The herald., 1898-12-25
DAVIS GETS TO WORK
RECONSTRUCTING PINAR DEL
RIO PROVINCE
PERFECT PEACE PREVAILING
And Already the Famous Trocha Has
Been Torn Down to Fence Yards
and Fields
Associated Press Special Wire

PINAR DEL RIO, Dec. l9.-(Corre-
spondence of the Associated Press.) The re
construction OF this great tobacco raising,
sugar growing province has begun. Abso-
lutte peace exists and the people are at work.
General Davis. before he lett Havana, was
told that brigands probably would overrun
the province; that petty dictators were
taking the villages that insurgents had oceu-
pied the towns and would not yield para
mount authority to the Americans, and that
he would be infinitely vexed by obstacles in
every step OF the restoration OF civil order
among a restless people. When General
Davis. with his staff, battalion of the
Two Hundred and Second New York regi-
ment and a signal corps company reached
the borders OF the province in the journey
bv train from Havana they were received at
Santiago de Las Vegas by coonel and l5O
Cuban horsemen, aligned near the station.
Afterward. behind them were l25 young
Cuban women on horseback. Around and
behind this cavalcaGe townspeople gath
cred. shaggy-haired old men, women in
black. troops OF children with flowers and
American flags.
A. General Davis with his staff appeared
on the platform there was passionate burst
of 'Nivas" and bare machetes flashed in the
medley of colors. The cheering was so pro
onged and genuine that the Americans were
moved by it. The colonel placed himself and
his men at General Davis disposal. The
alcalde of the town made an address. The
general, who knows some conversational
Spanish, but not enough for 4 public speech,
said through an Interpreter that the Cuban
people had been through great trials and
sutferines and that the Americans were
there to aid in securing their liberty.
Surgeon Major W. J. Kneedler had be-
come separated in the crowd from General
Davis, and one Of a committee OF priests
began to read him an address of welcome,
thinking tho doctor was the general. Dr.
kneedler, who at first did not perceive the
DRIFT Of the address, was unable to find an
opening to stop the padre before the wei
come had been concluded.
The doctor, through Cuban who could
speak English and Spanish, said that as one
of the Americans with General Davis he
regarded ths Cuban,. ao men and brethren,
and that in all his travels he had not been in
so fine country. The Americans then
swept on through wide spaces of deserted
country. From the train they could see oc-
casionally the blackened walls and tall
chimney OF ruined sugar oentrae. At each
of the towns the senior Cuban officer made
known his allegiance to the proposed order
of things under the American protectorate.
Pinar del Rio City gave a reception as en-
thusiastic as that given atSantago de Las
egas. The Cuban commander turned over
the municipal and provincial belongings.
General Davis has commun icated by letter
or by messenger with the important towns
in the province. Not an incident of brig
andage has resulted. The most fragrant
crime mas been the disappearance Of some
chickens. The Spanish residents, some OF
whom are the well-to-do men of the city,
had lived in the interior between Spanish
evacuation and American occupation un-
harmed.
The people near Pinar have torn the wire
from the trocha, and have inclosed yards
and fields with it. The principal store
keeper has painted advertisements on two OF
the forts.
The town is well fed on chickens, fresh
beef. fruit and vegetables. The country is
exhausted but the revivification has begun.
Palm huts are building on wasted farms.
The country people are now living chiefly on
radishes sweet potatoes, sugar cane and
chicken and quail shot or trapped in the
thicl;cts
Finar del Rio city has many pretty houses.
The population was l2,000, of which 1000
have been buried. The women are all in
black.
Following General Davis instructions,
the American officers and privates are care
full to return the salutes of the Cuban sol
dier- who. armed and unarmed, are coming
and going all the time. They subsist large
IL on gifts of food. Some, forced by neces-
sity, have sold their rifles. Mausors cap
tured from the Spaniards are selling for five
or ,iX dollars. In Havana Mausers are sur
reptitiouslS sold for $50 or S25.
The battalion of the Two Hundred and
Second New York regiment, under Major