The times., 1899-03-12
CUBAN WOMEN
IN Time OF WAR
Some Notable Examples of
HerOism.
The Part They Played in the Strug-
gle for Freedom.
In the Antilles, as Elsewhere. 'tht
Hand That Rocks the Cradle
Rules the WorId.n

In the Antilles, as Elsewhere. "the
Hand That Rocks the Cradle
Rules the WorId.''
Matanzas, Feb. 3.-The author OF the re-
cent well-known book Cuba Su Gente,'
who declared that the women of Cuba are
fit only to firt lie in hanmocks. and fan
themselves, had evidently been very un-
fortunate in his choice Of acquaintance.
Impartial people who know Cuban women
of the better class will gladly testify that
they are among the most true-hearted,
simple, and domestic creatures in the
world, devoted to their homes and their
religion, and adoring their husbands and
children. withal strong IN adversely and
often enduring martyTdom with more for
titude than steiner sex. Thousands have
lost everything they possessed in the long
struggle for Cuba libre-husbands. sons
and daughters parents, brothers. friends
and fortune. all swept away. They have
looked upon ghastly holocausts which
consumed not only their homes and planta-
tions, but in some instances the bodies
of their loved ones were cast as fuel to
the flames. Mothers have had their babies
tern from their arms to be butchered, and
seen their young daughters worse than
murdered yet such is their patriotism that
if the war were to be repeated in order 10
free their beloved land there would be
no faltering among the women. 1t is the
history of all countries that the females
are the bitterest partisans, the first to
urge force of arms when prudence would
dictate longer fCrbearaBce. and the last TO
give up the grudge long after the hatchet
is buried. Throughout the war in every
(Fr1ll lirTVn cot
aside out of each days allowance for
household expenses TO send to the field, and
after all their money was gone, many
Cuban ladies sold their jewels and even
their dresses in order to buy food and
medicine for the rebel army. Connected
with the long struggle are pathetic and
stirring incidents without number in which
women played the leading role
Womnm's SeIf-SncriGcc.
For example there was Rosa Hernandez.
of San Cristobal, the young and beautiful
wife Of DIR. Hernandez. They had been
married less than a year when the doctor
was called upon 10 organize band of men
for the insurgent army. Feeling that his
life belonged to his girl wife. who was
about to become mother. he told her that
he would do as she wilied in the matter
Woman-likc, she hesitated at first. think
ing of the danger TO her beloved, and then
through her tears bade him go. In week
he had raised half a regiment, SEQ men,
and as they marched out OF san Cristobal
they passed the house where Mrs. Her
nandez lay fainting, and eheered her as
the Queen of Cuba The husband had
been gone but short time when a troop
OF Spaniards under General Carnellos took
possession OF the town. One of the lieu
| tenants rode his horse into the Hernandez
| parlor and subjected the wife of the rebel
| TO threats and grossest insults. That night,
accompanied by one trusty servant. she set
! out on muleback to join her husband. After
| riding weary miles through the pathlesJ
| hills and jungles. in constant danger OF
/ banditti and Spanish guerrillas. she finally
found him. Two days later her baby was
/ born in camp Ithe little mother was only
seventeenl. and being a boy, was chris
| tened Guerra the Spanish word for war.
! | am happy to tell you that no further
harm befell the brave lady, though, OF
course many hardships had TO be endured.
| The family are again at home in San Girls
| tobal. and Guerra Jose Marie Hernandez.
| the war baby, Is now iusty youngster
| three years old.
! great many women went to the field
with their husbands and fathers for the
! sake of protection, fearing nothing so much
as the innumerabe crimes committed upon
| their sex a; home, and hundreds of babies
were born in camp and on battlefelds.
! While misrule prevailed throughout the
| island soldiers and high 1aymen infesting
all the country Lads. looting plantations
and perpetrating all manner of atrocities
upon the defenceless. no woman was safe,
whatever her dignity and social standing.
Trnnsfurncd Into Furies.
/ There were some terrible cases Of deli
cate, high bred ladies transformed by their
wrongs into ayenging furies, who after
ward fought shoulder to shoulder with
the men, led daring raids, and applied the
torch in a thousand places. Many of them
row sleep in unmarked graves on desolate
skirmish fields, and others died far sadder
deaths. of Imprisonment. disease. or star
vation. The memory Of one of these poor
creatures will haunt me forever | saw
her in Los Fossos. HaVana's reconcentrado
pen OF nameless horrors. She was young,
probably about twenty, and must have been
exceedingly beautiful a short time before
but her emaciated face already wore the
strange majesty Of death and only slight
| futtering OF the Breast showed that life
yet fingered Lying all around were what
looked like heaps of rags-hundreds of
them-each human being. young old
| living or dead. Such a sight! All were
victims of starvation. Bones appeared to
be pricking through the skin: deep sores
covered them; feet and limbs were swollen
out of all semblance of human members
puffed like bags and cracked in places with
water ooZing out-scurvy and dropsy from
long continued hunger the blood having
actually turned TO water. Amid such sur
roundings lay this girl, who had manifest
ly been delicately bred, having been picked
up unconscious in the street the
day before and carried to Los
Fossos by the Spanish police
| While | stood beside her, wondering
where We're her friends, where the loving
hands that once caressed that wealth Of
shining hair, the breast ceased to move
| and kindly death released the suffering
soul. Persistent enquiry revealed glimpse
of her history. She was the daughter OF
well-to-do planter in the adjoining pro-
vince, betrothed to a captain in the insur
gent army. When father. brother. and
| lover were away in the field a troop of
Spanish soldiers arrived one day, burned
| the house, murdered the mother and
younger children, and kept this girl pris-
oner at their mercy. In the night she
| strangled the brutal lieutenant who had
her in his tent, managed to elude the guard
by creeping on her hands and knees
through the underbrush. and thus escaped.
Hiding by day and wandering by night,
hopeless hungry. and half crazed by grief
and fear, she finally reached Havana and
the merciful end Of a grave in the recon
centrado corner of the great cemetery
where cur Maine boys lie. and the grew