THE CUBA REVIEW 



13 



MAZORRA ASYLUM AT THE SECOND INTERVENTION 



A view of the grounds 

 and men's ward of the 

 Cuban Insane Hospital 

 at ^lazorra. Much of the 

 garden work as well as 

 the cultivation of an ex- 

 tensive farm and truck 

 garden is carried on bv 

 the more tractable in- 

 mates. 



Government school at Ma- 

 zorra. In this neat modern 

 structure, school is conducted 

 for the benefit of the chil- 

 dren of hospital employees 

 and neighboring planters, 

 and it was a bright, interest- 

 ing lot of children who as- 

 sembled on the porch. 



CUBA S INSANE ASYLUM 



Dreadful conditions among the Cuban 

 insane confined at the national asylum at 

 Mazorra, near Havana, are disclosed in a 

 report published in El Mundo. 



Upwards of 2.000 men and women from 

 all parts of the island are kept in the in- 

 stitution in a state of frightful squallor 

 and hundreds among them are nearly 

 naked, without beds or chairs and provided 

 with insufficient food of the poorest quality, 

 says the report. 



The condition of the women patients is 

 declared to be even more deplorable than 

 that of the inen. 



All classes of insane people, except the 



.\pproach and entrance 

 to women's ward Insane 

 Asyhim at ^Nlazorra, The 

 main building is seen 

 back of the one-story 

 structure which serves 

 as an office and steward's 

 store-room. Everything 

 here is of the most mod- 

 ern type and scrupu- 

 lously clean, while the 

 surroundings are particu- 

 larly attractive with the 

 many fine trees, flowering 

 plants and shrubbery. 



most violent, are said to be miscellaneously 

 herded together in foul courts. 



It has long been known that conditions 

 at the asylutn were bad, according to El 

 Muiido, but the real state of affairs was 

 unknown. 



At the beginning of the second interven- 

 tion in Cuba by the United States, the 

 place was found in a similar condition. 

 After the reconstruction by General Wood 

 it was again reorganized and remodelled 

 at great expense by Colonel Grobel, of the 

 United States army, and at the close of the 

 period of intervention it was in all respects 

 a model institution. Immediately there- 

 after most of the costly iinprovements was 

 wantonly destroyed, says the report. 



