it on the misery which they say Mr. Calhoun and General Lee saw with
their own eyes.

They speak in a most pitiable way of the hunger and privations suffered
by the people who have been driven into the towns; from the description
given in the paper, these poor souls are now so thin and weak that they
can hardly drag themselves through the streets to beg for bread. They
tell of poor little children dying of starvation in the streets, of the
sufferings of the poor parents who cannot get food to keep life in their
little ones' bodies, and of this crowd of suffering, starving people,
wandering homeless through the streets begging for the charity which no
one can spare them.

The paper in which this is set forth is brought to a close with an
earnest appeal to the United States to send food to the Cubans for the
sake of humanity. The people say that Spain has been deaf to their
appeals, and their only hope is in us.

It is dreadful to think that such distress is being endured at our very
doors, and that we are powerless to prevent it.

It is no easy thing to be the President at such a time as this. Mr.
McKinley must be full of sympathy for these unhappy people, and yet his
first duty is toward the nation he has been chosen to govern; and he
dare not aid the starving Cubans, if by so doing he would bring the
horrors of war upon the people he has sworn to protect.

* * * * *

The war in the Philippine Islands seems to be raging as fiercely as