Show w j A MODJERN BASTILE The Unknown Horror oi Mor Castle in the Harbor of Havana VIm enters Castle Morro leaves all hope behind To pass between its por tals I involuntarily for any reason is i con sidered equivalent to a sentence of death and many who have gone there cannot even be traced beyond the iron doors If any record exists of prisoners who en ter the castle common rumor lies for it is generally said and believed that only in heaven are the books kept No one on earth has ever seen them and none ever knew positively where they are Some say that the records of arrest and confinement are sent to the minister of justice at Madrid Others suggest that the daily reports of the commandant are sent to Spain and destroyed after perusal But however it may be the common un derstanding is that whoever enters Morro castle loses his identity and never comes out again for the bodies of the dead are said to be cast over the parapets into the sea The castle stands at the entrance to the harbor of Havana a picturesque but gloomy pile of massive masonry resting upon the crest of a rock which rises about two hundred feet perpendicularly out of the seas Itis the pointof a peninsula penin-sula which embraces the harbor of Havana and makes the latter when once entered as safe as any in the world Covering many acres with its walls and dungeons the castle is one of the largest and most formidable fortresses in the world surpassing even Fortress Monroe in its extent The present castle is not so ancient as some others on the island is the English captured it and blew it up 100 years ago and compelled the Spaniards to spend a million or two of dollars in its reerection Modern artil lery would shatter down the walls but would make no impression upon the eternal rocks among whose crevices and ravines the dungeons of the castle have been placed There is no prison in Europe so secure from capture either by exterior or interior attack for the corridors constitute a labyrinth in which it is said that even the command ant himself requires a guide No pen will ever record and no mind ever correctly ectly imagine the horrors which have taken place within those walls The iniquities iquities of the inquisition did not surpass hem if the stories that are told are true and people say that the curiosities continue con-tinue The life of every citizen of Cuba is the property of the CaptainGeneral to be disposed of as he chooses and he has chosen that many of them be spent within these castle walls Nobody knows how large a number are in confinement con-finement nobody knows who they are or what they suffer all the public ever knows is that Senor SoandSb has been denounced and taken to the castle and his friends keep mighty quiet lest they may have to join him there These Seuors SoandSo seldom if ever comeback I come-back from the castle and it is better for his family and friends not to ask why The castle is for political prisoners exclusively ex-clusively and when we were over there our guide told us it was full He showed us the placea little parade ground where the executions take place and the precipice over which the bodies of the dead are cast into the sea but could give no clue to the number annually shot or the number who die in the dungeons and the officers and guards on duty were quite as uncommunicative if they were not as ignorant To all inquiries they have one answer If you ask them how many prisoners are In the dungeons the same reply will be Dios sabe God knows How many ever come out alive Dios sabe > liDo they ever secure release Dios sabe And the words were true Heaven and heaven only knows all that has transpired within those gloomy walls The officers on guard are changed often and while they stay it is their business to learn as little as possible When a prisoner pris-oner is sent there they lock him up and I I report the fact at headquarters With that their duty and their knowledge en sAnd s-And it is this way that Cuba is governed The theory of government which Spain has followed since she assumed control of the western hemisphere and by which she has lost all that she once had is still in vogue The Spaniard has learned no lesson by experience He seems oblivious obliv-ious to the results of tyranny in Mexico and South America and has seen a magnificent mag-nificent empire pass from his hands without with-out realizing that murder and cruelty are not the best modes of securing peace and promoting civilization |