The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-04-14

On the night of Dec. 27 the captain
general made that avOwal. \ few days
later, the rabid Spaniards of the city
compelled him to tender his resignation
to Madrid. They demanded from Cano-
vas captain general, framed in the
old iron cast of the Spanish conquer
ors, not to fight battles and risk his
life on the field, but to eXterminate
the native population. In their belief
women, children, every one born in
Cuba, should be held responsible for
the situation. They did not like a SOL
dier with a gallant career and personal
courage. They wanted an eXecutioner
Canovas satisfied them and appointed
Don Valeriano Weyler Nicolau to
succeed Martinez CampOs.
The question may be asked why the
patriots after so many victories did not
invest the city of Havana and end
there with the Spanish dominion. The
answer is very clear. After the battle
of ColiseO General Gomez reviewed his
troops and found that each soldier had
only three cartridges. The Cubans in
the United States were making vain
efforts to send a big expedition to the
patriots. A hostile administration
checked them. If the Spanish army
was defeated in the fields of Cuba
Spanish diplomacy was triumphant at
Washington. At Guira de Melena on
Jan. 4, 1896, the patriots had to fight
with their machetes to enter the prov
ince of Havana. For such a state of
affairs, General Gomez considered his
best plan to be to organize armies in
all the provinces invaded, so far as his
resources permitted him to do, and try
to raise the war in Pnar del Rio
province. At Caro- on Jan. the pa
triots routed Spanish column and en-
tered Pinar del Rio. General Gomez
then withdrew TO the east While Maceo
proceeded to the west. on Jan. II he
obtained another victory at the very
gates Of Pinar del Rio city and on Jan.
% he took the town of Banes at the
western extremity of the island, three
months after his departure from Bara-
qua in Santiago de Cuba.
On Feb. y Macco returned to Ha-
vana province. General Weyler pub
lcly declared Pinar del Rio pacified,
and the gallant Cuban leader returned
to that province on March Is.
WEYLERs ATROCITIES.
Before this Weyler had already
shown his sangunary spirit and plans
of murder. Prisoners of war and in
noccnt persons unjustly charged with
aiding the rebellion We're shot every
day in Havana. The most summary
court martial preceded the executions
as a mere formality. In other cases
the victims were murdered in cold
blood in their dungeons or thrown alive
into the sea during the night at the
entrance of the harbOr to feed the
sharks. The horrors Of the Council of
Blood under Alva look pale when COM
pared with the crimes Of Weyler. In
the country his troops had orders to
outrage women and to kill every non
combatant without regard to age. In
the cities he appointed as inspectors of
police the most infamous murderers
and thieves from the Spanish penal
colonies in Africa.
In a short time more than 100000
persons emigrated from Cuba panic
stricken. But Weyler was not salts
dcd. He intended to destroy the coun-
try and to eXterminate the natives.
Seeing that the executions in the forts
were too slow method and that the
destruction wrought by his columns
was not enough to ruin the island he
conceived one Of the most monstrous
crimes ever committed against human
ity, on Feb. 16, 1896, he issued his two
famous decrees Of concentration. BY
them every human being i'm the coun-
try districts was compelled TO leave
his home, after It had been destroyed
by the Spanish columns, and go to one
Of the fortified towns under the vigil
ance Of the Spanish soldiery. With the
homes Of the reconcentrados their cul-
tivated lands We're to be devastated
and around the towns where they had
to live not piece Of bread was to bo
given TO them. In this manner, undel
preteNt OF q military operation, half a
million people, most Of them women