The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1898-07-20
STARVING
PEOPLE.
Pen Picture of the Awful Misery
of Spain.
Beggardom Assuming Proportions
that Dismay Police.
TORE WOMEN THAN MEN.
TORE WOMEN THAN MEN.
From the London Telegraph!

tfrom the London Telegraph
There are other layers of the popula-
ton who are literally starving Through
out Spain, for example, the school
masteis--those whose mission it is to
impart elementary instruction - are
terribly underpaid-on paper. In reality
they are not paid at all. With the ex-
ception of two provinces, these wretched
Spanish "dominies" have not seen the
color Of the money owing to them for
ten, twelve, or twenty months. In
various parts of the country these teach
es OF the future generation have openly
taken TO begging in the streets. The
soldiers who sacrificed their health and
who lost their limbs in Cuba and the
Philippines are still the unpaid creditors
Of the nation, while the money which
the Government expressly stipulated to
pay them has been handed over to the
rebels as an inducement to keep the
peace. And everybody now knows how
it was kept. A few days ago Sergeant
decorated for his bravery in the colonies
walked about the streets begging a crust
of bread, until the crowd gathered around
him and took pity on the pariah The
widows and orphans of the thousands OF
brave youths who lost their lives in Cuba
are dying slowly of starvation.
The proportion OF women to men in
Cxo;,, ho, Hooor,a ,,ary info voro hla for
the former, and in Madrid alone there
are about 5000 more women than men.
And few can realize the meaning of this
terrible fact. The soldiers in Cuba at
this present moment have unsatisfied
claims against the Government for six
months pay, and entertain scant hopes
of ever receiving it.
Throughout the whole peninsula and
in every branch of trade and manufacture
the same dismal story is told. In CadiE
the population 10 face to face with blank
ruin. Ships laden with Spanish cargoes
for the colonies are obliged 70 deposit
them in that city, where trade and con-
MERGE are already dad. Barcelona
whose rapid growth and comparative
wealth were dependentdpon the markets
OF Cuba and the Philippines, is suffering
incalculahle losses. Works and factories
there have been closed, thousands
thrown out of employment, to whom
forced idleness is equivalent to starva.
t;or anI 10 aaonpninU rrOnnr
tons which dismay and babe the police
To make matters worse, other occupa'
tons which seemed independent OF the
war are suffering at the hand Of nature,
and everything seems hostile to Spain.
In Xerex, for instance, the ravages of the
redoubtable phylloxera are such that in
couple of years more the native
vintages will have entirely disappeared,
and sherry wine, in the good old sense
OF the term, will have become thing oil
the past.
No wonder, il under such appalling
conditions of existence, the people
should exhibit no enthusiasm for the
hollow praises OF glory, honor, patrio-
tism, etc which are being trumpeted
abroad by eloquent young men whose
heads are filed with names from Greek
and Roman history and whose ambition
yearns for place in the Cortes. l could
give many startling instances of this
realistic current among the people, es.
pecially in those who have to bear the
brunt Of the war. But | have said
enough to make it clear that Spanish
politicians who have ruined theil
country are not the Spanish people who
only ask to be let live in peace.