The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1898-03-03

of his own? Half crazed with grief, he
resisted the fellow who fired the house,
was shot, and his yet quivering body toss
ed upon the blazing roof. 1t was weary
on the second days march; one by one
the children sickened and died on the way,
and only the wife lived to reach the forti-
fed city. saw her in Havana, sitting on
the ground near the barracks, the very
picture of despair.
Our first visit this morning was to Los
Fosos, an abandoned ware house near the
water edge and Moro Castle, which is
now used as hospital for several hun
dred sick Reconcentrados. After the reign
of terror began and the wretches were
dying by hundreds in the streets,-no pro-
vision whatever having been made for their
maintenance by the Spanish government,
some charitable Cubans in Havana made
bold to establish hospitals and take care
of them as best they could 1t was but a
drop of comfort in the ocean of wretch
edness-but all honor to the noble ladies
and gentlemen, who at considerable risk
to themselves, in city under strict mill
tary law, where party feeling runs so high,
had devoted their time and money to the
work. The government, in its policy of
determination, has even placed every OBJ
stacle in the way of these charities. Spain
has 20, 900 soldiers in the hospitals of
Havana, suffering for food and medicine,
and naturally the little her depleted re-
sources can devote to charity is given to
them. Weyler says, "Nobody can starve
in Cuba; they can live on bananas" But
people have already starved to death, as
the result of his concentration order.
Even bananas have their seasons. If the
whole island were planted with them,
(Which it is not) and if bananas were to
be had for the picking, there would not
be enough to sustain the teeming popula-
ton, could they endure the exclusive diet.
People cannot live on climate; they starve
in any part of the world where food is
not.
Diminishing our carriage at the gate of
Los Fosos, intending to call another for
the return, according to the custom of Ha-
vana, where carriage hire is only 20 cents,
each way, to any part of the city, and
carriages swarm in the street like flies
around molasses barrel, we passed into
the patio, or inner courtyard. Lying all
about were what at first glance looked like
who were able to crawl out into the sun,
leaving the few beds of the hospital for
those worse off than themselves. | have
seen misery in many lands, but never any
thing like this. We did not enter the build
ing devoted to the men, but went at once
to the quarters of the women and children.
Such sight, Two floors filled with long
rows of cot beds-a recent acquisition
since money came from the United States,
for at first they lay upon the floor; and on
each bed horror. Five had died that
morning, and their bodies had not yet
been removed Several were evidently
dying, and Others were in the stupor of
unconsciousness. In one corner lay boy,
perhaps nine years old, writing in con
WILSON'S; and he died few moments
later clutching my hands with bony fin
gers that felt like bird claws. Ny atten-
+ Mi ,1ar III 70.
woman, who must have been beautiful
short time ago, but whose emaciated face
already wore the dignity of death, although
a slight futtering of the breast showed
that the breath of life yet fingered. No
body in the hospital knew anything about
her, except that she was a Reconcentrada,
where in the country. Proudly silent, she
held aloof from the rest during the terri
BILE march, sleeping in the fields and slow
ly starving. Where were the living hands
that once caressed the wealth of shining
hair? Father and brothers, husband or
lover, were no doubt with the Insurgent
army somewhere in the southern provin.
ces, or perhaps lying dead in the trenches.
While we stood beside her the breath
ceased to move. Death had set his in
scrutable seal on her lips and the soul
had happily escaped its mortal prison.
| SO emaciated were the bodies of all
that their bones appeared to be pricking
| through. Most of the children were COW
cred with deep, horrible sores, and the
feet and limbs of many were swollen out
of all semblance of human members
scurvy and dropsy, from fever, starvation
and improper food, when they had any food
at all. This fearful swelling of the body
is the almost universal complaint among
| the Reconcentrados-t result of long
continued hunger, when the impoverished
blood turns to water. l have seen some
CHASTITY sights, where the feet were actual
ly cracked open and the pulled limbs
looked like bags. In Los Fosos is a group
of five orphans, all of one family, the
eldest about 10 years old, the youngest
under two. Their father was killed in the
rebel army and the mother, evicted from
| bar noor homa 6ia6 in tho uaoru ~, =,