Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1899-10-19

L.. t@ss z ~ - -. .
properly educated and trained. Ihere
is to be no attempt made to proseiyte
them, beyond teaching them to be
moral and honest To better under
stand the terrible condition OF the
peasants of Cuba, who are the ones
now being benefited, few quotations
from the report of one of the American
commission sets the facts more plainly
before the public. He says:
Cuba was not suffering from COM
mercial or financial panic. 1t was in
state of utter prostration and collapse.
Business and agricultural life had long
ceased. The whole island was dead.
Even now the result of Weyler's or
der of RECOMMENDATION is not under
stood or appreciated in this country.
Should the commanding general IN the
American army issue an order, the re-
suit of which would be that one could
travel from New York to Rochester
and not see one cow, not one chicken,
not one farmhouse, not one man work
ing in the fields, it would be something
similar to the result of Gen. Weyler S
recommendation order in Cuba.
"The whole rural life of three great
provinces - Havana, Matanzas and
Santa Clara-was absolutely blotted
out. Occasionally a clump OF banana
trees. whose roots had escaped the fire,
or a scarlet creeper, would show where
a farmhouse had stood; but the trop-
ical growth quickly covered the ruins.
II was inconceivable that in the midst
of this teeming vegetation the country
should be a desert, for no signs OF
human life appeared.
ION the contrary, every town and
city visited was thronged with beggars.
many of them emaciated and gaunt;
women. children, cripples, and few
broken spirited men; and the dreadful
odor OF every place occupied by Span
ish soldiers. There was no decency.
there was no sanitation; in our sense
of the word, inueed. there was no dis
cipline. It was a wanton and profit
gate devastation in the time Of peace"
Amid all this misery, and herding to-
gether like cattle, were the little chill
dren, the future citizens Of Cuba,
whether as a republic or as a part Of
the United States. And it was for the
up bringing and development Of the fu-
ture generation of the island that the
Cuban orphan relief fund was started.
Mr.. Charles w. Gould, who is very
prominently connected with the fund,
made a remark a few days ago which
corroborates a statement made by a
Catholic priest, who had just returned
from Havana, as to the patriarchal
system in Cuba. Mr.. Gould said:
Il never saw anything to equal the
love and sacrifice of the Cuban parents.
The men died first. the women fol-
lowed and it is the children who are
left"
These remarks give an idea Of what
the Cuban orphan fund started out to
do. Miss Laura d. Gill was selected as
best fitted to represent the trustees OF
the fund in Cuba. She has two assist
ants, Miss Levy and Miss Wilson, and
these three brave women, to use the
words OF one Of the prominent mem
bers of the fund, ARE doing as true
missionary work as any Jesuit ever
did"
Miss Gill writes:
In Sancti Spiritus we found con-
diticn of suffering which is much more
serious than anything which we have
seen before There are over four hun
dred children who need to be taken
care of right away. and the town has
only been able to provide for twenty
five little girls, who were selected be-
cause they were physically worse off
than anybody else in town. Although
they have now been cared for nearly
six weeks, they are still mere little
skeletons, and almost make one doubt
whether it was any kindness to help
them to live few years longer"
Miss Gill's last report gives most en-
couraging news:
We may now count that the Santa
Maria del Rosario work is established.
1t is. as you know, of purely settle
ment character, with headquarters in a
house rented from ex-Gov. Mora, in
which Miss Levy and Mrs. Barsaga, her
Cuban assistant, reside and in which
the kindergarten will be held for the
present.
The house has been furnished, and
the women are thoroughly installed in
their new home. The boys of the town
have come in quite large numbers, re-
questing instruction, and several wo-
men have been in to ask il they might
be taught to sew and clean and work
according to our American methods.
The little children simply swarm
around the house. The mayor, Gen.
Boze, of the Cuban army. will have a
tract of municipal land plowed up for
them with the town oxen. and Miss
Levy is going to give them seeds and
simple little tools and arrange for a
man TO advise them about simple crops.
hoping that in this way she may come
to influence their diet and, TO a certain
extent. their housekeeping ideas"
The men who have been most inde-
fatigable in this work are Rear Ad-
niral w. T. Sampson. Thomas B.
Adams. Cornelius n. Bliss. Gen. F. v.