"The prices rival those of Klondike. Beefsteak is $1 a pound. Chickens are $1 each. Flour is $50 a barrel. Everything is being confiscated for Blanco's army. Sleek, well-fed persons are daily threatened with death to make them divulge the whereabouts of their hidden stores of provisions.
"Several provision stores in the side streets have been broken into and looted. General Blanco is being strongly urged to sink artesian wells to provide water in the event of a siege, as a joint attack by the Cuban and American forces would destroy the aqueduct. It is not thought that Blanco will attempt this, as he will not have sufficient time.
"A bulletin posted on the wall of the palace this morning announced that the mail steamship Aviles from Nuevitasa and the Cosme Herra from Sagua arrived last night. It is also stated that the Spanish brig Vigilante arrived at Matanzas from Montevideo with food supplies for the government.
"The palace of the Captain General is practically deserted since the blockade began. Blanco has personally taken command of Mariena battery, and is directing the erection of new sand batteries all along the water front west of the entrance to Havana Bay. Lieutenant General Perrado is making Guanabacoa his headquarters, and is planting new batteries and strengthening the fortifications as much as possible. Over 300 draymen are engaged in the hauling of sand from the mouth of Almandres for use in the construction of the earthworks along the coast, and in the city suburbs all draymen have been ordered to report for volunteer duty with their drays. The streets are riotous with half-drunken Spanish volunteers crying for American and Cuban blood.
"At night the city is wrapped in darkness, all gas and electric lights being shut off by order of Blanco. Spanish soldiers are taking advantage of this to commit shocking outrages upon unprotected Cuban families. In spite of these direful circumstances Blanco has ordered the decoration of the city, hoping to incite the patriotism of the populace."
BLANCO MAKES A PERSONAL APPEAL TO GOMEZ.
On May 4 General Blanco made a supreme effort to win over the
Cuban forces, writing a letter to General Gomez. A copy of this
letter and the answer of General Gomez were found upon Commander
Lima, who was picked up by the Tecumseh fifteen miles from Havana.
The letter of General Blanco was as follows:
General Maximo Gomez, Commander-in-Chief of the Revolutionary
Forces:
Sir—It cannot be concealed from you that the Cuban problem has radically changed. We Spaniards and Cubans find ourselves facing a foreign people of different race, of a naturally absorbent tendency, and with intentions not only to deprive Spain of her flag over the Cuban soil, but also to exterminate the Cuban people, due to its having Spanish blood.
The supreme moment has, therefore, arrived in which we should forget our past misunderstandings, and in which, united by the interests of our own defense, we, Spaniards and Cubans, must repel the invader.