The Savannah morning news., 1902-10-07
HORRORS OF HAYTI.
SACRIFICE OF CHILDREN IN THE
BLACK REPUBLIC.

"
what an English Correspondent
Saw md Heard There-FiIth of
the Towns, the FnrcicaI Attempts
at Government and the Military
Force.
From the New York Mail and Express.
Hayti is a country to which Ameri-
cans have given little attention. Until
the Spanish-American war sent every
American to his geography few could
give off-hand the location of the ISL
and where firing was heard in the
distance" There was general knowl-
edge that it was somewhere in the
West Indies, but relatively few could
describe it. American Intervention in
Cuba and American ownership Of Por-
to Rico have added interest to the fer
tile island lying between sixty and sew
enty miles distant from each, but 40
American writer has given detailed
description of Hayti, on the west, where
the present revolution exists. Two
English writer's have recently publish
ed sketches somewhat in detail. Sir
British consul to Hayti, and afterward
accredited to Mexico, a diplomat of
considerable reputation, in 1887 pub
lished his recollections of twenty years
in Hayti. His conclusions were very
pessimistic and he predicted absolute
decay in fifty years from the date of
his publication. In 1900 Hesketh Brich-
ard one of the able writers on the
London Daily Express, made tour of
Vt hfc nhGaryn ~ rms confirm
the statements of his predecessor in
this field. In view of the fact that
revolution now exists there, within a
few miles of American territory, and
the further fact that there are at times
rumors of American Intervention, ex-
tracts from his letters to the Express
cannot fail to be interesting, says the
Washington Star. Much that he has
written is in the nature of personal
experience, showing the condition of
the country.
White Man without Rights.
"Jacmel," he writes. though the
principal port in Southern Hayti, does
not boast either hotel or rest house,
where one can hope for a nights shell
ter. The British consular agent was
most kind and offered to put me up
for the night.
Here lin the city, the white man,
as opposed to the black, has no rights
worthy of the name. Moreover, the
town is under martial law. After y
you are challenged in the streets, and
at no time of the day or night are you
out of the sight of soldier. At in
tervals of fifty to one hundred yards
YOU find a post of soldiers. They live
in ramshackle guard rooms made OF
wood turned rust-colored from lack of
care and the corrosion of torrential
rains. a longish howell with the newt
able piazza raised some two feet above
the street Below flows an open drain.
The heavy faces of the men are blotch-
ed with sleep. A collection of guns
lean against the trees at various an
giles. The whole is more like mid
forest bivouac of a few ragged blacks
than the scene in the main thorough
fare of a capital. Even in the Place,
which contains the consulates and the
chief shops, there is a heap of filth
five or six feet high and more than
proportionately long. And this IS the
cIeanest street in Port-au-Prince.
have seen more than one OF these I'M
healthy spots to which is attached the
sobriniIet of white mans grave but
none of them has the invitation to dis
ease written so plainly across their
faces as this city of Port-au-Prince.
IT is about the filthiest place in the
world. Shut in by mountains from the
cool north winds, it stews on from
wear to year in stagnant heat. No
smallest effort is made at sanitation.
The street drains, with all their con-
Examinations, flow down and help to I'LL
up the harbor.
The Military Force.
'I occupied myself for some time in
looking up the numerical force of mill
tary Hayti. / could find no exact sta
tistics of later date than 1867. when
there were $500 generals Of division,
Z 900 regimental officers and $500 pri-
Yates At this computation the troops
by each general of division
consisted of one private and one regl-
mental officer and one-sixteenth of a
regimental officer. An urban general
is in most cases but a NAME whereas
his congener of the country is usually
a living power. Under his fierce rule
the commune bows to the rigor of the
law, the peasantry cannot be said to
prosper, but at least they are inoffen-