The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-05-31
a SPANISH SOLDIER ON CUBA.
UEYLER'S METHODS AND THOSE OF
THE INSURGENTS.
~ nv the Rebellion Could Not Be Put
Down-GucriIIa Methods of War
fnre-Opinion of the Yankees.

A little later the IGLlTeQ SOlUlGE came III
j and. accepting cigar sat down. He was a
POWERFULLY built man, reduced by yellow
fever to a mere skeleton. A fortnight's
HACK growth was on his sallow and ca
dayerous cheeks. He had been some years
in cuba and had seen the outbreak of the
| last instruction and the savage but futile
efforts made by Gen. Weyler to suppress
# The landlord and his friends-the chief
men Of the viIlage-who sat and smoked
+ around the kitchen, We're evidently only
TOO well aware of the Drivatons and suf-
fertngs of a soldiers life. in Cuba, but they
were animated listeners when I began to
question the ex-soldier about his exper-
fences.
What sort of people did you find the
Il Cubans?" l inquired.
\ The people of the country (la gentle del
campoO Were harmless enough They ask
ed only to be let alone both by government
II troops and the rebels. That was just what
neither would do. The rebels levied taxes
on them and collected provisions, and il
they did not pay them burned their pro-
siuce and their homes; the government
! troops made feeble attempts at protection
till Don Valeriano Weyler came out to
command u.s. He got together the greatest
rascals in the country under the name OF
n volunteers and if the regular soldiers un
der Weyler were cruel TO the country folk
a The volunteers were far worse. The dregs
Il Of Havana, they perpetrated every crime
Fl on the defenselesS country folk, and wO-
II men ana children suffered every outrage
n al heir hands. Weyler believed in killing
d people wholesale to strike terror into the
Il insurgents, but it did very little good The
4 insurgents played the same game They
4 killed all our men whom they took prison.
eTs.
Were the insurgents white men or col
Ored? YOU ask. Well, I seldom saw much
of them, except when we surprised aud
shot them; but generally, to judge from
the dead, they were white men, winter
than myself or any of my comrades in the
ranks. There was a fair number of colorcd
men among them, and il was said the col
ored men were the cruelest. This giving or
eaIlng no quarter sounds very bad; but
You get used to it. If the Cubans gave us
soldiers the mercy Of The machete, we gave
them absOution with the point of our bay
onets.
He was certainly a strong man, Wey-
Ter, and a great deal harder and crueller
than Martinez Campos but he was just
like the others, he filled his pockets while
he was in office, and they say he came
home with a big fortune. Yes, that is
the way things are divided in the Spanish
army in Cuba; the officers take our pay,
they make ali the money they can out
OF the country-they don't care how-the
officer gets a fortune. the soldier only gets
yellow fever. The money sent from Spain
10 fortify the towns and make military
roads through the manigua Qhe Jungle
is all the spoil of greedy officials, and OF
a perro is spent on the purpose it was
given for
Can you explain to me why were your
soldiers unable to put down the rebels ?"
was the next question.
Very clearly, for this reason--we could
not catch them. We marched till we were
tired out, and then, just as We had given
up hope of finding them, they opened fire
from the thick jungle on our rear. They
could see and hit u.s. We kept firing into
the jungle without seeing any one. Then,
We had to carry off our wounded to save
them from the machetes of the Cubans.
You know what the jungle is? 1t is just
great thicket without pathway
through, and the insurgents know every
inch of it, In the rainy season it as
sort of swamp, reeking with yellow fever.
There was nowhere to shelter on these
expeditions Villages churches. planters
houses all had been destroyed by the
rebels or by our men. The insurgents used
10 raid the country and levy contribu-
tons and punish those who did not pay
them; then we others Che soldiers came
and punished the pacitcos because they
had paid taxes or given provisions to the
rebels. When the paciflcOs were driven
into the towns or into camps by our sol
djers they suffered, without doubt, great
ly. There was very little food for them
and proper shelter in the town, and
certainly they died in heaps. But they
were nearly as badly off in the country,
harried by the rebels one day, by the
troops another. Whenever any of these
ft11
information to the Spaniards, they were
put to death with horrible tortures. 1t
was not a proper war; it was a guerilla
war, and our officers never understood
how to manage it. With large army
under them, they failed to put down the
rebel bands, who never fought fairly, face
to face. / do not call it fair fighting TO
blow up trains full of people with dyna-
mile as the rebels were always dong
when they got a chance.
But, you ask, how did the rebels get
so much dynamite and also arms and am
munition? Ask the Yankees; they can tell
you. They are very honorable, the Yam
KEGS; they kept sending over hlbusterlng
steamers by scores with arms and ammu-
milton and dynamite. Then they blame the
Spaniards for the disturbances and out
RACES they themselves had caused. The
rebellion would have been over long ago
indeed. there would have been no rebel
lion without the Yankees"
These thoughts were in my mind as the
eN-solder continued: The Yankees would
never let us put down The rebellion: they
never let us alone in Cuba. They wanted
to have il themselves, and when they saw
the Spanish government making terms
with the rebels offering autonomy and an
amnesty, they were afraid Cuba would
slip out of their hands; they were afraid
II would become peaceful again and pros
porous and remain Spanish. That they
could not allow, so they went to war with
us in order to bring food, as they said, to
The starving reconcentrados. And now
they are blockading Havana and making
the people they are so anxious to feed
atarVe faster than ever. They are not
only brigands, they are liars. They did
not interfere when we We're fighting the
rebels two years ago, and killing was go
inS on every day; they interfere now only
because peace is almost established They
want to take Cuba for themselves. And
so they say they only want to make it in
Iepondent-to give it up to the rebel gov
ernment. But they refuse to recognize the
rebel government. Why do they