The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-03-18
nElD cBoss WORK rY oUBA.

OOAA
 and Courier)
 Havana, Cuba, March 9.-It is beyond the power of pen to portray the change which the Red Cross has wrought among the suffering in Cuba. Not only in the capital has disease and starva- tion been checked in their wild career, but all over the island it's beneficent arm has extended. A fortnight ago sixty tons of food was sent by boat from the Havana warehouses to Cien- fuegos. Twenty-Five tons will come this week direct from New York to Ma tanzas; also twenty-five tons to Santi- ago. large amount to Cardenas and a fair proportion to other places. AL ready the destitute in forty towns and Villages are regularly in receipt of ra- tions; and still the good work goes on, from province to province, as fast as lists can be made out and supplies dis patched under the regulations necessa- ry to prevent frauds. Fully fourteen thousand people are being fed in Ha- vana, ten thousand in Matanzas, five thousand in Jaruco and so on In like proportion; yet the demand is great as ever, and should the supplies cease, even for one week, starvation and death would resume their awful carni- val. Indefatigable Miss Barton, ably seconded by her aides, is working with tireless energy, going from town to town, Investigating cases and estab
 fishing new stations for the distribu- tion of relief; while her corps of phy
 sicians and nurese have their hearts and hands full with the cares of the sick. Let no one imagine that the tide of suffering is staid. All that has been accomplished is but as a drop in an ocean of misery. Day by day new walls come up from yet unvisited dis trtcts and fresh cases of appalling destitution are brought to light. For example: Yesterday I visited Gin un- official capacity, as am not a member of the Red Cross) two villages in the province of Havana. The first little town, called Arroy de Naranjo, is about twenty miles by railway from the capi- tal-a most picturesque place, but now terribly poor The one thousand recon centrados, detained within it's borders by half as many soldiers, have as yet received no aid. The second village, Ca1abazar, is even smaller and poorer, but with five hundred reconcentrados corralled within it, and large number of Spanish soldiers to prey upon the impoverished country like grasshop- pers on Kansas field. Such harrow
 ing tales that were told us-such pitt ful sights as we saw! It was always the familiar story-of people driven by WeyIers orders from comfortable homes in the country to herd within the Notifications, where there was nothing to eat and no work to do. One middle aged men, with tears streaming down his furrowed cheeks, said that his wife and four children had died of hunger and "misirie.' And his own fearfully swollen feet and emaciated frame told a pitiful tale of starvation. One young woman, with a puny baby in her arms and another tugging at her skirt, said that her husband owned a small plantation four leagues away
 They were in comfortable circumstan- ces, but it happened that her husband was i'll with fever when the soldiers came and ordered them to instantly leave the place. preparing to fire the house at once. She begged for time to remove the sick man and collect some of their clothes; and the soldiers told her with paths and jeers to be quick about it. She hastened to obey. The sick man was carried out and laid on the grass by the roadside, but when she ran back to bring away a few ne- cessary articles, the house was all ready in flames and entrance was inn possible. So all was lost The oldest child was then but a week old, and the family were thrown almost naked upon the world to subsist upon charity as best they could. The boy in her hus- bands employ was killed with the ma- chete before her eyes, for what reason she did not know. We saw many chill dren without living relative; and in one house number of feeble old wo- men covering in the corner like fright ened animals, their husbands and sons having all been killed. We intended to take coach from Arroyo de Naranjo to Calabazar, a distance of perhaps one league; but the Spanish army had ap- propriated all the horses and there was no alternative but to walk. AS we were starting the Spanish comandante met us-a young fellow who happened to be a gentleman-and courteously rendered us an escort of soldiers. When we declined the honor, saying that we felt no fear, he politely but firmly forbade us to go without the es- cort Said he: "You don't know what you are undertaking. One or two per- sons might possibly go unmolested, but there are too many of you; (our party had been increased by several acquaintances at Naranjo, your corres- pendent being the only American); sol- diers are stationed all along the way on purpose to prevent the passing of parties. You will surely be taken for insurrectionists or spies, or fired on from the forts farther off, We saw the philosophy of the shotgun policy and concluded to accept the escort. Thereupon the comandante dispatched a message, post haste, to summon a squad of soldiers, and another on the run to notify the little forts along the At last we set out-a funny cavalcade, with two ladies in the center, soldiers to the right of us, soldiers to the left of us-marching down the middle of the dusty road under the burning sun. How feeble and hungry the alleged "guard'' looked-mostly boys in their teens, in their blue cotton suits and straw hats! If it came to conflict with fists every one of us could have vanquished half a dozen of the dispir- arsenal, with gun and knife and ma- chete. Arrived at Calabazar, the chains stretched across the highway,