The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-05-22

10 feet apart. having a rail tackled alcns
the tops. This was the dead line. IL a
prisoner exposed any part Of his body
beyond this fence the guards shot him
without warning. At And~ersonville and
Millin there was no protection TO De mao
from the sun and the rain except by
burrowing in the ground. Wood was
needed for fuel and there were no
boards to use for huts. In August. 1864.
81 900 prisoners were confined at Fort
Sumter.
No Cuban prison or Spanish dungeon
can supply horrors that American SOL
diers have not already endured in con-
federate prisons. not to go back to the
English dungeons at Dartmoor or the
old prison ship Jersey" But in Cuba
the torments of prison life would be in
creased by the ubiquitous deviltry OF
yellow jack.
Making prisoners Is a. custom not
greatly in ogu in modern naval war
fare. for iron ships usually sink or blow
up before they stop fighting.
SPANS prisoners will not be kept In
Cuba, probably. IL they can be sent to
Spain. for the very good reason that
every part of the sland is in danger
of attack. Besides, 1t has been SPANS
policy to leave no prisoners in Cuba.
The ordinary Spanish jails are the
worst in Europe. Until recently the
principal prison i'm the kingdom was "A
converted slaughter house in 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 cellular prison in Spain, and at last
accounts il had not been completed.
The Cubans whom the ~Spaniards nave
imprisoned were sometimes shut up in
the convict establishments at Cartha-
gena, Valladolid and Granada. In these
the prisoners are thrown together i'm
prison and labor; there are no sanitary
regulations, the diet is the coarsest and
most meager and the authorities are
brutes. SPANS worst criminals are
kept at the prisons In Valencia or ex-
ported to convict stations in the Balearic
isles or to the penal settlements of ecu
ira and Mesilla, in Africa. Political
prisoners are usually sent to one of these
places. There are now 800 Cubans i'm
the prisoners at Ceutra-a great CASTLE
like structure opposite Gibraltar. 1t was
here that the present secretary of the
Cuban revolutionary party, Senior La
naza. was confined for 10 months. The
first Americans sent to Spain will prob
ably go to Ceutra They will have hard
labor for ~ hour a day, If they are
treated as the Cubans were.
Spain no longer has galleys, nor ID
corporal punishment allowed in any of
her prisons, but the mortality among
her political prisons is very high. In
the big fortresses of Mohtjuich and
Figueras, neal Barcelona, nearly 1000
Cubans were confined and they were
literally starved to death. In Figueras.
out of 1893 Cuban prisoners. 40 died and
20 were in the hospital within a short
time after their confinement. SPANS
prisons are an important item in her
record of blood.
1t is not likely that prisoners will be
released on parole during this war. Dur
ing our last war it was found to be
bad policy to release prisoners on pa
ole and with our experience of the pc
culiarities Of Spanish honor, we shall
probably prefer to keep our Spanish
prisoners bound by something stronger
than promises.