The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-05-16
CUBAN WOMEN IN WAR TIME
STORIES OF THEIR RECENT EX- PLOITS IN CAMP AND FIELD.

Their Part as Soldiers, Spies and Nurses 1 Also in Thetr Natural Roles as svveet- | hearts, Wives and Mothers. Especial Correspondence of the Journal and |!
 Courier)
 May ii, 1898. So much imaginary stuff has been cir i culated about Cuba, by valiant war correspondents who remained at safe range from the island, that one hardly knows where to draw the line between fact and fiction; and doubtless, while sometimes being fooled by clever false things which actually occurred. At first nobody really believed that there were women in the Cuban army, though the newspapers printed roman- tic tales of their exploits. The truth is that from the outset female soldiers have played no unimportant part in the struggle for independence. General Weyler admitted their dangerous zeal when he first assumed command in Gu
 
 correspondent he said: 'Yes, we cap- tured a woman yesterday. She was white, too, and good-looking. Most of these sAmazons' are colored. This one was dressed in mems clothes, astride a powerful horse and yielding her ma- chete like the devil. These women sol- diers are fiercer than men; they ride and fight like furies. Where is she now? In Morro Castle, of course. What will be done with her? Well'- and a characteristic shrug, accompa- nied by a gleam of the cruel eye which boded in no good to the captive fin- 1shed the sentence.
 Maceo, the mulatto insurgent leader, had more than one hundred female sol diers (mostly colored) in his company. Gomez also has good many and so has Calizto Alvarez, the chief from the eastern district of San Jago de Cuba. The majority abandoned small farms and plantations to follow the fortunes of their husbands, and though all car ny machetes and revolvers their chief duty is to gather up and succor the wounded that fall in battle. Many of them are wives and mothers-women of dignity and education-not coarse and Shameless An1azons such as the Span ish authorities have described. As race the Cuban women are the most true-hearted, simple and domestic in the civilized world, devoted to their homes and adoring their husbands and children. They are ardent patriots, too, and have shown themselves stronger than their lords in diversity and more serene in martyrdom. But their cheeks grow pale at the thought of innumerable crimes committed upon their sex in this and other Cuban wars The first went to the field with their husbands and fathers for the sake of protection. While misrule prevailed through the island Spanish soldiers and murderous banditti infesting the highways footing plantations and per- petrating all manner of atrocities-no woman was safe at home without her natural protector. In some cases gen. tie ladies were transformed into aveng- ing furies seeing their loved ones butchered. Afterwards they fought shoulder to shoulder with the men, led daring raids and applied the torch in a thousand places; and some of them now sleep in unmarked graves. Many women, not "trained' or Red Cross nurses, are caring for the sick and wounded in insurgent camps Chill dren have been born upon the battle- field, whose mothers did not fear death so much as the horrors that might await them at home.
 Mrs. Kate Masterson,-who by the way, has written some most graphic pictures of life in Cuba, speaks of Cu- ban woman's part in this war as fol- lows:
 From this beautiful summer land one cry goes up which is heard over the din of battle and the clash of arms It is the vail of the desolate women. They are mourning for their loved ones and their tears are falling upon ghast- ly bonfires in which the bodies of their babies have been the fuel which fed the flames. Their cry is more eloquent than all the ruin and desolation in this fair land of graves. Like the Easter lilies, bent and strained with patriot blood-like the roses, trampled in the earth and drenched with mire, are the hearts of these poor women. Many of them have lost all they possess through this war-not only husbands, sons and daughters, relatives and friends, but their plantations have been burned and their fortunes swept away. They are willing to give everything to Cuba glad to see their sugar cane go up in smoke since thereby it's revenue will be lost to Spain. Some of them sold their jewels when all their money was gone in order to send medicine and lint to the rebels. In every Cuban home sum is set aside out of each days household money to send to the field"
 There have been traitors in Cuba, but they were never women. As rule they are better conspirators than their fathers and brothers, because they know the value of silence. They are tire1ess and successful in their efforts to get food and medicine to the rebels, and word from one scattered band t another. Delicate senoritas, reared in southern seclusion, dressed in boys clothes and steal out at night to the nearby haunts of lovers or brothers, in the "Long Grass" as the insurgent camps are called. They secrete food in false pockets, hide letters, whose envel- opes have been dipped in ink, in their abundant black hair; carry medicine in their scent bottles and umbrella han dies, cloth for clothes or bandages in ;,oi,, nf thaiT. oar p1