Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-01-01
The Question Being Asked Through.
out Rural Cuba.
PROPOSED AMERICAN INTERVENTION
A Visit to The Stricken Oiss
tricts.
CHANGES MADE IN MONTHS
Copyright. 1898. by Charles NJ Pepper.)
PROVINCE OF MATANZAS. Cuba.

| PROVINCE OF MATANZAS, Cuba,
December -. 1897.
| Rural Cuba aids In answering a question
| which was being asked when left Havana
the other day. Possibly the folks in the
| United states were asking the same ques.
| ton. 1t Is simply. After food, what
| next?" If the American people had to in
| tervene to succor the starving after
| Spain's confident assurance of her own
ability to do it, how long before they will
| nave to intervene to establish peace In
| Cuba? 1 write in ignorance of what has
| been done to meet the Presidents call,
| though with the impression that it must
| meet with some response. The response
| can never be fully adequate, because no adj
| equate means Of succor can be devised from
| without. But General Lee and the consuls
can distribute vast amount of food with
| the certainty that it will reach the suffer-
| ing. The agencies in their control can be
| extended, as they will be, If the contribu-
| tions keep up And of this matter of con-
| tributions 1t may be said briefly that the
| emergency is not one to be settled by spas
| modic action. Relief can come steadily for
| months and there will not be too much Of
it.
In the country the meaning of the Presi-
| dents Christmas proclamation is perceived
1
| able to eat autonomy. The new colonial
| system has been neither food, medicine nor
| clothing to them.
| In Havana the officials at the palace hav-
| ing settled the designs for the government
| stationery and approved the letter heads
| Tor autonomy, rest i'm the consciousness
| that one portion of their task is completed.
| The cabinet in entering on its labors can
| find no fault with the stationery with which
| 1t is supplied. The designs of the letter
heads are tasteful, according to the Spanish
| idea, and symbolical. Out in the country
| they think less of symbols and more Of
substance. Autonomy not being substance
| to them, they show no curiosity about its
| works. Vague rumors of relief from Amer.
lea have live interest though the rumors
| are yet indefinite and do not satisfy the
cravings of the stomach. To many of the
country people almost as little is known Of
America as is of Africa. One woman who
| was huddled In a 'bohio" In the midst OF
| her ragged children told me she thought
the Americans must be a good people. be-
| cause when the Spanish soldiers killed her
| husband she had heard them curse los
! Americanos,' but that was all she knew.
Others in the towns where consulates are
| located know more. They know that their
| few neighbors who were fortunate enough
| to lay claim to American citizenship have
| been receiving aid, doled out in small
quantities, yet systematically and enough
| Of it to keep the aided ones from yielding
! to starvation. If the relief ever gets the
headway it should get the American con.
| suls in Cuba will have hard time of it in
| fulfilling their official duties.
Less DesoIntc Than in May.
The eastern part of Havana province and
| Matanzas itself do not present as desolate
appearance in some ways as they did last
May. Fewer charred cane fields are seen
| and there is less evidence OF destruction.
Equally true is it that there are no signs
| Of restoration. 1 two mills which
were actually grinding cane, but none of
the ruined mills had been rebuilt. With
one exception the cane growing in the
fields showed clearly the lack of cultiva-
ton. While the country looks more habit
able than it did months ago, fewer inhabi-
tants are to be seen. An immense loneliness
is over it all. The wild vines are growing
in profusion over the framework of the
palm huts that were left standing, but the
vines their only thatching. Lacking
tenats, they need no roofs. The concen-
tration settlements at Campo Florida,
Juneco, Mocho Cidra and other points along
the railway are not half peopled. Travellers
are longer annoyed by the reconcen-
tradoes lining up at the stations and maxi
ing pitiful appeals for aid. The groups OF
beggars are now small and they are not
mportunate.
In the town of Matanzas-it once had
PEOPLE sufficient to be a city-thc recon-
oentradoes are numerous enough for their
succor to be a grave problem, but they no
longer suffer from overcrowdiEg. Cascoro
bill, the hill of SORROWS, has many vacant
"bohios.' Some of these are large, for In
the beginning of the concentration they
sheltered fifteen or twenty persons each.
The lime kilns and caves have all been va
Gated. Most of their inmates changed
quarters for the graveyard. / saw Cascoro
hill at a time when on its slopes was prob.
ably gathered more human wretchedness
than could be found in any one spot else
where in the world. Now the quantity OF
misery has been reduced by merciful death.
The quality Of the wretchedness Is the
same. A brave attempt has been made by
some of the pacifcoes to surround their
huts with little patches of gardens, though
the rocks mock their efforts. The women
and children who are able still lstlessly
piait the palm leaves into hats. which,
when a market can be found, bring them
few pennies But this is their only em-
ployment. The morning scene tells the
whole story Oh tne SURVIVORS,. II Is Wneu
they drag themselves to the well. where
they wait in turn fer their pals and gourds
to be filled. Many are barely equal to the
task of carrying the vessels back to their
huts.
Destitutfon in the Towns.
write of these people because. since
SO many of the reconcentradoes are dead.
it might be inferred that not enough re-
main to justify further efforts at relief
by the United States. But even IL the
survivors were not numerous. an element
of the Cuban population will ere long
require help unless peace is restored and
agriculture and trade are given a lImping
start. This class is made UP chiefly Of the
townspeople whose resources have reached
the limit. They will soon be exhausted.
Matanzas cannot live unless the country
around It lives. Its citizens have dwelt
in o condition midway between hope and
despair. They have seen the city descend
one stage after another until its currents