Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-03-03
90 RAINBOW'S END

into the city. and once they hid them
selves while column Of mounted
troops went by.
day with a wrinkled cartman whose
detected oxen were resting.
Going into the city, are your the
fellow Inquired. Starved out. I sup
pose. Well. it's as pleasant to starve
in one place a. another"
Jacket helped himself to a stalk of
cane from the load and began to strip
it with his teeth.
"Will the soldiers allow us to enterT
of course. Why not?' The old man
laughed mirthlessly:; Then his voice
changed. Go back" he said, "go back
of rotting corpes. Go back where the
air is clean" He swung his long lash
over the oxen. they leaned against the
load. and the cart creaked dismally on
its way
1t is never difficult to enter trap.
and Matanzas was precisely that.
There were soldiers everywhere. but
beyond an Indifferent challenge at the
outer blockhouse. a perfunctory cues
ton or two. Narciso and Juan Villar
experienced no trouble whatever in
passing the lines. Discipline, never
strict at best, was extremely lax at the
brick fortinas along the roads. and.
since these two refugees were too poor
to warrant search. they were waved
onward by the sentries. They obeyed
silently. In. aimless bewilderment they
shuffled along toward the heart of the
city. Almost before they realized it
they had run the gauntlet and had
Joined that army of misery. $4,000
strong The hand of Spain had closed
over them.
ROSA.
Look" Jacket clutched at O'Reilly
and pointed a shaking finger. More
beggars! Cristo! And those little chill
dren" The boy tried to laugh, but his
voice cracked nervously. ::Are they chill
dren or gourds with legs under them?"
O'Reilly looked. then turned his eyes
away He and Jacket had reached the
heart of Matanzas and were facing the
public square. the. Plaza de la Libertad
it YVES called. OReilly knew the place
well; every building that f1anked it
was familiar to him, from the vast
rambling Governors Palace to the
ornate Casino Espanol and the Grand
Hotel. and time was when he had been
welcome visitor at all of them. But
things were different now. Gone were
the customary crowds of well dressed.
well fed citizens; gone the rows of
carriages which at this hour Of the day
were wont to circle the plaza laden
with the aristocracy of the city; gone
was that air of cheerfulneSs and sub
stance which had lent distinction to the
place. Matanzas appeared poor and
squalid, depressingly wretched: its
streets were foul and the Plaza de. la
Libertad-grim mockery of a name
was crowded with throng such as it
had never held in O'Reilly's time, a
throng of people who were, without ex-
ception. gaunt, listless, ragged. There
was no afternoon parade of finery, no
laughter, no noise: the benches were
full. but their occupants were silent.
too sick or too weak to move. Nor
were there any romping children There
were, to be sure, vast numbers of I'M
dersized figures in the square, but one
needed to look twice to realize that
they were not pygmies or wizened little
old folks. 1t was not strange that
with legs, for all were naked, and most
of them had bodies swollen into the
likeness of pods or calabashes. They
looked peculiarly grotesque with their
spidery legs and thin faces.
OReilly passed damp hand across
his eyes. "God!" he breathed. "She-
she's one of these!"
He had not penetrated even thus far
into the city without receiving a hint
Of what conditions must be. for in the
outlying streets he had seen sights and
smelled odors that had sickened him;
but now that he was face to face with
the WOTSt-HOW Inat ne Dreamed Ine
very breath of misery-he could scarcely
credit what he saw. A stencil. in
describably nauseating, assailed him
and Jacket as they mingled with the
crowd, for as yet their nostrils were
unused to poverty and filth. 1t was the
rancid odor that arises from unwashed.
unhealthy bodies, and it testified elo-
quently to the living conditions of the
prisoners. Hollow eyes and hopeless
faces followed the two newcomers as
nj n od hni W al " al
The reconcentrados overran Matanzas
in an unclean swarm: streets and
plazas were congested with them, for
no attempt was made to confine them
them streaming down from the subur-
ban slopes where they lived, evening
sent them winding back; their days
were spent in an aimless search for
food They snatched at crumbs and
comIed the cutters for crusts. How
they managed to exist, whence came
the food that kept life in their miser-
able bodies, was mystery, even to the
citizens of the city; no organized ef-
fort had been made to care for them
and there was insufficient surplus food
for half their number. Yet somehow
they lived and fingered on.
OF course the city was not entirely
peopled by the straving-as a matter
of fact they formed scarcely one-fifth
Of the normal civil population-and
the life of the city was going on a
good deal as usual Stores were open;
at least there was daily train from
Habana. and the barracks were full
of Spanish troops. 1t was from off
the wastage of this normal population
that these $4,000 prisoners were forced
to live. Even this wastage was woe
fully Inadequate. merely serving to
prolong suffering by making starva-
ton slower
At the time of O'Reilly's arrival the
sight presented by these innocent vic
Tins Of war was appalling; it reused
in him a dull red rage at the power
which had wrought this crime and at
the men who permitted it to continue.
Spain was a Christian nation, he re-
f1ected; she had set up more crosses
than any other. and yet beneath them
she had butchered more people than
ell the nations of the earth combined.
This monstrous, coldly calculating eff
fort to destroy the entire Cuban peo-
pie seemed to him the blacklist in
fanny of all, and he wondered il 1t
would be allowed to succeed.
Fortunately for the two friends,
Gen. Betancourt's generosity served to
relieve them from any immediate dan
ger of starvation. After making a
few purchases and eating with the
utmost frugality. they began their
search. Later they stretched them
selves out to sleep on the stones be-
meath the portals of the railroad sta
ton
They spent a horrd, narrowing
night, for now the general distress was
brought home to them more poignant
ly than AT dawn thew learn d