Arizona republican., 1898-08-08

New York, Aug. 7.-Twenty-nine refugees, the majority of them Span iards. arrived at the foot of Amity |street, Brooklyn, on the Norwegian steamer Fridtjof Nansen, which brought them from 1sabela de Sagua. They are for the most part a fairly well-to-do lot. With the exception of two all are supplied with abundant funds, having paid $25O each for the passage. The steerage price imposed by the skipper of the ship was $75 per person. Under ordinary circum stances $50 would have been a tip-top rate in the first cabin, but the refugees were so anxious to get away from the besieged island that they would have willingly given twice the amount asked for the privilege of coming north.
 "The condition of Havana was some thing dreadful when I came away" said Mrs. Rivas, one of the refugees. There was no scarcity of money, but money was useless in purchasing the |necessaries e. life All the cattle which before the war had been used in traveling about the city and sup plying fresh milk at ones door have been slaughtered. The supply of con- densed mix. which is quite popular with the Spaniards, has become al most exhausted, and what remained was retailing at $2 per can The only meat to be had was from the carcasses of horses and dogs. The city was in the widest kind of excitement, and robberies of food and person were many and open. Every day an average of ten or twelve persons died in the streets of Cenaral park from starva- tion, their bodies being swollen to enormous sizes.
 1 Quite a number of the hotels have been obliged to close their doors be- cause of the inability of their pro- prietors to secure stores. Among these was the Inglaterra, where so many Americans have stopped while i in the capital It is not true that all ithe reconcentrados are dead, though am at a great loss to understand how they have held together so long. At Los Fosos, which means the swamp and which has been the headquarters in Havana for the reconcentrados for some time, there were about 4,e0o o1 oornn away
 RECONCENTRADOS ABUSED.
 LOS Fosos is at the foot of the Prado close to the Punta, and has beer a dreadful hole at all times. Those Americans who saw and wondered al it's misery in the past would leave there with bleeding hearts were the! to visit the place now The Spaniard
 blame the reconcentrados entirel.
 for the war and treat them accord
 ingly. The officials give them noth
 ing to eat and beat and abuse then shamefully There is no way to learl how rapidly the people die, but 1 must be startling rate. All Of then
 who are able to get about, and tha
 is not a considerable number, ar compelled to go about the city an
 steal food for the others who are to sick to go. I have seen children / and years old wander away from Lo Fosos to steal bread or something the kind for parents who were lyln
 on death beds It is not surpr1sln
 that these tots go away to steal foot
 but in view of the fact that it is al most impossible, even with theft, fo Il them to get sufficient for themselve . it is surprising that they ever retur Ito Los Fosos with the fruits of the . crimes.
 "The city is still illumined wit q gas, but it is so bad as to be almo'
 useless for the purposes intended.
 is some weeks since the electr
 lights have been burning in the cit t except on Thursday nights, when the
 have music, as usual. Music and {
 many people starving! It is ho
 rible, but true. All the theaters a
 closed, and many of the homeless a
 living in the Flobbies of the sam ,- Wine is the cheapest thing to be hs l. in the city, and so plentiful is it tn
 even the poor get it at times. IT f wealthy continue to give funds to u l. beggars, but the latter can buy not
 ing with it, because what they want