Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1919-11-11

kl1SlC NFlG 81 llNtAA Vfr%0Ac aAA N-AN
city that nobody undertook to count
them. When the refugees began to
pour in by the thousands. and when
IL became apparent that the govern
ment intended 10 let them starye, the
better citizens undertook sn-effort al
relief; but times were hard. food was
scarce. and prices high. Moreover, il
soon transpired that the military
frowned upon everything Ike organ
lied charity. and in consequence the
newcomers were, peTforce, 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 hewilderment fearful of what
blow might next befall. They were
not used TO begging, and therefore
they did not often 1mplore aims; but
MI 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, sileRtly re
IEQNNAlt WI VI Ai4ttNC tliRAN iva tNAttA~N
than they. Their eyes grew big and
hollow: their outsfretcned hands grew
caunt and skinny. The sound OF weep
ing women and fretting babies be
came q common thing to hear.
Dogs and cats became choice articles
Of diet. until they disappeared The
government did supply one quality Of
r or fr,fapx-afc HiCfFih-
uted yucca roots But these We're
starchy and almost indigestihle. From
eating them the children grew pinched
in limb and face, while their abdOmens
bloated hugely. Matanzas became
peoplcd with a race Of grotesquelN
misshapen little folks, gnoIaes with
young bodies, but with faces old and
sick.
OF course disease became epidemic,
for in the leaky novels. dirt-nOored
and destitute of any convenience, there
could he no effort at sanitation. Con-
litions 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 nope Of begging a stray bit
Of food and some Of them died there,
between the emptys 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
monest 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
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 a field in cult
walton; nowhere, outside the carri-
Soned 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 Plnar del Rio In them
half a million people cried for food.
Truly no rebelIious land was ever
more completely pacified than this, no
peoples spirits ever more completely
crushed.
Into Matanzas. city Of beggary and
death, came Rosa Varona and her two
negro companions, looking for relief.
They made the journey without mis-
hap, for they were too destitute to
warrant plundering. and ROsa's dis
guise concealed What charms remained
to her. But once they had entered the
city, what an awakening! What suf-
fering. what poverty, what rags they
sawl The three of them grew weak
with dismay At--the horror of it all
but there was TO retreat.
Asensio built makeshift shelter
close under La Cnmbre-from it the
ruins of the Quinta de Esteban were
gisible-and there they settled down
to live. They had hoped to lose them
selves among the other prisoners, and
in this they were successful, for none
OF their miserable neighbors were In
any condition to notice them, and
there was nothing sufficiently con-
spicuous about two tattered blacks
and their hunchbacked daughter to
draw attention from the soldiers.
Asensio foraged zealonsly, and at
first he managed somehow to secure
enough food for his little family. One
day the soldiers seized him and pat
him to work on the Notifications along
with a gang Of other men who up
peared strong, enough to stand hard
labor. Asensio was not paid for this,
but he was allowed one meal day,
and he succeeded in bringing home
each night share Of his allotment.
+. 1t is surprising how, little nourish-
ment will sustain life. Rosa and her
two friends had long felt the pinch
of hunger, but now they plumbed new
depths of privatiOn, for there were
DAYS whom Acaucio aud hiS faIloxS1 CON