The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-02-28
THE SITUATION IN CUBA
THE "oFFIoIAL FUNERAL", IN
 RAYANA.

pathy and Aid-All Kinds of stories--A
 Visit to Jaruco-Suffering and Starvation
 -Many Deaths from "NIiseria."
 Special Correspondence of the Journal
 and Courier)
 Havana, Feb. 19.-Long before this letter can reach New Haven in the reg ular way, the cable will have brought you an account of the Official fun eral of our poor boys of the Maine-the most splendid public demonstration which Havana has witnessed in a quarter of century.
 You may imagine the thirty coffins in row in the grand salon of the cap- tain-g generals palace the lines of Spanish soldiers standing silently on guard, the thousands of magnificent floral tributes and the tens of thou sands of sad-faced people of all na- tionalities, many of them in tears, who came to view the black boxes; the twenty-four hearses, the hundreds or horses with nodding plumes, the long procession of carriages and pedestrl- ans, and the band playing solemn dirges. Every official of the Spanlsh government participated-even the bishop who had taken part in but one previous funeral. Perhaps the most pathetic part of the procession was the three thousand reconcentrados who brought up the rear. Ragged. hatless, bare-footed and dirty, hardly able 10 walk from sickness and starvation, they followed humbly in the rear. Knowing that the dead were citizens of 1.-the United States-the country which has sent them food and on which they base all their hopes of better days' they expressed their gratitude In the only way they knew. NJ Let nobody persuade you that spain was responsible for the great disaster. In all probability it was an accident, which will be explained in the course of the pending investigation; or at the worst, the horrible crime was commit ted by some irresponsible lunatic, ike Guiteau or Booth, or the last assassin of the President of France. Every | thing in the power of man to do fer the relief of the survivors and to further ] the full investigation has been done by the Spanish government and the peo- pie of Havana. They bore the entire cost of the funeral and nobody in the city will accept any pay for the service rendered Neither pain nor excuse has been spared, and the fathers and mothers of the men could not have been kinder. The marines of the Span | ish man of war that lay alongside the l Maine in the harbor, and the bomberos l (firemen) of Havana risked their lives in assisting on the night of the disas- ter, and the doctors in the Spanish military hospital of San Ambrosio ! where many of the wounded were 1 taken, neither slept nor ate for thirty six hours, in unremitting care of the suffering, Of course. in time of war I when feeling runs so high, all manners | of stories are in circulation. One of them is to the effect that for some time ] d strange man had been haunting the United States consulate, begging Gen. l eral Lee to send the Maine away, as l something horrible was about to be done to her. They thought he was g
 crank, such as frequently visit the ] White House, and sent him away agair and again; but now they are diligently l hunting for him, and he cannot be found. I heard one of the officers ot 1 the Maine say that it was not possible l for a bomb to have been exploded be. meath her. The keel lay within two feet and one-half of the bottom of the l harbor, and a bomb large enough tt | destroy the big vessel could not have
 been crowded between the mud and tht l keel; furthermore, a bomb of sufficient l capacity to have lifted the Maine would also have wrecked Havana ant l destroyed every other ship in the har I bor
 An oft-repeated canard is that th' l commanding officer of the Maine wher
 the first explosion occurred sent fv' men down to remove the gunpowdel
 and dynamite in the hold, in order tt save the city, and that the men obeyed
 knowing that it meant death to then all As matter of fact, but a few sec | onds elapsed between the first alarn
 and the final explosion, and there wa no time for the giving of any orders whatever. lE4
 I am spending a few hours ever. day with the wounded men who remaii
 in the Hospital de San Ambrosia, writ
 ing letters for them to their wives anj
 sweet-hearts, and carrying them tn
 grapes and cigarettes and little 1uxu
 ries which some of them crave. In n
 case have I been allowed to pay a pen ny for anything for the hospital; eve Try merchant in Havana is ready t place his entire stock at my disposal
 These are the worst cases among tn living, all the rest having died here, o
 been sent to Key West. They are al patient and cheerful fellows, bearin
 their pains like heroes. Though terri
 bly, burned, their severest injurie
 came from being dashed with such vio
 lence against the rocks. Among ther is Fred c. Holger, of New York city