The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-06-29
LOVE, CRIME AND WAR.
Escaped Murderer on One of the Ships
 of Blockading Fleet.


 Copyright, 1S9s The Associated Press.)
 On board the Associated Press dis patch boat Cynthia IT., off Havana, June 27, 8 p. m., via Key West, Fla, June 2S, 9:1O a. m.-There is a Cuban passenger on one of the ships of the blockading squadron to whom the phrase "Cuba Libre" has taken a new meaning. He is an escaped murderer and he tells a strange tale of Hove, crime and war" Between 4 and 5 o'clock on Sunday afternoon one of the auxiliary boats was cruising slowly about a mile off Point Bacuranao, east of Havana, when two figures were Ob- served on the beach signalling with handkerchiefs fastened to the end of sticks.
 A small boat was sent off to them, but as 1t approached the shore one of the figures darted suddenly into the brush and was seen no more. The other man held his ground and was taken off to the ship and there told his story with no show of reluctance. He is Parblo Benites, thirty years old, native of Consalion del Sios. Seven years ago he killed a man. Benites told of the affair in the most matter of-fact way imaginable without the culver of an eye lash
 Tt was a little dispute. No, we had not been drinking" "A love affair per- haps?" A tinge of color crept over his cheeks, gaunt and haggard from seven years confinement in a Spanish prison, and gleam of light came into his dull eyes. Perhaps" was the response. "There were words, and I - He made a gesture like the plunge of a knife. The gesture told tale, words being unnecessary, of love and murder done for pair of soft, black eyes, He would say no more. Twentyfour years was the sentence. For seven of these Benites lay in the Carcel de Lapouta, the Havana prison A month and a half ago he was put in chains and set to work on the Notifications. His duty was wheeling sand in a barrow at Sand Battery No. l. east of Morro. They gave him nothing to eat there but a few beans, he said, and he was almost starved. One day last week, while working at the battery, he saw among a group of spectators one who had known him in past years. There was a glance of recognition and then @ meaning look at the prisoners mana cles.
 A day or two later the friend re- appeared and when he departed Benites had concealed in his sleeve small file. The rest was easy. It was not long before the irons had been cut through. The file was then passed favorite comrade convict of Benites and he too accomplished the same task. The chance of escape came at noon on Thursday last while the guard was at lunch. They shook their shackles from them, ran into the woods and were soon safely away. For three days they made their way through thicket and brush, eluding the Spanish soldier until they reached the water front on Sunday. But at the last moment the other man became panic stricken and ran back to the woods Benites knew little of the war situation.
 There are between 300 and 400 men working on the sand battery from which he escaped, he said, and big forces are at work on all the fortifica- tions around Havana. Some informa- tion had reached him as to the condi- tions prevailing in the Cuban capital. The poor are starving in the streets he asserted. The Spanish soldiers are on half rations. Bread brings sixty cents per pound, beef forty cents, and pork is sold for fifty cents a pound. Benites l has brother at Palma, Island of Ma iorca. He will be turned over to the disposition of Commodore Watson.