The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-02-13
POVERTY IN CuBA.
some of the Sights Seen on the
Streets of Havana. ~

Streets of Havana.
Nedado. Cuba, Feb. ST. cannot help but
feel there is a5great need for American
enterprise in Havana. Ii would only re-
cure walk of half an hour in some OF
the streets of that city to convince one
Of the awful condition of some of the
Cubans there. / will give a little sketch
or what 1 saw in one hours walk in Ha-
vana yesterday afternoon. Going along
one of the streets in the heart of the town
l saw a woman about so years of age ly-
ing right on the sidewalk with an old
bag undep her head. The condition of-thls
poor mortal was siekening to look upon,
and she seemed TO be too weak to even lift
her head, and just about in the last stages
of life. All there seemedv TO be of her
was the bony frame work with dark skin
drawn over ii. AS l stood and looked at
her l could not help but exclaim, God
have mercy on the poor creature" No
body seemed to take any notice of her. as
she was only one out of eight similar cases
l saw in the afternoon of the poor starv-
ing condition of the Cubans, II was heart
sickening in the extreme. Some one had
been kind enough to lay two oranges down
in front of her, of which she was too weak
to take any notice Go where you will
children of all conditions and grades will
hail you and stretch out their bony fingers
toward you and ask for an american
centa, ME starve, me starve; centa" Some
times half a dozen of these children are
together. At one store went in to get
paper, there were FIVE of these poor speci-
mems of degraded humanity clustered
about me, each one holding out hand
for "centa.'' as they call it. The store
keeper, not liking this very We'll attempt
81 to .IYfxr hut in a N1l
more they were back and renewed their
request. Just then the sioTekeeper pckd
up rubber tube from under the counter,
and gave it a squeeze when stream OF
water shot out and struck one of the girls,
who were about 8 years of age, square in
the face and nearly blinded her. AT this
they all went out and called the man some
very bad names in Spanish while one OF
Them picked up handful OF mud
from the gutter and let the whole thlhg
fly through the doorway; some struck
the counter, some landed in the face or
the storekeeper and some hit the wall back
of him. Then they ran away down the
street You can see in the streets boys
and girls without clothing enough on to
make a pair of slippers for a Spanish
mosGEito.
You may talk about the poverty of some
parts of America, but you want to come
10 CuDa TO see IL. 6OlIlB d4OilS SoiilC VI
the principal streets you will come 10 an
eating saloon or restaurant, and the very
next door will be a COW stable containing
a dozen or more cows, and the next 10
that again will be a hotel or eating house,
with nothing but a thin partition between
them. There are very few houses that
have wodern floors in them. They are
all of stone or brick. The prices here are
way UP to the top peg. Apples are only
10 cents apiece, pickles cents each, and
as strong as brass kettle. Cakes that
YOU can get in Savannah six for tents
are cents each. The loaves of bread you
| can use for walking sticks, some of them
| being over two feet long and only as thick
| as a mans wrist
There is very little sickness in the camp
| here, and the men are getting along very
| nicely. To-day we are having very hard
| storm here. coming from the ocean, which
at the present time presents very beau
| tifnl view with her white cap waves DASH
| ing and forming as far as the eye can see.
| We held our first meeting in our Y. NJ.
| c. A tent last Sabbath forenoon, and had
a very pleasant time. This was the first
meeting of this kind ever held in this
town. The men are availing themselves
of the opportunities afforded them by the
Y. NJ. c. A. tent. II. A. Howell.