The Republican journal., 1899-05-25

IN CUBA: and from 1t the very best results
are expected-not only for the children,
but for their elders as WE'LL When the
time came to leave Catalina, the entire
population turned out en- masse to escort
us to the station; and amid tears, flowers
and blessings we departed for other fields,
promising to return at no distant day to
see how they were carrying on the good
work we had begun.
The fifteen mile railway ride from Cat
alma to Guines, made on May afternoon,
is pleasure enough in itself to pay for
| journey to Cuba, although the beautiful
landscape has been sadly marred by the
relentless hand of war and every house
along the line is in ruins. Midway be-
tween the two towns is a startling remind
er of Spanish methods. From the car win
dow you can see little of it but black
hole in the ground; but should you take
the trouble to visit the spot from either
village, as some of our party did, you
would find that the narrow gorge slopes
WV lIlo "a uttB cave linz Idflu6, WHOSE
recesses are filed with human bones.
! People living in the vicinity tell us that
during the war Cuban men, women and
children, sometimes whole families togeth-
er, mysteriously disappeared and no trace
of them could be found. Finally, guided
| by the vultures, it was discovered that
many had been beguiled to this unfre-
quented place, or one pretext or another,
or forced along the canine doloroso at
the point of the bayonet-to the edge of
the ravine; where they We're murdered
and tumbled into the cave. Investigation
disclosed large number of decayed bod
les, many identified as the missing ones;
and the position of some indicated that
life was not extinct when they were
thrown in, to die among the dead. | re-
call tale of horror, told me in Habana a
month before the blockade, concerning
this very place. The story ran that
Spanish captain, riding at the head of his
troop from Catalina, heard faint means
issuing from ravine by the roadside.
CHANGING over, he could see only heap
of slain in the darkness below, from
which arose a sickening odor and the hor-
rible tearing sound made by the vultures'
beaks and claws. But again the feeble
wall was heard, and the captain sent down
some of his men to investigate. Among
the putrefying bodies they found three
living wretches "a woman who died while
being carried out, a half grown boy
breathed his last few minutes later and
beautiful girl baby with terrible
machete cut across the head A company
of Spanish cavalry had passed that way
few days before, burned and sacked
farm house which was suspected of har-
boring insurgents, macheted its inmates
and cast their bodies into the ravine.
The captain took the unconscious child
before him in the saddle. half expecting it
to die before Uabana was reached but
promising himself that if it lived he
would adopt it as his own. Arrived at
the capital, he gave it TO the care of the
SOOtl SlSltIS Ol Ilt DcublCtuC1u, where
strange to say, it recovered and thrived
apace. | went to see it. and dimly re-
member little girl with big black eyes,
disfgured by a terrible scar-my atten-
| ton being absorbed by yet more pitful
case The latter was that of a slender
girl of fifteen, raving crazy, alternately
hn,, baJ 4
or gibbering softly to the dead whom she
| believed TO be around her. She was the
eldest daughter of rebel officer, who
was killed near the beginning of the war
A few weeks before she had seen her
home burned and mother, sisters and
brother murdered, while she lay hidden
in the long grass; and afterwards the
sight of carbon birds peckng the eyes of
the loved ones and tearing their flesh,
though she fought them with all her fee
| bic strength, unbalanced her mind. Even
the hardest hearted Spanard has feeling
of pity for the ''loco," as an insane per
son is called; and the next troop of SOL
diers that came along buried her dead
and brought the girl TO the Beneficencia.
As mentioned in the previous letter,
Gunes is the largest town in the provence
of Havana, next to the capital, and
until ruined by the war was very pros
porous. The plain in which it stands is
the very garden-spot of Cuba, having for
many years had an excellent system of
irrigating canals. Taken on an average,
plenty of rain falls in every part of Cuba,
from season to season, to supply all the
moisture that vegetation requires. A
great deal too much of it, however, de-
sends between May and November, and
not enough during the winter months,
which ar the best crop season. Guines
equalizes this uneven distribution of the
blessings of providence by irrigation; and
with most gratifying results. Before the
war, English and American syndicates had
their representatives here, who were deep
in irrigating enterprises, among other
money schemes Their canals and bitches
were of course neglected during the long