The age-herald., 1898-05-22
SOME MEMORIES
 OF HAVANA
Many of Them Amusing, But
 Most of Them Sad.
LIVES OF RECONCENTR NTRADOS
Congressman Cummings Recalls Pathetic Pic lures That Moved the Congressional Visitors in Cuba-How Two of
 Them Took Fast Ride.

Washington. May 2o.-The odds and ends of the visit of the congressional delegation to Cuba In March last were instructive. pathetic, amusing, and interesting. None of the party could speak the Spanish lan- guage, and very few spaniards can speak English. Every day incidents occurred, grave and gay. Some gave rise to horror. others excited indignation, and many threw those interested into loud laughter. Inter preters were not always at hand, and when on service they did not always interpret correctly. The days were hot, with no flies, and the nights cool, with few mos- quitoes. Meals were served with neatness and dispatch, but nearly all the dishes were tainted with garlic. You smelt garlic in the wineshops, in churches, in hotel corridors. and on the street corners. In Havana and Matanzas the water was as pure and clear as crystal. Havana gets her supply from river springs nearly twenty miles away. The aqueduct was built by Cuban at an expense of s17.0O0.00O. Spanish wines of ex- cellent quality were cheap and abundant Not drunken man was seen in the entire trip. No insults were offered, and proffered courtesies were invariably reciprocated.
 The starving reconcentrados. however. was omnipotent The wan face and de- spairing eye were ever before you, and the skeleton hand was ever extended. In tn strets of Matanzas and Sagua la Grande scores of famished creatures of both sexes and of all ages and conditions swarmed around the strangers pleading in low, mournful tones for food. Their appeals were as plantive as the notes of the pee wee in northern meadows. "Madre Dios, Caballero''-you heard 1t morn, noon and r,fohf ba in ears even in your dreams Misery, hope- less misery everywhere-whites, blacks. and Asiatics, for wherever there is misery you find the Chinaman. Here he was con- spicuous by his silence. He stood aloof from the swarming specters, guant, thin, and hollow-eyed, a picture of utter des- pair. Never was his hand extended-never did he press himself upon your attention; but there was a look In his eye that con- veyed the utter hopelessness of his situa- tion. At Coliseo a living skeleton, with almond eyes, sat upon the platform of the railway station, listless and motionless. A battered can swung from his bony fingers. A congressman bought two small loaves, three meat cakes, and a string of sausages, and showed them into the battered can. The skeleton arose, but there was no thankful expression in his eyes. Clasping the can to his naked ribs, he slowly moved away; but his strength was gone. He tot tered and fell across the track in the hot sunlight, and the train moved from the station there he remained, still clasping the bread to his breast No one assisted him. No one tried to rob him of his treas- ure. Each reconcentrado respects the mis- cry of his fellow.
 Among the Reconcentrados
 Of the hundreds seen by the visiting strangers, not one, however pressed by hunger, made any effort to appropriate what did not belong to him. Between the squa1id huts in the trochas few tomato vines had been planted and the fruit was ripening beneath a blazing sun; yet no starving creature evinced disposition to rob his fellow-sufferer of the product of his labor. A Spanish officer, however, strode among the huts at Colon early one morning, drew his sword, and amused himself by leveling every plant to the ground.
 Nineten out of twenty of the reconcen- trados were women and children. Tots five and six years old, homeless father less, and motherless crawled through the samps, dying from starvation. Those sent to the hospitals met even a worse fate. Upon unclean cots, with fostering limbs and parched threats. they met the same horrible end for up to the advent of Clara Barton they were without food and with out medical relief. And the Spanish news papers called this angel of mercy "a sus- picious vulture." At Sagua la Grande one . morning two bright little girls were seen seated upon the stairway leading to the office of the American consul. congress- man called the attention of Consul Barker to them.
 ''Oh, yes," was the reply, "they are my little wards They are the last of fam fly of fifteen. My heart was touched by their Restitution. I found them on the verge of starvation, and am trying to save them. found shelter for them with a family not far away, and the little things visit me every morning to show their gratitude"
 They were cleanly in attire, but their faces were still pinched, and the habitual look of terror had not entirely left their expressive eyes. Poor things! Basking anew in the sunshine of humanity, they were probably thrown back into the dread gulf of starvation three weeks afterward. when Consul Barker left Cuba by order of the president.
 There were very few negroes among fhe reconcentrados. Indeed, but one black fin the throes of death from starvation was seen. This was at Matanzas. The party was returning to the city from a visit to hospital in it's outskirts. While crossing a stone bridge over the river, something like an overturned iron statue lav below on the sward of the bank. It was the skin and bone of a. gigantic ne- gro. entirely nude He was in the last agonies of starvation. He lay partly upon his side in the hot sun, with knees crooked
 
 leaned over the parapet and addressed him, he made no reply, and showed no sign of life A moent afterward a buzzard swooped over him. flaming his shrunker shank with its wings And still no sign of life was shown. Again we shouted from the parapet. but the figure pemained mo- tionless Suddenly the head was raised, and the long, bony right arm moved in a feeble effort to scratch the naked thigh. Gazing steadily at the water in which young mullet were swarming and Jumping, he faintly moaned and again assumed recumbent position. Possibly he was deaf, for he seemed to be utterly unaware or our presence. Nor did he evince any interest when a pesata was thrown within his rach Not far away an immense net, with corks, kas stretched upon the grass to dry. It had evidently been recently used. for silvery scales were still glistening in its meshes. When the civil guard, who piloted the party was asked why the re- concentrates did not sustain life by catch ing fish( he shrugged his shoulders and re- piled: They are not allowed to do SOL kHo f,,n,