The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-05-04

| AT glance none can fail to recognize
| the gruesome place. Breast-high, on
both sides, the walls are peppered with
| small, circular indentatlons, and the
grass beneath is startlingly rank and
green-watered by the blood of mar
tyrs. Here thousands upon thousands
of men, whose crime was love of liberty
have met death--their faces to the walls,
the firing-squad with their backs
| against the trees. THE dead-line' as
the tell-tale row of bullet-marks is
called, is unmistakab BILE, not only on both
sides Of this long passage, but in others
that diverge from il, and particularly in
a small square known as Eel Patio de
los Muertas"--the Court of the Dead.
They must have been excellent marks
men, those Spanish soldiers! The line of
bullet-holes Is almost exactly a foot
wide, with hardly a struggling mark.
AT any rate, none brought to execution
| lived to tell the manner Of 1t. Tradition
says that when the first volley failed to
kill, the ever ready machete, or bayonet,
made shambles of the place.
Presently permission to proceed came
from the commander, together with a
young soldier, who had been detailed as
| guar" not of ourselves, where no
danger threatened, but to check any Gu
rio-acquiring propensities we might be
prone to indulge. During the next two
| hours that youthful defender of Uncle
| Samuel kept us on the "double-quick. ;"
| Preferrng the pleasures of cantina off
duty, he trotted us llither and yon,
above and below, through darksome
| dungeons and among ancient guns, with
speed that made US dizzy, returning an
| infleXible Don know, ma am to every
query. Therefore the intricacies of the
great prison, viewed on the run, recur to
mind as an endless labyrinth of cells and
corridors, tunnels and dungeons, in
which one might easily lose himself to
be found no more till the resurrection
morning. There are enormous vaulted
chambers cut into the solid rock some
In total darkness, others pierced by zee
BILE rays of light from small holes near
the top; cells without cells, far under
ground, and subterranean passages,
leading-God knows where. All The
large prlson-rooms have rows OF iron
rings driven into the walls, all around
at regular intervals, and double rows of
gibbet-like framework extending down
the middle-the latter forming two long
benches of solid wood. with beams five
feet above them; and from rings and
beams heavy iron chains are suspended.
Here, we are told prisoners yet uncon-
demned were contined---those who were
merely suspected of hostility to Spain
and held for amination-alternate ly
chained to the benches by day and to
the walls at night-let us hope with suf-
fcient length of chain to permit the vic
tins to lie on the stone floor. Some Of
the inner cells, dark as Erebus, are
hardly wide as a grave; and in each
single short chain, riveted in the clam
my stone, tells it's own sad story.
Uppermost in the minds of the be-
holder is the thought, Had these old walls
a tongue! Over the portals of this awful
prison might well have been inscribed,
"All hope abandon, we who enter here"
1t is a matter of history that thousands
of Cuban citizens met mysterious deaths
within the walls of Cabanas Suspect 4
ed of sympathy with Cuba libre, they
were arrested on the most trivial
charges, often on no doubt that besides
the open executions, secret, but au-
thorized murders were of frequent &C.
currence. The few prisoners who re-
manned to be released by Americans
when the war was over, told blood-curd-
ling tales of horror and despair. They
said that every night each man was
chained to his place against the wall,
and often in the mornings some COM
rades were missing. Among themselves
holt hot fhn ot1 o,,tn
in the silent watches of the night
clapped his hand over the mouth of the /
doomed man, cut his throat or stabbed |
him to the heart and dragged him forth
i have talked with. one OF these lately |
liberated prisoners, who is now living in |
the hotel Roma-an educated man, I'M
der thirty, whose hair is white as snow.
He says that one evening neart1e Begin |
ming of the war he was arrested while |
sitting in in plaza, on what charge he |
never knew. For several weeks he was |
kept in one of the larger dungeons, al |
ternately chained to the wall and the |
bench, with fifty others, many of whom !
were his personal friends, all respecta
BILE citizens of Havana, and all, like
ignorant of the cause of arrest.
he hourly expected release.
But days dragged by. and months and
hope deferred died within
him. Finally having had neither trial
nor examination he was placed in the
third and farthermost of a nest" of |
cells-a narrow hollow In the rock, not
long enough to allow a man to stretch
out on the floor, and fastened to the
wall by chain too short to admit of
lying down. Fortunately the tomb had
no door, so at midday feeble glimmer
If light was visible from the aperture
near the top of the outer dungeon and
his voice reminded the careless guard to
bring him food, or otherwise he would
nave starved. Doubtless mis- people
made efforts in his behalf, but he had no
of 1t; and when he was re-
eased four years later, parents, broth
9r and sisters were all dead-every rela-
i've sacrificed in the long struggle.
In the course of our explorations we en-
cred subterranean passage-or rather,
l series of them, so low and narrow that
We could just squeeze through by stoop
ng, and so totally dark that it was i'm
possible to see an inch before the eyes.
Striking matches frequently, and hold
ng each others hands for fear of pit
alls. we penetrated the tunnel half a g..
nile or more. The path to unknown