The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1898-01-21
SHALL WE DO OUR PART TO RELIEVE
THE STARVING CUBANs?

THE STARVING CUBANs?
DO the people of lola and vicinity
know that more than half million
people have starved to death in Cuba
within the past year?
DO they realize that unless help is
sent soon five hundred thousand more
must perish of hunger?
Read this report of actual condi-
tions from an eye witness whose re-
liability is vouched for by Consul
General Lee:
The actual condition of affairs In Cuba
beggars description. Destruction, desola-
ton, and death have invaded homes In every
part OF the Island. Families who had never
before known privation now subsist on one
meal a day. Mothers watch their young
die for the want of milk. From Havana to
Mantanzas there is an unbroken line of
filthy settlements, from which grim spectres
once human crawl forth and suppllcate
with bony arms and clsw.like fingers for
aims that are seldom forthcoming, In Mat
anzas City the streets are full of half-naked
skeletons camoring for bread. At Perlco
only 300 are left Of 1900. At San Pedro
little children are huddled In the damp
corners shaking with cold and silently
starving, their abdomons distended, their
hair gone and feet sweled good meal
| would kill them.
| At Cascar, the correspondent of the Phila-
delphia Press saw several bodies long
awaiting interment lie met one broken
hearted father at LaJaq carrying two of his
dead children in an old portmanteau Vul-
lures abound everywhere, feasting on the
lightly covered bodies exposed by the
heavy rains. At Trinidad whole families
have been exterminated. In the shelters
in Havana lay little children of ell ages,
with almost every bone in their bodies
visible some piteously moaning, while
others had not sufficient strength to moan.
Women in the last stages of this terrible
death were numerous, while the men were
to large extent in the same condition,
forced to stay out-ofdoors.
And remember, please, that this is
not in India or Armenia, but i'm Cuba,
almost in sight of our own shores. Is
it possible that the people of the
United States will allowthis condi-
ton to continue? Surely the gen.
erous nation that sends ship loads
of provision to the starving peas
antry of Russia, TO the famine smit-
ten millions of Farther India, and
to the prosecuted people of Ar menia,
will not be deaf to the heart rending
appeal that comes from the desolated
and war ravaged island at their very
threshold.
The Christian Hereh of New York
is raisiug a relief fund to be sent at
once to Cuba, and it is an appeal from
that paper, handed TO us by Rev. J.
b. Pulliam, of the NJ. Il. church, that
prompts this article Mr.. Pulliam
suggests, and the REGISTER heartily
seconds the suggestion, that each OF
the churches devote the proceeds OF
its collection next Sunday to this
fund. If they will do that the REGIS.
TER will undertake to see that the
money thus contributed, together
with any other contributions that
may be handed in, is promptly for
warded toits proper destination. One
citizen of Allen county has given a
year and half of valiant service, al
the cost of exposure and wounds that
may shorten his life ten years, in the
cause of Free Cuba. Cannot those Of
us who stayed at home contribute
something out of our abundance in
the cause of Starving Cuba?