The times., 1899-05-14


is typical interior town, and one of the
cieanest | ever saw. Its low houses OF un-
planed boards, set close together in strag
Cling rows, are whitewashed inside and
out, and each is faced by rude veranda.
The streets. with grass and weeds grow
ing thiclNly among the stones, have
bread, deep ditch along each side. The
yerandas come up even with the ditc'tes,
and each housedoor is reached by large,
fiat stone, or plank. which answers TO the
drawbridge across a moat. Streets anl
yerandas are swept scrupulously clean,
though chickens wander In and out at will,
and occasionally fat, black mother pig
leads her interesting family across the
bridge to pay social visit The terra
Gotta colored earth is brighter red than
even the sacred soil'' OF Virginia, and the
empty, grass grown streets somehow re-
mind one of down at-heal old Alexandria,
near Washington, d. c. Three years ago
Catalina had something oVe. S 010 inhabi-
tants but today has barely /, 500. This cal
culation does not include the reconcentrl-
do influx but reckons only the normal pop
ulation. Where ore the rest. do you ask?
Gone to glory my friend, by the slow but
sure route of starvation. assisted for 4
time by smallpox. During The latter
seourge the authorities thought 20 stay its
ravages by compulsory incubation; with
the result that hundreds of the poor Great
ures died. being too feeble to endure vac
cination.
The quaint old village church, with its
stone stairs outside leading up to di-
iapidated tower fun of rusty bells, is in a
more deplorable state than most OF its
neighbors. having longer stabbed the Span
ish horses. The interior is wrecked, the
floors are entirely gone, and the affairs
broken into kindling wood. OF all its sa-
cred belongings but one thing is left-a
painting of the Virgin and Child, placed
too high upon the wall to be easily reach
ed. AS we entered the dreary ruin, ray
OF sunlight from the open door illumined
the infant Christ, as with halo-an omen,
let us hope, of blessings to come From
among the debris Of human bones bits
of harness and broken horseshoes scatter
ed under foot. | picked up a skull-evi-
IDENTIFY that of halfgrown youth. One
side of it was gone, apparently cut off by
sabre or machete stroke.
Later We walked down the weedy road
to the Campo Santo. at the edge of the
village. 1t is tiny Gods acre, with walls
OF plastered stone and larger and later
annex fenced with split palm trunks set up
right in the red earth. A row of black
vultures, perched above the arched gate
way, gaZed at us with speculative eyes, but
did not stir-having probably made too
many hearty meals on the human species
this poor little Field of Saints was tied
with bit of rope, and its red soil, with
out blade of grass or green thing grow
ing. has been rounded up into regular
mounds. 1t was swept as clean as all the
rest Of the village-barring an occasional
scattered rib or marrow-bone.
There are few rather pretentious
graves, each surmounted by glass-faced
box containing the hideous wreaths of
I hlort
favor in the eyes of mourning Sranish-
Americans. Other graves were marked by
biack-painted wooden crosses: but the
great majority had only two sticks. tied
I together cruciform fashion laid on ton
or stuck in the earth. Vagrant breezes
ard passing footsteps soon disarrange this
symbol OF the Christians hope, which
some stricken heart has placed above IL,
beloved dead; and though the emblem
means little to me I have hundreds of
times stopped to replace it and tie the
cioEs-piece more securely.
The alcalde. or village mayor, who ac-
companied us to the cemetery. pointed ont
two rough boxes. one long the other
shorter-which stand on end inside the
gateway, and remarked that in them moe
than six thousand of his friends and neigh
bors had been brought 10 their eternal rest
within three years. Out among the weeds
of an unfenced field, few rods away,
stood a heavy, two-wheeled oxcart its
huge tongue high in air-the village
hearse-in which the six thousand had
taken their last short journey.
Across one corner OF the cemetery a sec
ond wall is placed, enclosing a triangular
space. which is filled to the brim with hu-
man bones, partially burned, but ty no
| means reduced TO dust In front of these
was the most CHASTITY sight of ala fresh
lot OF miscellaneous bones, skulls, coffin
| boards, shrouds. shoes, ct cetera, lately
evicted from rented graves and made ready
for the semi-annual burning. Many of the
skulls had hair clinging to them One. l
noticed, was thin and gray as of an old
man. another was almost a chestnut
brown, and on top of the heap. close by the
trunk of body still wrapped in a half
decayed blanket. lay a mass of shinig let
black hair. loosened from the head to
which II had belonged, but yet confined in
coil by rusty pins. To us it seems
strange indeed that our Spanish American
neighbcrs attach so little sacrednoss to
| the earthly tenement after the soul has
left it.
4 Noble Work.
As may readily be imagined, d.. Hub
bell and his assistants found dreadful con-
ditions in Catalina. The remaining hand
full of population has suffered so many
woes and are so utterly destitute that they
are like one stunned by series of blows
enjoying neither hope ror ambition for
the future. 1t was the children especially
whom the Red Cross came TO rescue. Many
helpless waits were found without a liy-
ing relative. In several cases two or three
little children were hudd!ed together in an
abandoned building. subsistilg on wild bo-
mates, or whatever scraps they could pick
Z IT,.
girls, absolutely without protection and
almost without clothing. sleeping on the
ground at night and unable to wash their
I few filthy rags, having rothing else to put
On One woman past thirty years of age
crippled with rheumatism so that she could
not walk. but got about in a half sitting
posture, as some babies Greer, had nothing
to cover her nakedness but a remnant OF
an old shawl. All these people We're speed
lily collected by the Red Cross workers and
given the first square meal they can re-
member. A house was at once set apart
by the mayor for use as an orphanase-a
part OF his own house was turned over bv
him to DR.. Hubbell and the ladies' for
their residence. Cots. bedding. whole
bolts of calico and unbleached muslin and
few ready made garments were imme-
diately provided.
The first thing was to give each orphan
thorough bathing and attend scientific
ally to his or her itch, lice sores, etc;
then all their vermn-infested rags were
burned, and they were put to bed until
garments could be had. The poor crea-
lures were so weak from famine and so
utterly exhausted from hardships borne
that simply to lie still, sure of shelter
safety, and food, left them nothing to de-
sire in all this weary world | regret to
say that our supply of ready-made cloth
ing, sent by auxiliary societies in the