Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 November 1897 — THIS IS SAVAGERY! [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THIS IS SAVAGERY!

WAR’S AWFUL HORRORS ON THE ISLAND OF CUBA. Conditions Under Weyler’s Inhuman Policy Find No Parallel in Any Stage of Civilization—Hundreds of Thousands of Helpless Starved to Death. Sacrifice of Human Life. An Investigation conducted by the New York World into the horrible conditions affecting Cuba under the bloody and inhuman policy of Weyler discloses the fact that 75 per cent of the 400,000 helpless women and children whom Weyler forced to live in starvation, misery and disease in the fortified town® —in other words, the reconcentrados—have perished. The spectacle is the worst presented in any age or in any stage of civilization, and unless heroic effort® are made under the more humane Gen. Blanco the epidemic condiitiona of the small towns will annihilate the remainder of the’reconcentrados. The World shows that one of the best places where the country people were confined was the estate of Central Suia, owned by the American citizen Perfecto Sacoste. The actual figures of the death rate there show an almost unbelievable state of affairs. When the estate was fortified Sacoste allowed only the vigorous men whom he could use during the sugar season to remain. With their families there were 2,000 persons. To-day there are not 500 left. The 1,500 perished of hunger. x There was no epidemic. Sacoste planted vegetable gardens for their support, but exactly as in most of the zones of cultivation the insurgents got the produce. The creek banks are absolutely filled with the buried. There is not a square yard of ground about the forts that is not taken for a grave. Between two slabs

of palm bark for a coffin each miserable skeleton has been buried a few inches under ground. In the small towns the misery seems to be growing. The register of the priest of Artemisa parish shows a total of 3,000 deaths for a periodof 73 years before the war. Since Weyler’s-infamous “Brando” the deaths have been 5,123. Seventy-three years of peace cost not much more than half the lives lost in one year of Spanish war. And the dead victims of JVeyler’s hate were not rebels. At Artemisa deaths continue eight to tep per day. No food is being issued by the authorities, as there is none there. In Madruga during October 422 people died. The town had 3,500 inhabitants. At Guines there is shelter neither for the troops nor for the non-combatants, and both are dying fast. The “reconcentrados” have absolutely nothing to eat. In one day, Nov. 10, my informant states that 600 persons died —all presumably from hunger. In one small house the correspondent found seventy persons. Two dead bodies lay upon the earthen floor, uncovered. The packed living ones, most of them seated upon the mud, paid no attention to the dead. Despair and weakness made them indifferent. At Trinidad the greater majority of the inhabitants have nothing left to eat. In Ysabel and Cuevitas it is the same. Almost all of Guataro’s “reconcentrados” are dead. And in Pinar del Rio the correspondent of a Havrfna official paper states that “little children scratch with bloody fingers in the ground for the small roots of sweet potatoes, their mothers holding their miserable offspring to sterile bosoms.” Nor are the reconcentrados the only ones who have pbrished and are perishing in the horrible war. The Spanish soldiers have died rapidly or have become disabled. As nearly as can be conservatively computed from official figures, little more than half are left alive and well of the 180,000 vigorous peasant lads Spain sent to Cuba, The figures are: Died in hospitals32,ooo Killed and died on the field.l2,ooo Sent back to Spain as “inutile”. ..25,000 Now in hospitalsl2,ooo Totalßl,ooo Of this enormous number it is improbable that more than 5,000 met death or disability from Cuban bullets, even during the real fighting of the invasion and the six months thereafter. Gen. Maceo estimated for the World that not more than 3,000 Spanish soldiers had fallen in battle. That was in August, 1896. Since then very little fighting has been done.

MAP OF LONDON IN THE VICINITY OF THE FIRE. (Sladel portion represents the burned district.]