The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1898-11-12

nA0 t"O sMdAer ones, one IN winch what
are called rooms for prisoners who can
afford to pay for them. This building was
maintained for the benefit Of the governor.
who ran q private boarding house of his
own there, much rs the warden Of Lud-
low street Jail does, except that the Span
lard got much less than $40 a week from
his boarders. The floor Of this building
is raised we'll off the ground 80 that it is
fairly healthy place. The rooms are
not large, but they are comfortable and
dry. The floors are Of the universal teak.
The prisoners must furnish their quarters
Tor themselves. the governor apparently
pot having any spare beds, chairs or
tables. The building in which the cells
are situated is the toughest place in the =
prison. The cells are small rooms and
there are no floors. The walls are mas
sive and of stone, damp. foul and noisome.
Prisoners were huddled together there
and compelled to sleep on the reeking
ground. There were no sanitary arrange
ments whatever, and the poor devils were
a filthy lot. They tried all sorts Of con-
trivances to get off the ground, but were:
not permitted to buy bamboo beds for
themselves. There was not room for such
luxuries. saw one poor fellow who had
collected hundred or more sardine cans
and Lad paved a little patch OF the ground
In one Of the cells with them. On. these
cans he had spread a ragged sleeping
ma. and there he camped. X
A dreadful disease almost invariably at
tacks the inmates Of this prison in q
comparatively shrort time. It affects their
eyes, and If they are not removed as soon
as 1t manifests itself they go blind: OF
the fifty or mon I saw huddleG into two
small rooms, more than half were affect
ed. The day I visited the Bilibid, Capt
Moffett had begun arrangements for get
ting the sick isolated, the prisoners
thinced out and the condition of the
prison improved generally. The records
showed that all of those confined there
were imprisoned for crimes. and it was
not his purpose to investigate the incar-
ceration of such prisoners until he had
finished with those who were accused, of
political offenses. .'.-..'.. -.
The main buildings Of the prison are
about hundred feet long by twenty
wide, One-stcry affairs, with rough cement
floors. Down the center of each stretches
a long teak table which nearly fills the
single room. There is only a narrow pas
sageWay around the room near the walls,
not wide enough for two. men to walk
abreast. On the table the men eat their
meals and there they sleep. The table is
built of broad teak boards highly polished
py the thousands of bare, feet that have
walked over them. In one end of each
building little altar has been erected.
Around the walls are scores of nails.
where the prisoners who are lucky enough
to have it hang their extra clothing. The
grounds around the building are kept
clean and well swept. There is a big
bath house near the wall, with plenty of
water. In the time when the insurgents
had the water shut off and the prisons ID,
pended on the rains Eahs did all Manili
= s're were pretty hard times for the PRS
! ..nrs, but now Lhey = gsit: The
| la t governor was a. Va. OF some 1--we Of
=. *bca ut-.uI, and he had some very
49,. q flower gardens between the build
+. was when Capt Moffett began to in
xestigate the roll of prisoners that he
came across the iniquity of Spanish insti-
tuticns. It stirs an angry feeling In the.
blood Of an American and provokes a
wish that after all Dewey's guns had been
turned loose on the cruel SDaniards to
know such things as went on in the make
believe courts of Manila. 1t almost JUS
titles the hotly expressed desire of fer
vently patriotic Brooklyn woman that
every Spaniard on the face of the earth
should be exterminated before the war
should end. The Spaniards talk and boast
of a proud old civilization. But civili-
cation which makes war on women and
which sentences men to jail for life on
mere suspicion is no civilization, and the
men who possess no better claim to life
than that deserve nothing from the world
but the hangman's rope and bullets. b. ..
First on the roll were the women, twen-
ty-eight of them. Engracia Tanoy led
| the list, and bracketted with her were
Maximiana Duran, Tomasa Palupo, Fee
| lipa Quique and Gregoria TIC. They are
all from the Island Of Negroes, south of
mitments agreed with it, that they had
been in the Bilibid prison since July II,
1889, on the order of the captain general,
without trial. for the offense Of resisting
the armed forces Of Spain. Five little
native women, about as big as good,
healthy twelve-year-old American girls,
kept in prison for more than nine years
for resisting the army of Spain. They
are brave men, these Spanish soldiers.
Strong, sturdy, chivalrous souls. They
go out by hundreds to suppress a rebel
lion of a half a village Of rack-rldden ma
,tives armed with bolas and good cause.
but these little devils with their sharp
knives fight and they have g. nasty; way
lot hacking off the heads Of Spanish SOL
oilers, armed with Mauser rifles that kill
lat $500 yards. The brave Spaniards do
mot suppress the riot, but they return
with prisoners to demonstrate their value.
Five little women they bring back in
ichains and the giant great heart in the
governors palace sends them to prison
| for life without trial. &C.
Il With these five was Euseia Baculbacul.
taken on Christmas day, 1889. Eusebia
arose singleIhanded on that blessed day
and detied the armed forces of Spain, II
rneir lying record for once are true. For
this the valiant army, proper reinforce
ments having hurried out, arrested Fuse
bia, and the noble encouragement COM
mended their valor and defended their
! honor by committing the infamous trail
toress to prison for the rest of her life.
They were a worthy set Of scoundrels
who ruled the Philippines.
Then there was Dorotea Arceaga, COM
mitted ON Aug. 8, 1880, for ''sacrilege''
after trial by court-martial. She was
the teacher Of little school for native
children. Somewhere she had gained the
beginnings of an education and to this
I awful crime she added that Of doing her
best to impart Something of what she
knew to some of her people. Her little
school was in Malate, not very for from
where this Is written. Dorotea was a de
vout Catholic and went to mass in the old
red brick church in Malate where now
4 Aguinaldo's men house themselves.
Dorotea was comedy, and the priest ia
whom She confessed was as devil in a
black robe. Dorotea had that Instructive
regsrd Tor her own honor which not even
the training she had had could remove,
4 he could notsdefle,. a. will he could not
4 break. He went to the captain general
and said Dorotea had stolen al chalice
from his church, Thereupon. the euod,
1 looking little hoolteacher was charged
4 with .'insurrectionqe and s.'sacrilege' 2 and
a court-martia1 sent her to BiMbid to end
Il her days. She: told the story very simply
to Capt. Moifett. The American had made
4 no explanation OF what he intended to do
with the Bilibid prisoners. She had No
more thought OF liberty, and the recital
i passion. Hope had given place to de-
Il sn0fp The h1lro ewes Of fil1e 1rnaly1sr On n.