Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1898-12-13

Had you been in Havana in the weeks
between the murder of the Mainc and the
first shot Of the war, says the Philadelphia
Times you would have seen two boys and
two girls day after day begging in the
gayest portions of the city. Ono of the
boys moved about on all fours, frisking,
jumping, trottirg. lying down and rolling
like n dog. With him was little girl,
who did nothing but crow like a cock.
Every time the dog boy finished series
of antics tho girl would set up a clamor-
ous Growing like rooster on n barnyard
fence Every day at breakfast time these
two performed in front of the Inglaterra
cafe. While the girl crowed the dog boy
would trot from window to window, hold
UP his hand, or rather his forepaw, and
bark his request for aims. He would
whine like a pup, growl like ferocious
hound or howl like a prairie wolf. AT
the sight of him real dogs fed.
Then there wGs another boy whose every
Joint seemed To have been dislocated. In
deed you would say that he had been
boned. He appeared to have no frame.
lie seemed simply q lump OF flesh. He
neyerwalked; hetumbled. He would tum
bi6 'nu the Prado all the way from the
Hotel Pasaje to the Inglaterra without
stop Then he would stand on his head
or walk around on his hands, collecting
pennies with toes, which served as fingers.
The fourth and last of these beggar chill
dren was the favorite. She was little
GIRL who made her living-and probably a
living for others--not with her hands, but
having no hands. Not over ~ years old,
she had the fnce of an unhappy woman of
4O-a face haggard and hopeless, and in
which there was a permanent expression
of repruach. At sight of her arose an in
cJiration to laugh, but it was that pecul-
lar laughter which chokos and turns to
tears, Tor this beggar girl, unable to re-
ceiye Del. MES like an ordinary mortal, had
her mouth prDpped wide open, and into
this forever va ming jaw one put his PEN
mics. Few could r, ~ist her horrible appeal
Near her an old woL>aD, crone, always
lowered.
To give the individual hictory, the trag-
10 circumstances, of these young hves is
impossible. Even the little begga-s thein-
selves remember nothing. When question:
ed, they told all they knew-that Is, taat
once they were put TO sleep, that they
woke up and then-that they were cured
Cured OF what? They did not know But
we knew that at least the four monstros-
tiles lust described were masterpieces OF
the diabolical art of Cuba's comprachicos-
That little boy crawling around on all
fours was not born with paws, but with
cast in the mold of an animal. Moreover,
he was born with a human voice. In in
fancy his pharynx had been operated up
on, and now Hsten-instead of speech,
bark; instead of a human voice, a whine
or a Rrowl.
That little girl who crowed like barn
yard fowl-she, too, in infancy had under
gone an operation OF the pharyDx. The
other boy who never walked and always
tlImbled-how artfully his joints had been
dirlocated in order that he might amuse,
excite pity and gather aims.
How did the child stealers produce these
hendish efects-these effects as of the
transIniGralon in life of a child into an
animal. this metAmorphosis of n human
being into n monstrosity, this changing %
the, beautiful into the hideous; The tech
Mo Ne Of such an art is too revolving, too
horri Ftlc u set down here. Simply there is
rho child in the clutches of the band of
6ends tho artists; there is sudden ap-
plication OF chioroform, a quick but care
fully studied burning with sulphur,
skiIlfcl incisiCu with a hot iron, a short
turn of that instrument of the inquisition
invented by the Spanish and called rack
and there is still plenty left for you tn
imagine No one who has taken the trou- |
BILE TO learn the local history of the com
urachicos of Cuba can look upon the little |
deformed beggars in Havana and still !
doubt that they are the products of one OF |
the dreadful processes or Of one of the in |
fernal machines just mentioned
When Americans assume control in Gu |
ba. the child stcalers will be dragged forth, |
and then will we behold new and horrible |
types of the criminal class. In the COM