals or crops
on the rich fields and pastures except such
as are under guard in the immediate vi
cinity of the towns. In other words. the
provinces just what their army sits on.
Every man, woman end child and every
domestic animal, wherever their columns
have reached. is under guard and within
their so-called Notifications. To describe
one place is to describe all. To repeat, It
is neither peace nor war. 1t is concentra-
ton and desolation. This is the 'pacified'
condition Of the four western provinces.
TRIBUTE TO INSURGENTS.
"West of Havana is mainly the rich
tobacco country; east, so far as I went,
1t is sugar region. Nearly all the sugar
mills are destroyed between Havana and
~,
the vicinity of Sagua, and part running
surrounded. as are the villages by tro-
chas and forts of palisades of the royal
palm and fully 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 large force of soldiers,
but that they, also. as well as the rail
roads. pay taxes to the Cubans for i'm
munity. I had no means OF verifying this.
1t is the common talk among those who
have better means of knowledge.
THE PEASANTRY DESCRIBED.
"All the country people in the four
western provinces, about 400, 900 in number,
remaining outside the fortified towns
when Weyler's order was made were driv-
en- into these towns. and these are the
reconcentrados. They were the peasant
ry, many of them farmers. some land
owners, others renting lands and owning
more or less stock, others working on es-
tates and cultivating small patches; and
even a small patch in that fruitful cline
will support a family. 1t is but 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 to
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 blackened walls
of which are all that remain to show that
the country was ever inhabited.
THE CONCENTRATION PROCESS.
MANY doubtless did not learn of Wey-
Ier's concentration orders. Others failed
TO grasp its terrible meaning. Its execu-
ton was left largely to the guerillas to
drive in all that had not obeyed and
was informed that in many instances a
torch was applied to their homes without
notice, and that the inmates fed with
such clothing as they might happen to
have on their backs, their stock and other
belongings being appropriated by the que
rillas. When they reached the towns they
were allowed to build huts of palm leaves
in the suburbs and vacant places within
the trochas and left to live as they could.
RESULTS OF CONCENTRATION
'"Their huts are about ten by fifteen feet
in size. and for want of space are usually
crowded together very closely. They
have no floor but the ground and no fur
niture. and after years wear but little
clothing except such stray substitutes as
they can extemporize. With large fami-
lies or with more than one in this little
space, the commonest sanitary provisions
are impossible. Conditions are unmen-
tionable in this respect. Torn from their
homes, with foul earth, foul air. foul wa
ter and foul food. or none, what wonder
that one-half have died and that one
quarter of the living are so diseased that
they connot be saved. A form of dropsy
is a common disorder resulting from
these conditions. Little children are seen
walking about with arms and chests terri
bly, emaciated. eyes swollen and abdomen
bloated to three times the natural size
The physicians say these cases are hope
less.
BEGGARED But NOT BEGGARS.
Deaths in the streets have not been
uncommon. I was told by one Of our
consuls that they have beenu found dead