Judsonia weekly advance., 1918-08-14
CHAPTER xIII-continued.


 H.
 'I inferred as much from what Lo- peg told me-" The general nodded his white head. "Well, you'll make good soldier. and we shall be glad to have you." He extended his hand, and O'Reilly took 1t 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 "pacifica- 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- ton at large, 1t was cured of treason It no longer resisted, even weakly, the law of Spain. The reason was that it lay dying. Weyler's cure was simple. eff cacious-it consisted of extermination, swift and pitiless.
 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. 1t soon transpired that the military drowned upon everything like organ ized charity, and in consequence the newcomers were, perforce, abandoned to their own devices. These country people were dumb and terrified at the -misfortunes 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 than 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 food, however; at intervals, 1t distrib- uted yucca roots. But these were starchy and almost indigestible. From eating them the children grew pinched in limb and face, while their abdomens bloated hugely. Matanzas became misshapen little folks, gnomes with young bodies, but with faces old and sick.
 Of course disease became epidemic, for in the leaky novels, dirt-foored and destitute of any convenience, there could be no effort at sanitation. Con ditions became unspeakable. The chill dren died first, then the aged and in firm. Deaths in the street were not uncommon; nearly every morning bod les were found beneath the portales. Starving creatures crept to the mar ket in the hope of begging stray bit of food, and some of them died there, between the empty stalls. The death wagons heavy with their daily freight rumbled ceaselessly through the streets, adding to the giant piles of ,unburied corpses outside the city.
 Typhoid, smallpox, yellow fever, ragged unchecked. The hospitals were crowded, and even in them the com honest necessities were lacking. It is believed that men have returned from the grave, but no one, either Spaniard or Cuban, had ever been known to return from one of these pesthouses, and, in consequence, those who were stricken preferred to remain and to die among their dear ones.
 Yes, Matanzas was pacified. Wey. ler's boast was true. Nowhere in the entire province was field in culti- vation; nowhere, outside the garri- eoned towns, was house left stand ing. Nor was the city of Matanzas the only concentration camp; there were others dotted through Santa Clara, Habana and Pinar del Rio. In them half a million people cried for food. Truly no rebellious land was ever more comnletply pacified than this no peoples spirits ever more completely crushed.
 Into Matanzas. city of beggary and