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The Record of Desolation and Despair

The Torch is Mightier than the Sword--Lists of the Plantations and Towns Burned--Dramatic Scenes and Thrilling Incidents in the Doomed Island--The Work of Destruction the Only Occupation--Utter Collapse of Business--Famine Close at Hand--Inhumanity and the Cuban Cry for Cartridges--A New York Deserter--A Business Man has One Hope of Escaping Ruin--The Truth of the Civil Government of Cuba--The Cry for Cartridges. "CUBA to-day only presents pools of blood dried by conflagrations," are the terrible words of Maximo Gomez in a letter to the Cuban delegate at Washington, and he goes on, "Our enemies are burning the houses, to deprive us, according to them, of our quarters for spring." The old chieftain adds, that "we will never use reprisals, for we understand that the revolution will not need to triumph by being cruel and sanguinary." The insurgents are, however, freely using the torch, that has become mightier than the sword--than even the machete.