The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-05-29

begun.
| The fifteen-mile railway ride from
| Catalina to Guines, made on a May at-
| ternoon, is pleasure enough in itself to
| pay for journey to Cuba, although the
| beautiful landscape has been sadly
marred by the relentless hand of wal
and every house along the line is in ru-
ms. Midway between the two towns is
a startling reminder of Spanish methods
From the car window you see little of it
| but black hole in the ground, but you
should take the trouble to visit the spot
from either village, as some of our par
ty did, and you would find that the mar
| row gorge slopes down into a deep, cave
| like raVine, whose recesseS are filled
with huan bones. People living in the
vicinity tell US that during the war Gu
ban men, women and children, some
| times whole families together, mysteri-
ously disappeared and no trace of them
could be found. Finally, guided by the
vultures, it was discovered that many
had been beguiled to this unfrequented
place, on one pretext or another, or
forced along the canine dolororo at the
point of the bayonet, to the edge of the
raVlne, where they were murdered and
tun1bled into the cave. Investigation
disclosed large number Of decayed bod
les, many identified as the missing ones;
and the position of some\ indicated that
life was not extinct when they We're
thrown in to die among the dead. l re-
call tale of horror, told in Havana a
month before the blockade, concerning
this very place The story ran that a
Sn9DjSh r1ta in ri of ha pf
his troop from Catalina, heard faint
means issuing from lavine by the
roadside. CHANGING over, he could see
only heap of slain in the darkness be-
low, from which arose sickening odor
and the horrible tearing round made by
vultures' beaks and claws. But again
the feeble wall was heard and the cap
tain sent down some of his men to in
vestigate. Among the putrefying bodies
they found three living wretches-a wo-
man who died While being carried out,
half-groWn boy breathed his last a few
minutes later, and beautiful girl-baby
with terrible machete cut across the
head. A company of Spanish cavalry
had passed that way a few days before,
burned and sacked farm house which
was suspected of harboring insurgents,
macheted its inmates and cast their bod
les into the ravine. The captain took
the unconscious child before him in the
saddle, half expected it to die before Ha-
vana was reached but promising himself
that if it lived he would adopt it as his
own. Arrived at the capital, he gave it
to the care of the good sisters of the
Beneficencia, where, strange to say, it
recovered and thrived apace. | went to
see it. and dmly remember little girl
with big black eyes, disfgured by ter
rible scar, my attention being absorbed
by yet more pitiful case. The latter
was that of slender girl Of fifteen, raw
ing crazy, alternately tearing her hair
and screaming in terror or gibbering
softly to the dead whom she believed to
be around her. She was the eldest
daughter of a rebel officer who was
killed near the beginning of the war. A
few weeks before she had seen her home
burned and mother, sisters and brother
murdered while she lay hidden in the
long grass; and afterwards the sight of
carron- birds drinking the eyes of the
loved ones and tearing their flesh |
though she fought them with all her fee
Even the hardest-hearted Spaniard has
a feeling of pity for the loco as an in
sane person is called and the next troop |
of soldiers that came along buried her
dead and brought the girl to the Benef-
cencia.
AS mentioned in the previous letter,
Guines is the largest town in the prov
ince of Havana next to the capital, and
until ruined by the war was very pros
porous. The plain in which it stands is
the very garden-spot of Cuba, having
'or many years had an excellent system
IF irrigating canals. Taken on an aver
age, plenty of rain falls in every part of
Cuba from season to season to supply
all the moisture that vegetation re-
luires A great deal too much of it,
however, descends between May and No
Jember, and not enough during the win
er months, which are the best crop sea-
son. Guines equalizes this uneven dis
of the blessings of providence
)y irrigation, and with most gratifying
'esultS. Before the war English and
American syndicates had their represen-
atives here, who We're deep in irrigat ting
among other money coming
schemes Their canals and bitches wereI
# course neglected during the long
struggle, but have never fallen into COM
,lete disuse, and when the universal dis
ress that yet prevails has passed away
he old irrigating system will doubtless
,e enlarged and improved. When that
ime comes no spot on tho face of the
arth will be more fertile. 1t is a COM
non saying now in Cuba that a handful
f the red soil Of Guines valley is as VAL
liable as a handful of gold dust. They
sed to say that a caballeria of the land
vas so valuable that nobody knew it's
nobody ever thought of
cling. A caballeria equals thirty
hree and third English aces. and even
4 these hard times none can be bought
ear Guines for less than five thousand
olars. In the days of the early Span
ards land was sold by the palm tree"
hat is, one did not pay by the acre, or
aballeria, but by the number of palms
n the tract selected-poco mas o menor,
more or less"-so much per tree, the
round in which they grew being con-
dered of little value in comparison.
lot only for its stately beauty is the
aim one of natures most glorious gifts
the primitive man. 1t furnishes his
ouse-walls, roof-thatch, fencing mate !.
al and boat timber. It's edible tops
lake delicious salad, it's nuts the sweet