Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1918-09-27
CHAPTER xlli--continued.

ii
II inferred as much from what Lo-
pez told me-" The general nodded his
white head. swell, you'll make a good
soldier, and we shall be glad TO have
you" He extended his hand. and
OReilly took it gratefully.
= .
The city of Matanzas was ''pacified."
So ran the boastful bando of the cap
tain general. And this was no exag-
geration, as anyone could see from
the number of beggars there. OF all
his military operations, this ''paeifica-
ton" of the western towns and prov
inces was the most conspicuously sue
ceSsful and the one which gave Valeri-
ano Weyler the keenest satisfaction;
for nowhere did the rebellion lift its
head-except, perhaps, among the
ranks of those disaffected men who hid
IN the hills, with nothing above them
but the open sky. AS for the popula-
zion at large, it was cured or treasonl
1t no longer resisted, even weakly, the
law Of Spain. The reason was that it lay
dying. Weylers cure was simple. eff
Cacious-it consisted of determination,
swift and pitiIess.
Poverty had been common in Matan-
Gas, even before the war. but now
there were so many beggarS in the
city that nobody undertook to count
them. When the refugees began to
pour in by the thousands, and when
it became apparent that the govern
ment intended to let them starve, the
better citizens undertook an effort at
relief; but times were hard. food was
scarce, and prices high. Moreover, it
soon TRANSFERRED that the military
frowned upon everything like organ
lied charity, and il consequence the
newcomers were, p1rforce, abandoned
To their own devices. These country
people were dumb and terrified at the
mlsfortunes which had overtaken
them; they wandered the streets in
aimless bewilderment. fearful of what
blow might next befall. They were
not used to begging. and therefore
they did not often implore aims; but
all day long they asked for work, for
bread, that their little ones might live.
Work, however, was even scarcer than
food, and the time soon came when
they crouched upon curbs and door
steps, hopeless. beaten, silently re-
prOachful Of those more fortunate
man they. Their eyes grew big and
hollow; their outstretched hands grew
gaunt and skinny. The sound of weep
ing women and fretting babies be-
came common thing to hear
Dogs and cats became choice articles
OF diet, until they disappeared. The
government did supply one quality of
1000, however; at intervals, it distrib-
hted yucca roots. But these were
starchy and almost indigestible. From
eating them the children grew pinehed
10 iimb and face. while their abdomens
Ooated hugely. Matanzas became
psopled with race Of grotesquely
mlsShapen little folks, gnomes with
young bodies, but with faces old and
alex.
VI course msease became epidemic,
'or in the leaky novels, dirt-foored
aod destitute of any convenience, there
sou'd be no effort at sanitation. Con-
aluons became unspeakable The chill
s,en died first, then the agea aid in
"u Deaths in the street we're not
W Iu'OiaInon; nearly every morning bod
q. We're found beneath the portales.
Starving creatures crept to the mar
- 81 IN the hope Of begging stray bit
y 1000, and some Of them died there
tween tween the empty stalls. The death
wagons, heavy with their daily freight,
s s-ioled eeaselessly through the
,5te's' adding to the giant piles of
,Du'led corpses outside the city.
~IyFAoid, smallpox, yellow fever
,esed unchecked. The hospitals were
s~o"ded, and even in them the com
-. 49, Necessities were lacking. 1t Is
- 'eved that men have returned from
~ grave, but no one. either spaniard
C12an, had ever been known 10
al 4 rom one Of these pesthousss
n consequences, taosa who EsrS