The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer

BRUTAL TREATMENT
Of an Aged Woman by Spaniards—Thrown Into a Filthy Prison.

KEY WEST, Fla., March 7.—Mrs. Conception Agramonte, was a passenger on board the Mascotte from Havana when the vessel touched here Saturday night en route for Tampa. She was accompanied by her daughter. Mrs. Agramonte is a widow, sixty-two years old, lives at Puerto Principe and has five sons now fighting in the Cuban army.

She informed the correspondent of the Associated Press that the chief of police of Puerto Principe called upon her, told her the government had ordered her arrest, and conducted her to prison, where she was confined in a small cell with eleven other prisoners.

Her relatives, fearing that on account of her advanced age she would not be able to endure this severe treatment, offered to pay the authorities for better accommodations for her. These offers were received with sneers. Her relatives were told that anything was good enough for a Cuban, and they were asked why Mrs. Agramonte should get any better treatment than the rest. Her daughter's appeal to be allowed to see her was refused.

"My sufferings," said Mrs. Agramonte, "were intense. After remaining in prison twenty-nine days I was sent to Havana and there confined in a house of refuge for women of all classes. The crowded condition of this jail made it worse than the Puerto Principe prison. After three days' confinement there I was released, and, having been vaccinated and after undergoing the quarantine regulations, I was permitted to leave on the Mascotte. There were no charges preferred against me, and I can think of no reason for my arrest except that my sons are fighting for free Cuba. At the time of my transfer from Puerto Principe jail, two other ladies, Marie Aguilar and Gabrielle Varona were liberated."