The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1900-03-24

:" 70 and Cabanas-Here Unnumbe r.
cd Thousands of Helpless People
Died Victims to the Unspeakable
Cruelty of the Spaniards-Numer-
r. Gus Cubans5 Suspected of Sym
pathy with Cuba Lfbre Taken to
Cabanas and Never Heard Of
Again.
+, Tulipan Havana, April 3O.-Until a few
weeks ago one might reasonably have
aspired to make a walking tour of the
Internal regions as to visit with note
book and camera the interior of Moro
and Caibanas. Even under the new Ameri-
can regime it was equally IMPOSSIBLE in
war time, and now nobody is admitted
without a special pass, countersgned by
some commanding officer.
First comes the long car ride, forty min
utes to the other side of the city, past
General Ludlow's headquarters and
Blanco's late "Palacio,'' and the new
American postoffice, swarming with eager
Americans; past the columbus cathe-
dral,' where the great admiral no longer
sleeps. from which waves of melody were
polling like billows upon a shore; past
thousands of good Catholics, mostly wo-
men, strolling leisurely to mathis; 1nend1-
Giants making stock in trade of their sores
| and infirnaities, and stalwart Yankee sem
| tinels patrolling the same beats where
Spains Ml-fed boy soldiers used YEARLY
ITO march to and fro; past long lines Of
| gayly caparisoned donkeys, tied head to
| tail, with red, blue and yellow tassels at
theirs ears and harness glittering with
! brass; trains Of heavily laden bullock
| carts, each poor patient beast with a
Chain passed through his nose and head
| Bowed to the dust by a weight of wood
upon his horns; past men and women
strunning upon guitars in squalid homes
lOr sitting idly in open doors, apparently
without a care in the world while dirty
children played around them naked as the
minute they were born; past all the quaint
and varied street life of this old town,
which to American eyes is yet as oddly
foreign as the renlotest corner of Eu-]
rope. Thus reads a Tulipan (iavana) let
ter to the New York Press. Speaking Of
unclothed children reminds me of an or
der. promulgated not long ago by thei
government, regulating nakedress in Ha-
vana's horse cars and Omnibusses.I
Though both vehicles charge the sa1ne|
fare, the bug-infested buses have come
/ to be considered .tsecond-class,' because
+ generally patroniZed by the poorest, who
can afford to ride; while those somewhat
higher in the social scale confine Them
selves to the cars. The order drew the(
lines of castle still nore closely by for1
bidding naked children and men without
shirts to enter the cars, but not debarTing
them from the ibusses. Therefore, it is,
tn ola II, in ut on
trousers, hat and shoes, or a child airily
attired In necklace perched aloft in,
the swaying coach, which holds twelve
by close crOwding. Everywhere in Cuba
one sees children up to five and six years
of age, stark naked in the streets, often
led by their parents for promenade, and
in the rural districts they perambulute in
state of nature to a considerably later
age. 1t is noticeable that the children of
wen-to-do families sometimes wear socks
and shoes, but nothing else. American
teachers under the new school system find
no end of trouble with this question Of
clothes. sending home all whose "human
form divine" is not covered, at least
partially. to the surprise and Indignation
of their parents. Remembering how poor
children in the North go barefooted in
the summer time, even to school, the
teachers have suggested gently to the
mothers that the money spent for shoes
might better be put into shirts and
trousers, but so far without avail, the
shoes being considered necessary, the
shirts superfuous.
Arrived at the waters edge. quarter
of a mile from the cathedral door, and
within a stones toss of the new post
Office, we secured one of the chicken-coop
boats that constantly ply the bay All
are of the same antique pattern. brought
from southern Spain In some previoxs
century; and for dos reales cada uno
(tWenty cents each person) the scarlet
capped Catalan Fboatman agreed to row
US across the intervening stretch of water
to the fortress nearest the city. Moro
castle, for defense, while the larger and
nearer CaIbanas served also as a prison
for political offenders. The former ante
dates the latter by more than half a
century, but looks much newer, because
Its walls of pale gray coquina-the coral
rock that underlies the Islands to-day
as fresh as ever; and the American au-
thorttfes have just completed its renova-
ton, outside and in, with lavish USE Of
lime and whitewash. Cabanas-its paint
ed walls now Streaked and rnottNed with
mold and weather stains-is yet COM
paratively untouched, and happily for
curiosity hunters, If not for health all its
older horrors remain about as the Spani-
ards left them. It's massive battlements,
with their faded pinks and yel1ows. tower
straight UP from deep, dry moat, UNI
scalajble by man or beast and inclosing
space enough for a good-sized town. Hav-
ing exhibited our permit to the sentry,
we crossed the creaking draw bridge and
walked UP sharply slopislg, winding
road, paved with small sharp stones that
bruised tho feet Hike peas in the shoes
of the penitent. Up and UP we toiled,
under the broiling sun, always within
range Of PORTFOLIOS and sentry-boxes,
whose protrudtng guns might easily rake
the path of intruders; and f.'-cy conjured
up myriad of unhappy gt that have
passed this canine doloroso. ..omesick boy
conscripts from Spain fighting an unwel-
come cause, and heavy hearted prisoners
who never returned .... & =
The view from the summit repays the
to1lsome cfimb-narrOw, closely built city
streets, criss-crossed like a gigantic check
erboard, with church towers and palm
trees and the white camps of American
troops Tor pafwIs; RegIa,t Guanabacoa,
Vidado, Marianoa; Jesus def Monte, and
other handsome suburbs; the historic bay,
crowded with shipping, in which nearly
every flag in the world is seen but that
of Spain; and, outlining all, the ocean.
Here we were halted by other seGtineds
and requested to stay while our passes
were sent forward to be approved by the
officer of the day. While waiting we
turned into wide, canyon-like passage,
formed by walls thirty feet high, Of pink
ish plaster, a double row Of etunted oaks
growing along the middle.
Tread softly, for this Is hallowed
ground At a glance none cam fall to re-
cognize the grewsonIe place. Breast high,
on both sides, the walls are peppered with
small, circular indentatiOns, and the grass
beneath is startfngly rank and green
watered by the blood OF martyrs Here
thousands upon thousands Of men, whose
crime was love OF liberty, have met death
their faces to the walls, tins firing squad