The San Francisco call., 1898-03-18
He Tells the American People What He Saw
 in Cuba.
With an Utter Absence of Sen satiOnalism, He Shows That Conditions Have Become
 UnbeapabIe.

truth has been stated, Just as Tar as It is possible to ascertain it. And until then surmise and conjecture are idle and improbable. Let us calmly wait for the report.
 There are six provinces in Cuba, each, with the exception of MatanZaS, extending the whole width of the island and having about an equal sea front or the north and south borders. Matan gas touches the Caribbean Sea only at it's southwest corner, being separated from it elsewhere by the narrow pe~ ninsula of Santa Clara province. My observations were confined to the four western provinces, which constitute about one-half of the island.
 Havana, the great city and capital of the island, is, in the eyes of the Spanish and many Cubans, all Cuba, as much as Paris is France. But hay ing visited it in more peaceful times and seen it's sights, the tomb of Co., lumbus, the forts Cabanas and Morro Castle, etc, I did not care to repeat this, preferring trips in the country. Everything seems to go on much as usual in Havana. Quiet prevails, and except for the frequent squads of sol- diers marching to guard and police duty and their astounding presence in all public places, one saw little signs of war.
 "Outside of Havana all is changed. It is not peace, nor is it war. It is deSOlation and distress, misery and starvation. Every town and village is surrounded by the trocha (trench), sort of rif1e-pit, but constructed on plan new to me, dirt being thrown up on the outside and the barbed wire fence on the other side of the trench. These trochas have at every corner and at frequent intervals along the sides what are called forts, but they are really small block houses, many of them more like large sentry box, and with guard of from two to ten sol dierS in each.
 ''The purpose of these trochas is to keep the reconcentrados in as well as to keep the insurgents out. In all the surrounding country the people have been driven into these fortified towns and held there to subsist as they can. They are virtually prison yards and not unlike one in general appearance except the walls are not so high and strong, but they suffice, where every point is in range of a soldiers rifle, to keep in the poor reconcentrados, wo- men and children. Every railroad sta- ton Is within one of these trOchaS and has an armed guard. Every train has an armored freight car, loopholed for musketry and filled with soldiers, and with, as l observed, usually, and was informed was always the case, a pilot engine a mile or so in advance There are frequent block houses inclosed by the trocha and with a guard along the railroad track. With this exception there is no human life or habitation between the fortified towns and viii lageS, and throughout the whole of the four western provinces, except to a very limited extent among the hills where the Spaniards have not been n la fA T H. towns and burn their dwellings,, I saw no house or hut in the 400 miles of railroad rides from Pinar del Rio Province, in the west, across the full width of Havana and Matanzas prov fnces, and to Sagua Ia Grande. on the north shore, and to Cienfuegos, on the south shore of Santa Clara, except within the Spanish trochas.
 There are no domestic animals or crops on the rich fields and pastures except such as are under guard in the immediate vicinity of the towns In other words, the Spaniards hold in these four western provinces just what their army sits on. Every man, woman and child and every domestic animal wherever the columns have marched is under guard, and within their so- called Notifications. To describe one place is to describe all To repeat, it is neither peace nor war. It is eoncen- tration and desolation. This is the 'pacified' condition of the four western provinces.
 West of Havana is generally the rich tobacco country, and east, so far as went, it is a sugar region Nearly all the sugar mills are destroyed be- tween Havana and Sagua. Two or three were standing in the vicinity of Sagua and part running, surrounded as they are the villages, by trochas and forts of palisades of the royal palm and fully guarded. Toward and near C1enfuegos there were more mills run ming, but all with the same protection It is said that the owners of these mills near Cfenfuegos have been able to obtain special faVorS of the Spanish Govern ment in the way of a large force of soldiers, but they also, as well as all the railroads, pay taxes to the Cubans for immunity. l have no means of verifying this. It is the common talk among those who have better means of knowledge.
 All the country people in the four western provinces, about 400, ,000 in num- ber, remaining outside the fortified towns when Weylers order was made were driven into these towns and these are the reconcentrados. They were the peasantry, many of them farmers, some land owners, others renting lands and K. working on estates and cultivating. small patches; and even a small patch in that fruitful cline will support a family. It is but fair to say that the normal condition of these people was very different from that which prevails in this country. Their standard of comfort and prosperity was not high, measured by cur own. But, according to their standards and requirements, their conditions of life were satisfac- tory They live mostly in cabins made of palm or in wooden houses. Some of them had houses of stone, the black ened walls of which are all that remain to show that the country was ever in- habited.
 Many doubtless did not learn of Weyler's concentration order. Others failed to grasp its terrible meaning. Its execution was left largely to the guer- rillas to drive in all that had not obeyed and I was informed that in many cases a torch was applied to their homes without notice, and that the inmates fled with such clothing as they might have on their backs, their stock and other belongings being appropriat- ed by the guerrillas. When they