Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1899-08-12

Prisoners Walk Where General Lee Con
ferred With Competitor Prisoners The
Famous "Fosse d. Los Laureics" Where
Executions Took Piace--Faced Wall With
BACKS TO Firing squad.
The Moro and the Cabanas. as they
rear their drear walls above the harhor
and city Of Havana. frowning down NJ
the hundreds of American and CUBAN
flags. seem TO east still lingering
shadow over the dawn of Cuban indie
pendence. Although the red ana
yellow of CASTLE no longer floats over
those battlements. the grim fortresses
still represent the shackled menace or
Spain's vanished power. Within those
walls, deep down IN the rocks recess
SEES. many budding aspiration ana
thought of liberty has been fouily
crushed out.
The story of Moro and Cabanas
prisons can never be adequately told.
1t contains such depth of human mis-
cry, such refinement of mental torture,
such barbarity of physical suffering en-
forced by inhuman jailers, that the
full truth must ever hide its head
from the scrutiny of civilization.
The entrance to the Cabanas IL
reached by a narrow passageway,
winding round the face of the cliff
from the rickety wharf at the waters
edge. Zine covered and paved, this
road has been Il way OF sorrow for
many prisoner who has YEARLY
tramped up the steep incline. Few have
returned along that path. The major
ity have faced fate more or less BRAY
ely, with their backs to the firing
squad and cry of Cuba librev
Forty feet from the summit OF the
cliff sUall grass covered plot Is
reached In front are two gnarled and
rugged laurel trees, their roots stretch
ing down the slope and showing
through the scanty soil like the bones
of some partly exhumed mammoth.
To this spot such of SPANS prisoners
who had been allowed the privilege of
communicating with their friends were
led. shackelled and guarded, four sold
iers to each man, and for n brief mo-
ment permitted to breathe the clear air
and enjoy the bright sunshine. For
thirty precious minutes they had a
glimpse of the world outside. before
being thrust back into their dungeons
in the inner walls of the Cabanas. 1t
was here that General Lee conferred
with the Competitor prisoners, and
here where Julio Sanguilly, after many
months confinement, proposed to break
loose from his guards and escape down
the cliff. Preferr'ng the risk of immedi-
ate death by a Mauser bullet to con-
tinue longer subject to the insufferable
horrors or his prison.
Crossing this grass plot, narrow
gateway to the left gives admittance to
the outer works Of the fort TO the
right, the Landslide towers a huge wall
cut out of the solid rock. forming a
posse, or ditch between the land APP
proaches and the outer works. From
the top of this massive outer defence
the ground slopes inland the only APP
proach to the castle being a smooth,
slopng sward, raked at all points by
guns mounted on the walls. This ditch
extends round the castle until it ends
in the sea. On the MORO side ii is
crossed by wooden drawbridge of
ancient construction. and raised and
lowered by an elaborate system of
weights and pulleys.
The southern portion of this moat Is
the famous Fosse de los Laurele, mar
tyr ground Of Cubas liberty A long
gloomy walk, gravelled on one side, on
the other the long rank grass. Right
and left are the frOwning walls of the