The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-02-21
LIFE AND DEATH IN HAVANA.
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v - " It was but drop of comfort in the ocean of wretchedness; but all honor to the noble ladies and gentlemen who, at considerable risk to themselves in a city under strict military law where party feeling runs so high, had devoted their time and money to the work. The government, in it's policy of exter- mination, has even placed every obsta- cle In the way of these charities, Spain has twenty thousand soldiers in the hospitals of Havana suffering for food and medicine, and naturally the little her depleted resources can devote to charity Is given to them. Weyler says, Nobody can starve In Cuba; they can live on bananas" But the fact remains that more than two hun dred thousand people have already starved to death, as the result of his concentration order. Even bananas have their seasons. If the whole is- land were planted with them (which it is noD and if bananas were to be had for the picking, there would not be enough to sustain the teeming popula- ton, could they endure the exclusive diet. People cannot live on climate; they starve in any part of the world where food Is not.
 d, Dismissing our carriage at the gate of Los Fosos, intending to call another for the return, according to the custom of Havana where carriage hire is only twenty cents, each way, to any part of the city, and carriages swarm in the street like flies around a rno1asses bar yryor },,fo ho or inn courtyard. Lying all about were what at first glance looked like heaps of rags; they were reconcentrados who were able to crawl out into the sun, leaving the few beds of the hospital for those worse off than themselves. I have seen misery in many lands, but never anything like this. We did not enter the building devoted to the men, but went at once to the quarters of the women and children. Such a sight! Two floors filled with long rows of cot beds-a recent acqisition since money came from the United States, for at first they lay upon the floor; and on each bed a horror. Five had died that morning, and their bodies had not yet been removed. Several were evil dently dying, and others were in the stupor of unconsciousness. In one cor ner lay boy perhaps nine years old writhing in convulsions; and he died a few moments later, clutching my hands with bony fingers that felt like bird-claws. My attention was partic- ularly attracted to a young woman, who must have been very beautiful a short time ago, but whose emaciated face already wore the dignity of death, although a slight futtering of the breast showed that the breath of life yet fingered. Nobody in the hospital knew anything about her, except that she was reconcentrada, driven like the rest frQm her home somewhere in the country. Proudly silent, she held aloof from the rest during the terrible march. sleeping in the fields and slow ly straying. Where were the living hands that once caressed that wealth of shining hair? Father and brothers, husband or lover were no doubt with the insurgent army somewhere in the southern provinces, or perhaps lying dead in the trenches. While we stood beside her the breath ceased to move. Death had set his inscrutable seal on < LlCL IT LPS cilIo sI4lC SOhl AAeAu @AeepPAAJ M
 capped its mortal prison.
 So emaciated were the bodies of all that their bones appeared to be prick < ing through. Most of the children werecovered with deep, horrible sores and the feet and limbs of many were swoolen out of all semblance of human members; scurvy and dropsy, from fe- yer, starvation and improper food, when they had any food at all. This fearful swelling of the body is an al- most universal complaint among the reconcentrados the result of long con- tinued hunger when the impoverished blood turns to water. have seen some ghastly sights, where the feet were ac- tually cracked open and the puffed limbs looked like bags. In Los Fosos is group of five orphans, all of one family, the eldest about ten years old the youngest under two. Their father was killed in the rebel army and the mother, evicted from her poor home died in the weary tramp to the capital Neighbors and friends, themselves ir equally desperate straits, homeless an6 starving, assisted them to reach this haven of refuge, But they cannot be kept nGFe alOHB, dIlQ WHtt IlcAI iS tiie serious question. Still more devoted was one wailing baby, barely old enough to sit up alone In the middle ot it's bed All it's relatives perished by the wayside, and why the suffering mite of humanity was spared only heaven knows. Those who were able to walk crowded around us with theii complaints. Many of the mothers de- claired that their children were dying because they had been given spoiled fish to eat: others that they had hae nothing to eat that morning and only soup made from salted meat the day before, which the, sick and the smaller children did not relish. Milk was what they begged for. not only for the ba' bies, but for those whose long empty stomachs were now too weak to diges stronger food. Of course we sent fol milk, every dollar we happened tc have with us, but 1t was as drop 1T the bucket among that hungry crowd Condensed milk, prepared with ho water, is given to these people when ever it can be obtained but condensed milk is very scarce and dear here. ant only that sent from the United State! can be depended upon. Right here le