Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1898-03-23

high and strong, but thew suffice, where
every point is in range Of a soldiers rifle,
to keep in the poor reconcentrado women
and children.
All the country people in the four west
ern provinces, about 100000 in number,
remaining outside the fortified towns when
Weyler's order was made. were driven into
these towns. and these are the reconcen-
trados. They were the peasantry, many
OF them farmers, some land owners, others
renting lands and owning more or less
stock, others working on estates and cult
waiting small patches; and even small
patch in that fruitful cline will support a
family. 1t is but fair to say that the nor
NAL condition of these people was very DIFF
ferent from that prevailing in this country
Their standard of comfort and prosperity
was not high measured by our own. But
according to their standards and require
ments, their conditions of life were salts
factory. They lived mostly in cabins made
1T palm leaves or in wooden houses. Some
OF them had houses of stone, blackened
walls OF which are all that remain to show
that the country was ever inhabited.
Many doubtless did not learn of Wey-
ler's order. Others failed to grasp its ter
rible meaning. Its execution was lett
largely to the guerrilas to drive in all that
had not obeyed and / was informed that in
many cases torch was applied to their
homes with no notice and the inmates fled
with such clothing as they might have on,
their stock and other belongings being ap-
propriated by the guerrillas. When they
reached the town they were allowed to
build huts of palm leaves in the suburbs
and vacant places within the trochas and left
to live if they could.
Their huts are about 10 by 10 feet in
size and for want OF space are usually
crowded together very closely. They have
no floor but the ground, and no furniture,
and after years wear but little clothing
except such stray substitutes as they can
extemporize. With large families or with
more than one in this little space, the COM
monest sanitary provisions are impossible.
Conditions are unmentilpable in this re-
spect. Torn from their homes, with foul
earth, foul air, foul water and foul food, o,
none, what wonder that one-half have dice
and that one-quarter of the living are so
diseased that they cannot be saved A
form of dropsy is common disorder re-
suttluS iTOIu lueSe COuultiOuS. LilJlc Cull-
dren are still walking about with arms and
chest terribly emaciated, eyes swollen and
abdomen bloated to three times the natu-
raj size. The physicians say these cases
are hopeless.
Dea hs in the streets have not been I'M
common. | was told by one of our con-
suls that they have been fnund dead about
the markets in the morning, where they
had crawled hoping to ct some stray bits
OF food from the early hucksters, and there
had been cases where they had dropped
dead inside the market surrounded by food.
These people were independent and self
supporting before Weyler's order. They
are not beggars even now. There are
plenty of professional beggars in every
town among the regular residents, but
these country people, the reconcentrados,
have not learned the art. Rarely is hand
held out to you for aims when going among
their huts, but the sight of them makes an
appeal stronger than words"