The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-06-12
PRISONERS OF WAR.
Hat God Help Those of Our Men
Spain Gets Hold of.
From the Philadelphia Pres.


POLITICALLY, battles end in victory or
DEATH Many brave soldier, however, is
neither victorious nor dead after battle
but in military prison. In the unwhole-
some atmosphere of the prison camp mil
itary tinsel soon furnishes.
But Spanish prisoners of war are being
taken, and they must be cared for. Span
ish prisons are already prepared for Amer
| lean soldiers and sailors, and we are con-
| cerned in the fate of our men who may oc-
cupy them.
| Unless the war develops into a land fight
| of unexpected dimensions the old forts
| used during the civil war win serve for the
1 accommodation of our Spanish guests.
| The prisoners made when prizes were
| taken were confined on their ships until
released, and few would-be Spanish re-
| cruits are now confined in Fort Taylor.
| Fort Mcpherson, in Atlanta, is the present
| abode of the officers and prvates who
| were captured on the Argonauta.
Some of the first prisoners of war will
go to Fort Lafayette, In New York har-
Dor, where many civil prisoners have been
| confined in war times. At Governors
| Island and Fortress Monroe Confederate
| officers We're kept out of mischief and in
| the West, officers and some men were con-
| fined in the state prisons 1t was from the
| state penilentiary at Columbus that Gen.
| Morgan, the raider. and a dozen other Of
| 1icers made their celebrated escape.
Two hundred and twenty-five thousand
| Confederates were captured and sent
North before Lee surrendered. If we bring
| over even tenth of this number of Span-
iards it will be necessary for us to estab-
fish prison camps, such as existed in both
sections of the country during the civil
| war.
The Confederate prisoners were herded
at Elmira, N. Y; Johnstons Landing.
near Sandusky, o.; Point Lookout, on the
Potomac, and there was a large camp
near Chicago, where conspiracy to arm
the prisoners and sack the city was al
most brought TO a successful issue
The treatment of prisoners of war con-
lined in peniteptlaries or in forts of the
United States is not different from that
accorded to the inmates of Ludlow street
jail, in New York city. This old Jail has
itself been a repository for political and
military prisoners. The prisoners at Fort
Mcpherson have been treated as ordinary
Indicators and are kept In cells and are
shaved regularly
The prison camps were something SUI
generis A large, fiat tract of perhaps flf-
| ty acres was cleared of trees and sur
rounded by a wooden stockade. Into the
enclosure the prisoners were driven and
left to shift for themselves. In all the
Northern camps the troops were sheltered
by nuts and allowed the regular military
rations, so that they lived as comfortably
as our soldiers in the field If a military
prison is BEAUTIFULLY located the inmates
have nothing to fear but overcrowdIna,
and bad food These We're the causes OF
the terrible suffering of Union soldiers
confined in the military prisons of the
South.
If Spain captured our whole volunteer
army she would not have as many prison.
ers as We're taken by the Southern states
1t is estimated that 127O09 men were held
in Southern prisons. About one in three
and one-half Of these prisoners came
North alive.
The largest prisons in the South were
Libby and Castle Thunder, at Richmond
and Salisbury, in North Carolina. Thera
were a number of prison camps the bcst
known being Belle Isle, Camp Iawton
near Mllin, Ga, and Camp Sumter at
Andersonville, Ga,
In Cuba the torments of prison life
would be increased by the terrors of yelloU,
jack.
Making prisoners Is a custom not great
ly in vogue in this war, for the Spanish
ships have sunk or blown up before thew
stopped lighting
SPANS prisoners will not be kent IN
Cuba probably if they can be sent 10
Spain, for the very good reason that every
part OF the island is Ia danger of attack.
leave no prisoners In Cuba.
The ordinary Spanish jails are the worst
| al I<ulOlJCs 0hlll recently the DrinCinal
prison in the kingdom was a converted
slaughter house Ia Madrid and the post of
jailer was sold to the highest bidder. This
prison, called the Saladero, is still in use
There is only one cellar prison in Spain.
and at last accounts il had not been COM
pleted.
; The Cubans whom the Spanish have
; imprisoned were sometimes shut up i'm the
convict establishments at Carthagena Val
ladoiid and Granada. In these the pris-
oners are thrown together in prison and
labor; there are no sanitary regulations.
| the diet is Ne coarsest and most meagre
and the authorities are brutes.
z SPANS worst criminals are kept at the
prison in Valencia or exported to convict
; stations in the Balearic Isles, or TO the
I penal settlement Of Ceuta and Mesilla. IN
Africa Political prisoners are usua1lv
1 sent TO one Of these places. There are now
& 800 Cubans in the prisons at Ceuta--a ereat
, castle-lke structure opposite Gibraltar II
was here that the present secretary of the
Cuban revolutionary party. Senior Tanuza
was confined for ten months. The first
Americans sent to Spain will probably 90 r.
r Ceuta. They will have hard labor foI
twelve hours a day, If they are treated as
the Cubans were.
$ Spain no longer has galleys, nor Is cor.
z poral punishment allowed In any of hei
prisons, but the mortality among her polit.
ical prisoners is very high In tho hie
fortresses of Montjuich and Figueras neaI
Barcelona, nearly 1000 Cubans were con.
{ fined and they were literally starved Il
; death In Figueras out of 29S Cuban pris
oners. forty died and twenty-nine were ir
the hospital within a short time after theil
{ confinement. SPANS prisons are an i'm.
portant item in the record Of blood,
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Queen Margharita of Italy has become
, a golf enthusiast. She took TO the game
I originally with the hope of successfully
G combating her increasing obesity.