The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-09-11
IN CENTRAL PART OF CUBA
EVERYDAY SCENES IN An INTERI-
OR CITY.
Multi-CoIOred Population - The
Lepers or San LaZero-''Thc Poor Yo
Have Always"

top6Cldl IGspulluellCe Ol lllG JOulLd
and Courier.
Santa Clara de Cuba, Aug. 5.-Look-
ing at the black faces which crowd the
streets of Santa Clara and remember
ing their preponderance in the lately
disbanded Cuban army, one finds it
easy to believe the at first discredited
statement that more than half the pop
ulation of Cuba is "colored." A great
number Of negroes drifted into this in
terror 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
ploy from three to five thousand ne
groes All these suddenly found them
selves adrift, without homes or occupa-
ton. While the able-bodied males, to a
man, Joined the patriot army, the old
and feeble, with the women and chill
dren, crowded into the already over
crowded city and subsisted, Heaven
knows how, through those months of
despair. BY the grlsly route of starva-
ton three-fourths of them passed that
bourne whence, happily, there Is no re-
turning; and 1t is small wonder that
the diseased and enfeebled remnant
have not yet developed much ambition
to labor Weyler's edict of reconstruc-
ton fell even more heavily in the inte-
rion than upon the sea -coast towns, be-
cause here was no possible chance for
outside help. Within an area of five
miles surrounding Santa Clara, called
the 'zona de cultivo," (why so named
none can say, since nothing was cult
vated), upwards of fifty thousand ut
terly destitute reconcentrados We're cor
relied, white, black and patri-colored
huddled together,-more hopelessly
mixed than ever when again turned
loose upon an unwelcomlng world For
tunately, perhaps, the place Of their de-
tention was comparatively high
ground, and though the death-rate was
it was smaller than in Ma
tanzas and Havana.
The explanation laborers are, as
might be expected, an uneducated and
brutal lot entirely untitled for selfgov-
eminent and much less for holding gov
ernmental POSITIONS but many of them
are now growing ominously because
some sugar-pums among the fruits of
reconstruction are not dropping into
their eager mouths. They say-with
some show of truth-'we did the fight
ing and are entitled to our share of the
rewards The Cubans laugh at the
idea of negro problem in the is-
land and refuse to consider a race
question in any light. They believe
that the blacks win go back to their
cane fields soon as the planters are
ready for them, and that they will al
ways remain, as their fathers did pa
tent and unconsidered beasts of bur
den, targets for rifles when there is
war and the bone and sinew" in times
If peace. To disinterested outsiders
This is by no means certain. remember
ng history in Santo Domingo, Hayti
and other nearby islands. There Is a
1ote of warning in the air that may
oortend a mighty storm when Ameri-
AN protection is withdrawn.
Another political complication, by no
means confined to Santa Clara, but
noticeable here, arises from
he fact that nearly all the largest prop
,rty owners are Spaniards. Into their
lands, during recent years. the finest
Cuban estates have fallen through con-
iscatlon, or the poverty of their origi-
lal owners brought on by Spanish per-
'ecution. The mere suggestion that
Iubans may soon govern Cuba fills
hem with well-grounded apprehension
# reckoning day. Scores of them are
o-day in Santa Clara, striving to drum
~ petitions to the United States for
nnexa ton, and they are more than
Wiling to ally themselves with the ne
'roes or with any other disaffected |
lass or faction which promises to |
,eep out of the vengeful hands of the |
'ubans, Meanwhile the merchants and |
ubstantial citizens generally, long
TUNED by their sorrows and losses, are |
lowly awakening, trying to grasp the |
resent situation with mental fingers !
hat are all thumbs, and to adjust |
themselves to changed conditions
In company with Miss Barton, under
he ciceranage of United States Sur
con Jennings and Quartermaster Bean,
nth the inevitable army ambulance, I
spent day among the jetsam
WaT-tne pltllul ueIeucIS OIL nuHldH-
" abandoned, through no fault of |
heir own, to the uncertain charity of
he world. First to Santa Clara's
within whose musty I
'als one hundred and fifty small re-
orphans are now congrega-
I'd. The old building, whose interior
'oks as If it had been the victim of
)me rural re-company's success in
lving it from the flames-was fitted up
lany years ago for an Old Women's
.ome; and then its capacity was sup
osed to be limited to forty nine. Dur
g the war, when needs became so des-
crate, it received also old men and
leir families, affording sleeping room
4 the floors and the stones Of the pa
os to as many as could get inside the
alls. Shelter only was provided, and
cidentally a place to die in, for food
ust be found outside, or dispensed
it'll altogether; and during the block
lie it was generally the latter alter
alive. Some of the poor creatures
uld find occasional odd jobs to do,
ch as washing, cooking, sewing,
aking trousers at forty cents the
ven for a local firm-until everybody |
1t too poor to pay for help; and
eanwhle the price of food mounted I
yward-and so, let us hope, did the
uls of the starved wretches. And !
en- the Spanish army in Santa Clara !