FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143  
144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   >>   >|  
int of negro blood. In consequence of this,--nature always asserting herself regardless of conventionalities,--a quasi family arrangement often exists between white men and mulatto or quadroon women, whereby the children are recognized as legitimate. But should either party come under the discipline of the Church, the relationship must terminate. Again, as is perfectly well known, many of the priests, under a thin disguise, lead domestic lives, where a family of children exist under the care of a single mother, who is debarred from the honest name of wife by the laws of celibacy which are stringently held as the inexorable rule of the Church. If the priesthood keep from cock-fighting and gambling, says a late writer on the subject, notwithstanding many other departures from propriety, they are considered respectable. Can there be any wonder that the masses of men in Cuba recognize no religious obligations, since none save Roman Catholicism is tolerated, and that, through its priesthood, is so disgraced? CHAPTER IX. Political Inquisition. -- Fashionable Streets of the City. -- Tradesmen's Signs. -- Bankrupt Condition of Traders. -- The Spanish Array. -- Exiled Patriots. -- Arrival of Recruits. -- The Garrote. -- A Military Execution. -- Cuban Milk Dealers. -- Exposure of Domestic Life. -- Living in the Open Air. -- The Campo Santo of Havana. -- A Funeral Cortege. -- Punishing Slaves. -- Campo de Marte. -- Hotel Telegrafo. -- Environs of the City. -- Bishop's Garden. -- Consul-General Williams. -- Mineral Springs. The Inquisition, as it regards the Church of Rome, is suppressed in Cuba, but the political inquisition, as exercised by the government on the island, is even more diabolical than that of the former Jesuitical organization, because it is more secret in its murderous deeds, not one half of the horrors of which will ever be publicly known. Moro Castle is full of political prisoners, who are thinned out by executions, starvation, and hardships generally, from day to day, only to make room for fresh victims. He who enters those grim portals leaves all hope behind. Political trials there are none, but of political arrests there are endless numbers. The life of every citizen is at the disposal of the Captain-General. If a respectable person is arrested, as one suspected of animosity towards the government, he simply disappears. His frie
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143  
144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Church
 

political

 

respectable

 
priesthood
 

government

 

General

 

Political

 

Inquisition

 

children

 

family


consequence

 
island
 

exercised

 
inquisition
 
suppressed
 

nature

 

murderous

 

secret

 

Jesuitical

 

organization


diabolical

 

Springs

 

Havana

 

Funeral

 

Cortege

 
Punishing
 

Domestic

 

Living

 

Slaves

 

asserting


Consul

 

Williams

 
Mineral
 

horrors

 

Garden

 

Bishop

 

Telegrafo

 

Environs

 

numbers

 

endless


citizen
 
arrests
 

trials

 

leaves

 

disposal

 
simply
 

disappears

 
animosity
 
Captain
 

person