The times., 1899-09-10
IN MISERY'S BAILIWICK
Everyday Scenes in the Interior
of Cuba.
The Wretched MuIti-CoIOred and
Energy-Lacking Population of
Snnta CIara-DescriptioDo of Visit
TO the "HospitaI de San Lazaro."
No Negro Problem In the Island.


TO the "HospitnI de San Lazaro."
No Negro Problem In the Island.
SANTA CLARA DE CUBA, Aug. o.
Looking at the black faces which crowd
the streets of Santa Clara and remember
ing their preponderance in the lately dis
banded Cuban army, one finds it easy to
believe the at first discredited statement
that more than half the population OF Cuba
is "e0lored." A great number OF negroes
drifted into this interior town during the
war, from estates in the outlying provinces.
and yet lack energy, or motive, for going
away. This is the heart of the best sugar
producing section of the island, and each
of the larger estates used to employ from
5000 to 5000 negroes. All these suddenly
found themselves adrift, without homes or
occupation. While the able bodied males,
to man, Joined the patriot army, the old
and feeble, with the women and
children, crowded into. the already
knows how. through those months of de-
spair. BY the grisly route of starvation.
three-fourths of them passed that bourne
whence, happily, there is no returning;
and it is small wonder that the diseased
and enfeebled remnant have not yet devel-
oped much ambition to labor.
Weyler's edict of RECOMMENDATION fell
even more heavily in the interior than
upon the sea-coast towns, because there
was no possible chance for outside help.
Within an area of five miles surrounding
Santa Clara, called the "Zona de cultiyo,
twhy so named none can say, since nothing
was euitiyated), upwards of $4,000 utterly
destitute reconeentrados were corrailed
white, black, and parti-colored huddled to-
gether-more hopelessly mixed" than ever
were again turned loose upon an unwel-
coming world. Fortunately, perhaps, the
place for their detention was comparative
ly high ground, and though the death rate
was appalling it was smaller than in Ma
tanZas and Havana.
The former plantation laborers are. as
might be expected, an uneducated and bru-
tai lot entirely untitled for self-govern-
ment, and much less for holding govern
mental positions; but many of them are
now growing ominously because some SUI
gar -plums along the fruits of reeonstruc-
ton are not dropping into their eager
truth-"we did the fighting and are enti-
tied to our share of the rewards The
Cubans laugh at the idea of negro prob
lem in the island and refuse to consider
race question in any light. They be-
lieve that the blacks will go back to their
canefields, soon as the planters are ready
for them, and that they will always re-
main as their fathers did, patient and un-
considered beasts of burden, targets for
rifles when there is war. and the bone and
sinew'' in times of peace. To disinterested
outsiders this is by no means certain, re-
membering history, in Santo Domingo,
Haiti. and other nearby islands. There is
a note of warning in the air. that may
portend a mighty storm when American
protection is withdrawn.
Spaniards own the Soil.
Anther political complication, by no
means confined to Santa Clara, but parfie-
that nearly all the largest property owners
are Spaniards. Into their hands, during
recent years, the finest Cuban estates have
fallen, through confiscation, or the power
erty OF their original owners, brought on
by Spanish persecution. The mere sug-
gestion that Cubans may soon govern Gu
ba, fills them with well-grounded appre-
tensions of a reckoning day. Scores of
them are today in Santa Clara. striving to
drum up petitions to the United States for
annexation, and they are more than willing
to ally themselves with the negroes, or with
any other disaffected class or faction which
promises to keep them out of the yenge-
full hands of the Cubans. Meanwhile the
merchants and substantial citizens gener-
ally, long stunned by sesir sorrows and
losses, are slowly awakening, trying TO
grasp the present situation with mental
fingers that are all thumbs, and to adjust
themselves to changed conditions.
In company with Miss Barton, under the
ciceronage of United States Surgeon Jen-
nings and Quartermaster Bean, with the
inevitable army ambulance. l recently
spent a day among the jetsam OF war
the pitiful derelicts of humanity aban-
doned, through no fault OF their own, 10
the uncertain charity of the world. First
to San Clara's Beneficial" within whose
musty walls $50 small reconcentrado or
phans are now congregated. The old
building, whose interior looks as if it had
been the victim of some rural fire COM
pany's success in saving Ii from the flames
was fitted up many years ago, for an
Old WoMan's Home; and then its capacity
was supposed to be limited to forty-nine
During the war, when needs became SO
desperate IL received also old men and
their families. affording sleeping room on
the floors and the stones of the patios to
as many as could get inside the walls.
Shelter only was provided, and incidentally
a place to die in, for food must be found
outside. or dispensed with altogether: and
during the blockade il was general y the
latter alternative. Some of the poor crea-
lures could find occasional odd jobs to do
such as washing, cooking, sewing, making
trousers at 40 cents the dozen for a 10 al
firm-untn everybody got too poor to pay
for help; and meanwhile the price of fool
mounted skyward-and so. let US hope
did the souls of the starved wretches
And then the Spanish army in Santa Clara
found themselves in need of another hos
pital so they seized upon this and bun
died the rest OF the poor old folk into the
beggar-infested streets, where they speed
ily died, along with the sixty thousand
other unfortunates who perished of star
walton in the streets OF Santa Clara within
SIX awful months.
RehnbiIifated by Charity.
Y A few months ago the charitable people
of the town rehabilitated the old building
for an orphanage and gathered therein
some of the remnants of recommendation
to the number of $50 children, under tel
| years of age. More than half of them wer,
already on the verge of death, with skele.
ton frames and swollen feet-blood turned
to water from long lack of nutrition-ant
| in spite of the food that came too late. soor
| slipped into the eternal silence. The plac,
is in charge of a woman and her two young
daughters, who are cooks, seamstresses
! teachers, laundresses, in short the Who'll,