The San Francisco call., 1898-07-10

III 5i,; havana. According to Captain Ar olllo Havana is in great misery and people are dying daily for want of ioou. ,. UT the reconcentrados who were ilsihS at the time when General Lee ieil Supa, not more than one in ten is now alive, and besides these thou sands or the poor people of the city nave dled as well and from sheer star vation.
 Captaln Ardillo tells his story as fol- 1 lows: I could easily have left Ha Vana before the blockade was on. but to tell the truth I did not think it would amount to much The firms With which l did business convinced me that the blockade would not last but a few days or a week or two at the most. As I did not have a char ter out I concluded to remain, but see my mistake now. Things went from bad to worse until I had to do some thing, or at the price of provisions my crew and l would have eaten up my ship in another few weeks. Again. I began to see that I had been mis- | guided, and in case of bombardment stood chance of losing my ship any way. With all these things staring me in the face I concluded to make an effort to get away. When it became
 
 number of people begged me to take them with me. AS I did not have pro- visions on my brig for one-half of those who wanted to leave, I conclud- ed to give the preference so far as possible, to women and children, and this accounts for the large percentage of them on my passenger list.
 For the first few days after the | blockade began business went on as usual. No change was noticeable in prices for the first week, then securities began to sag and the Spanish bank stock and street railway stocks and | bonds were offered in alarming quanti- ties and quotations began to go down with rush. As the price of securi- ties went down, premium on gold went up, and then the price of provisions be- gan to climb. Paper money dropped | from 40 per cent to 25, and later to 15 This gave the stCrekeepers the looked l for excuse to advance prices. It had been claimed all along that there was an ample supply of all Xii -ds of goods. Then the storekeepers began to com plain that they could not get provi- sions from the wholesale houses.
 "When it became known that the warehouses were practically bare of goods then the panic began The wealthy began buying up provisions at any pTlCe ana SlOTl1S lQeIn away. From 10 cents pound meat went up to 25 cents, then to 40 and 60, and later to $1 a pound. Mind you, that is in gold, which would equal about $6 50 in paper-the money of the people. At these prices there was little meat for the rich and none at all for the poor.
 "Then General Blanco took a hand and an edict was issued to the effect that no butcher should charge over 50 rl.1 l,, ,4aI1N r got around this by refusing to sell at that price in less than 100 pound lots. That was the condition of affairs as to meats when I left Havana on the night of June 23. The poor were practically shut out from buying meat, for what peon had $50 to invest in a lump sum in meat, or any other kind of provi sions It is said that there are plenty of cattle at Cayocoto, but if so they must he held in reserve for the Spanish army, for none of them are being of- fered for sale in Havana Surely the high prices should tempt the stockmen to sell their cattle if they had not been enjoined not to do so by the authori- ties particularly as they cannot now be holding their cattle for higher prices, as the edict prohibits that.
 "As to flour, there is no market price | on it, for there is none for sale at any | figure The last flour sold was by man | who had stored about 500 sacks in some | old buildings about five miles from the | city. When the price got up to SlO sack the dealer began to sell. He had not sold much when one day lot or | Blanco's lnen came down on him and seized whole lot. They took 1t in the name of the King If little Al | fonso could know of some of the l things that have recently been done In Cuba in his name he would want to go | out and play hide and seek With hlm- self from shame.
 "One example in this line will suffice. i The leading shoe manufacturer of Ha- vana received a. big order for army shoes and at a liberal price. He thought bis time had come to get rich. His fac tory was operated by double crew working day and night, the shoes were niled LID by the thousand pairs. The l order was filled in due time and the 1 goods ready to deliver on the specified date When this time came General RIanco suddenl discovered ome tech nical irregularity in the payment Of the duty on the thread. As it had all been used in the manufacture of the shoes inc only thing tc do was to seize the entire lot. Tlat the thr> ad had not | been properly entered at the Custom House did not prevent the shoes from | heinz distributed among the soldiers the very day after they were seized. God knows they needed shoes badly 1 enough, but it left the shoe manufact- urer bankrupt. True he has his claim against the Spanish Government, but what will that amount to a few weeks from now, or even at this time for that matter.
 'When paper currency or yellow fever money, as your American tourists term it, had fallen to 15. cent on the dollar there was panic all along the line. Flour was not to had at any price and rice was up to 30 cents a pound and potat es sold at 25 cents a 1 pound De lers are not allowed to sell more th~n pound at time to any one person. The only article of food that is cheap in Havana is he pine apple, which, as they cannot be ex- ported are old It 1 cent c,1 and in ] many ca SOS given aWax Theu arc da-