| Show TRINIDAD DR DJS CUBA june 1898 outside of Cub aone hears little about the valley of trinidad yet it is the very garden spot of the island not only for extraordinary beauty fertility and perfection of climate but to is the place par excellence for growing coffee and sugar I 1 have been told but cannot say with how much truth that the english and american syndicates who have secured rich concessions in the valley are keeping their operations as secret as possible to avoid competition trinidad city lies at the seaward edge of the valley of the same name I 1 on the south shore of santa clara province about 50 miles east from cienfuegos you may reach it from havana va going all the way around by wa ter or by railway to cienfuegos den fuegos and thence by steamer or as I 1 did by rail raft to tabano Ba the southern part of ha vana provance and then on a leisurely cruise of miles among inumerable cays and islets at any rate you are certain to approach the region of the tha holy trinity by sea as there Is no all land route from other parts of the island except dangerous trails avez robber infested mountains the first view of the old town which don delgo deigo de Bel velazquez Belaz azquez christened as as an early as 1515 is something to be remembered having rounded la punta de los loo degros the long narrow point of land which defines trinidad bay on the southwest you see a white walled city glistening in the golden ight cuddled up on the moun mountain side like a babe asleep on its mothers bosom quite appropriately trinidad has a trin ity of ports they are la boea on the southeast where the cayado river emp ties into the sea the mouth of thi rio muse and casada a small village at the head of an inlet the last named port to is now generally used although its anchorage is not of the best the water being so shallow that all vessels must mast be loaded by means of lighters and put to sea as quickly as possible to avoid sticking fast on the sandy bottom the landing place however is lined with wharves and extensive wares ware houses and there is a handsome depot for the railway which runs north 20 or 30 miles connecting several villages and bringing the product of rich plantations down for shipment trinidad city is three miles inland or perhaps we should say upland from Ca casilda nilda As the trains do not run on schedule time tame but only when there are full loads of freight to be carried you will do well to avoid a tedious time of waiting in the hot flea infested port by being driven up in a although the charge to is while the cars care would take you for 20 cents trinidad to one of the oldest towns in cuba founded only a year later than santiago and 19 years after santa do mingo the he first on the western hemisphere though so little is heard of it nowadays the region is not without its stirring and romantic history trinidad bidad bay to is the famous battle grounds of three british men ot of wax wai against the spaniards under don lute bassecourt Basse court in which the english were worsted after three days of hard fighting perhaps the most destructive attack on trinidad olty city was that of the english corsair grant in 1702 through two long centuries it suffered almost continually from piratical attacks and many bloody traditions are connected with with the he place indeed it Is ie sald bald that the wealthiest West faMil families ift hereabouts we are of the old sea robben who turned respectable when piracy went out of fashion they bought land and built casas camas with their ill gotten gains baans gave a lot of money to the church for absolution and became substantial law abiding citizens one who does not mind hard climbing finds trinidad the most charming place in the world with views on every hand which would drive an artist wild with enthusiasm rambling and hilly with antique tique casas and palm shaded gardens the old town clings to the side aide of eljia watch Wa toh tower mountain feet above the caribbean exposed to both mount mountain alln and ocean mean breezes edth neither excessive heed heat nor cold from year to year its cli mateis is about the perfect under the sun surely this Is the heart of that land wherein it Is always afternoon everybody seems to sleep through the hours of sunshine in a long walk at midday through the town of inhabitants habil tants you meet only here and there a lazy donkey or a sleeping dog not dot a human being except at rare intervals a barefooted servant shuffling along the shady side of the wall the only drawback to the place is its lonell loneliness and the feeling which possesses the foreigner of complete isolation from his kind there are several rn mesones esones and third class inns inne but you axe are not obliged to stay in them long especially if you have bave letters of introduction the citizens are aire proverbially hospitable and to them the visit of a foreigner bringing a fresh breath from the faraway far fax away world to is a godsend the streets of trinidad axe are naano narrow w as the norro narrowest west in an america and mostly unpaved but extremely picturesque with their theft low walled rough tiled houses and high sounding names over the doors doom As in havana the business streets are a realization of Bell amys dream of a universal umbrella because of an aai uninterrupted of awnings stretched bed across acif fording complete shelter from sun and rain raan in the quarter the houses are mostly built of stone and some of them are imposing with arched entrances and much facades resembling carved marble they differ from those in havana in not having any divided wails between the rooms room only the kitchen and sleeping Ble apartments being partitioned to t 0 the ceiling the rest reef are a series of open arches vast high belling expanses affording free circulation of air and magnificent ent perspectives of marble floors rich frescoes panels and tasteful furnishings one of the finest hous houses in town it if not to in the whole land to Is owned by an american citizen mr baker by name but here bete resides senor bah quare per perhaps the handsomest country home in the valley is owned by mr stillwell lwell a new englander who has a large plantation and lives like a prince the war has not yet effected tibia part of cuba to any appreciable extent und u nd when I 1 visited the place a few weeks ago things were going on as usual nothing short of sampsons Samp sons and Shaf shatters tes sung gune can wake the up to a realization sense of the true situation they talk in a sleepy way of political 81 troubles lea in the island but as of something which does not concern them tn in their Ax arcadian retreat the nearest approacH i to iffe and galty in trinidad Trind daKI te is seen on an sunday aid d thursday evenings when the takes place in the plaza carillo the square in the center of the town op opposite the governors residence rad dence la is a beautiful place and differs in some from ay any others I 1 have seen in the middle te is a large domelike dome like ouke arbor from which stone walks radiate bordered by flower beda and shaded byor by or na mental shrubbery aund around the outskirts of the park extends a very broad the campo del matre is another fine large plaza at the southeast end of the town with barracks and drill grounds for the garrison but the most moat attractive resort of the place is 13 what is known as the eijia watchtower a point on the adjacent mountain which may be easily reached on horseback or even in a for those who are good climbers it is the fashionable thing to go up before breakfast there is a rustic road winding under pines and palms past straw thatched huts the military hospital and the ermeta de la and he who has not seen the sun rise above the incomparable vale of trinidad and illumine the heights around it or sink among the green cays of the western ocean ocea n has lived almost in vain bp speaking eak of american capitalists in this region time was and time will be again when a well located sugar estate in cuba was considered as safe it and valuable an investment as one could possibly have of course the war has greatly depreciated values but when it Is over things will be booming in the ever faithful isle as never before everybody knows how during our civil war sugar attained a phenomenal price in the united states the best grades reaching 20 cents taz the pound this circumstance induced wm H stewart the new york millionaire lion lio alre to purchase the magnificent estate called la carolina in matanzas province its annual yield was about eight million pounds of fine white sugar he sald paid eight hundred thousand dollars in gold for the drop erty and for years it returned to him at least per on the original investment in 62 mr moses taylor another very rich and influential new yorker who had been a large importer of at cuban sugar purchased a halfin half in hereof in the famous san martine Mart lne plantation it was waa just the size of the district of columbia 10 miles square and was superbly equIp equipped Ded having a fine old castellated mansion of stone for a farally family residence what mr taylor paid for his halt half was waa never known but for years the crop waa simply marvelous reaching for one season pounds it was said at the time that taylor received back his purchase money in less than two years the great firm of warburg co of new york Is 18 IL a heavy owner of sugar property in santa clara province the welches Wels hes sugar or of philadelphia are also owners of large cuban estates it will be remembered that when president grant named the eldest of the welsh brothers to be minister to england his confirmation was strongly objected to by a faction in the senate on the ground that he was the owner of slave worked estates and profited by their labor just atter after our war mr james mchatton of east bast baton rouse rouge parish la went to cuba in search of a plantation which limited f means could buy he found it near matanzas 2000 acres of the light colored soil soll which in cuba to la called mulatto land and which had been worked so long solely in sugar cane that it would yield less than half a 41 crop at the upper end of the eata estate te mr mchatton found a series of deep eaves which if ever discovered beaole had been entirely forgotten and these made his fortune par for ages millio millions AA of bats had made this their haunt and time and natures chemistry had converted their droppings into the berst beat fertilizer for worn out sugar and lands yet known within three years the mchatton place was waa turning out eight thousand pounds of sumet sugar w the acre and the shrewd louba found another greo great fortune in hia bf guano the bishops family of new haven tt were and probably are today the owners of some extremely valuable sugar estates near neair remedias Rem edlas about miles from havana which has enriched three generations of heirs and owners As am nearly as I 1 can ascertain about Ameri americans cams of pure anglo saxon blood that Is IB not counting the naturalized zed cuban americans own property in cuba among them is mr ramon ra mon williams formerly of baltimore who was once consul general at havana the spanish american iron company which has its malin maan office in new york and is made up largely of capitalists who have been active in the iron ore business in the lake superior Sui region have also done an extensive business tn in cuba the colbas the elys and the rockefellers Rocke fellers are the chief stock owners A few years ago the company acquired control of several thousand acres of valuable iron fron ore deposits between santiago and the south side aide of cuba A very large amount of money was expended in exploring the property opening mines milnes and establishing facilities for handling the output there Is no harbor nearer than santiago and in order to ship ore economo celly it was necessary to construct an artif artificial loisi harbor by bundling a great breakwater break water on the open coast extensive loading piers were built large enough to load four steamers at a time an all these preparations were practically completed several yea year M before they were put to any use no shipments were made because the company adopted the policy ot of waiting for advantageous vant ageous market conditions the re reduction action of the duty on iron ore are from 76 75 cents to 40 cents per ton and abid the increased demand for bessemer Bee semer iron ore tn in eastern pennsylvania finally started tb the e shipments the spanish american iron company made a contract with the johnson S S company to transport SO tons of ore to ports north of capt hatteras pt teras A brood deal of it was discharged ch arged at port richmond and carried to furnaces along the line of the philadelphia and reading railroad that is the third large company t w which has opened iron manes in cuba the oldest and largest is the jaragua iron com company pamy which to te jointly owned by the pennsylvania steel company and the iron company the bagua pagua iron company was also organized I 1 in n philadelphia da it I 1 is estimated that these three companies have invested not lews less than ten millann dollars in cuban mining property FANNIE BRIGHAM WARD |
