The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1899-10-31

In telling the story of Cuba, / come
not, friends, to steal away your hearts.
1 am no orator as Burrows is; but as
you know me all, a plain, blunt man,
that love my friends; for / have neither
wit, nor words, nor worth, action nor
utterance, nor the power of speech, to
stir mems blood. l only speak right
on and tell you that which you, your
selves do know. Pardon me, ye tor
tured concentrates, that 1 am meek
and gentle with these butchers. Woe to
| the hands that shed this costly blood!
over your wounds now do l prophesy-
| which like dumb mouths do ope' their
| ruby lips to beg the voice and utter
ance of my tongue-a curse shall light
| upon the limbs of men; domestic fury
and fierce civil strife shall cumber all
Columbia's parts Blood and destruc-
| tion shall be so in use. and dreadful
objects so familiar grown, that mothers
| shall but smile when they behold their
| infants quartered by the hands of war,
| if all PHYS choked with custom of foul
deeds.
In May, '95 Spanish general with
large army had been defeated by
Maceo; on the 23 of December, 49,, the
| Spanish Captain General, the brave
Campos, with a still larger army, had
| been routed by Gomez and driven in
panic back to Havana.
Campos was recalled; he was toe
brave. A butcher, Weyler, who had
won that title by his bloody work in
rs, after the insurgents had sur
rendered was sent to employ cheaper
plan for ending the insurrection.
| 10 hn hn
| Cuba until he had subdued the in
| surrection, and If it was necessary to
accomplish his purpose, he would des-
troy with their homes all native
| Cubans, for he knew they were all at
| heart, insurgents, and were 'pacificos, y
now combatants, only because the in
| surgent government was too poor to
provide them arms and ammunition
This terrible work of destroying every
| thing that was genuinely Cuban was
deliberately begun-everything but the
soil-that was to be enriched by the
blood of the Cubans and the ashes OF
their homes. The plan adopted was in
deed the cheapest-to the Spaniards.
| The population of Cuba, at this time
was in round numbers sixteen hundred
thousand; little more than a mil
| llOil anu ~ ndlIi fourteen nunufeO
thousand natives, and two hundred
thousand Spaniards, without counting
| the Spanish soldiers.
About four months before Mckinley
Inauguration, Weyler issued the first
or series OF proclamations for whole
sale concentration, ordering all the
| inhabitants of farms, country dis
| tricts, villages and towns not under
Spanish garrisons, to abandon their
homes and concentrate in the nearest
fortified towns held by Spanish gar
| risons.
These poor people were to bring with
them their cattle, and such personal
property as they could carry. The cat
| tie thus brought in by later order
were sold at prices fixed by Weyler
The first order applied only to the
province at the west end of the island
Pinar'del Rio, but 1t was gradually ex.
tended to the other five provinces.
III within the eight days allowed, the
| people did not voluntarily comply with
this plan for their benevolent as
similation" to the soil, strong detach.
ments of Spanish troops were sent Out
into one region after another as II was
left unprotected by the insurgent army
and these poor pacificos, men, womer
and children, We're driven to be penne6
up with their cattle in the towns still
held by Spain while their homes ant
other property left behind We're burnad