Professor Jordan declares that this letter seems to show that "the rebellion is not a mere bandit outbreak of negroes and jailbirds, but the effort of the whole people to throw off the yoke of a government they find intolerable."
The letter states, among other things, that the insurrection was begun and is kept up by Cuban people; that the Spanish government has made colossal and unheard-of efforts to put it down, but has not succeeded in diminishing it; on the contrary, the insurrection has spread from one extreme of the island to the other; that the flower of the Cuban youth is in the army of the insurrection, in whose ranks are many physicians, lawyers, druggists, professors, artists, business men, engineers and men of that ilk.
Professor Jordan's correspondent declares that this fact can be proved by the excellent consular service of the United States.
He admits that destruction has been carried on by both sides, but affirms that the insurgents began by destroying their own property, in order to deprive the troops of the government of shelter and sustenance.
He further declares that the insurgents will continue in their course until they fulfill their purpose, carrying all before them by fire and blood.
He concludes as follows:
"All eyes are directed toward the north, to the republic which is the mother of all Americans. The people of the United States must bear strongly in mind now, as never before, that profession is null and void, if action does not affirm it."
But action has come at last, as the fiendish Spaniards have already found out to their cost.
What is Cuba, the "Pearl of the Antilles," at the present time of writing? The answer to that question is as follows:
A land devastated and temporarily ruined; a gem besmirched almost beyond recognition; a heap of smoking ashes; a population of starving men, women and children, with an iron hand clutching remorselessly at their hearts; a horrible, ghastly picture of what savage men are capable of in the way of destruction.