Show CULTURE IN CUBA july eth 1898 among the things of which only pleasant memories remain to the cu bans Is ie the fruit industry which was abea aee a thriving business on the island but for years past has been good for nothing while in the trinidad valley isiom spring I 1 met a new york produce uL merchant erchant who had been a fruit grower An iBea eastern tem cubs cuba until the loss of the trade to the island compelled him to alva iffie it up being unable to understand tow BOW the cubans came to lose so b an industry for which the condi CA of soil and climate are perfect I 1 J reviewed awed him on the subject and it is the substance of what he told W it WAS waft the cubans own fault zi and th they jy will be e glad enough to get wi 16 tf 0 1 ven en AL a remnant of their once 17 bals fruit trade as ae they may A americans have taught them 0 lb te manage it to call the cubans would be unfair the good old new land word shiftless better de acs Os their temper temperament they always abose choose the easiest way of accod nan an end and leave the rest to ge e ae ast asi dios quire pas as god te is forever on cad it their heir tongues applied to neglected crops as to every X elit cue m se in im life while anglo saxons believe e f that h a t providence evidence r oVi dence smiles in boun 4 tifft v bli harvests ests upon the husbandmen waid put t forth the proper effort or er than upon those who leave it to him entire entirely ir now oranges pineapples pine apples mangoes manghes man goes aguacates agua cates bananas require the most careful handling from the iliae time they are picked until offered for sale ale in the markets and that is just where the cubans lost their trade to zet et the fruit down they shook the freis rees or knocked it off with a long pole as aa they would cocoanuts cocoa nuts it reached the ground battered by the fall or bruised by the rap from the pole I 1 I 1 and was thus handicapped in the start tw for pom competition petition with the carefully picked fruit of the american planter it must be remembered that the fruit has bat to make a journey of hundreds of miles before it reaches market and the slightest lightest bruise rapidly develops decay when the fruit is off the tree the next tep step was to transport it to the nearest town to be packed for shipment this was done ty by mules the oranges or pines sinea or whatever it was ware were bundled bap ap hazard into banters pan lers and away went vent the mule over the rough country roads jolting the softer fruit into jam inobe in the saddlebags saddle bags when the destina tion was reached instead of carefully lifting the cargo from the mules back the driver dragged it off regardless and threw it down in the nearest corner ner of the storehouse store house the next comer threw his consignment of fruit on top of the other and 9 it was piled up with no thought of abe 0 he consequences then in packing I 1 have seen cubans stand several feet away from the barrels barbeli or hampers and actually throw liln itin hit or miss of course adding to the bruises the poor fruit had bad already received when the bawl or box boic was filled the lid was fitted on by forde force if necessary as one sits on an obstreperous trunk top then in getting it down carefully it was rolled end over end and dropped into the hold bold on top of whatever it might igat hit now this sort of thing wont do at all the inevitable result was that th tha fruit wao WAS rotten when it arrived in american ard d most of it was wasted buyers would not stand that even if adamand eve ve had gone in into ito the fruit bire in the garden of eden so amor american n planters aided that they the cubans st at fruit growing though under far less favorable conditions they tried it and the cubans quickly found that there was no longer any market for their rotting pines and or anges but the fact remains that no country in the world is better adapted to fruit growing than cuba and under american management the cuban fruit trade will soon become an important factor in the industrial life ot of the hemisphere desiring to see for myself what used to be the greatest banana shipping port in the world baracca baracoa Bara Baxa coa at the eastern end of cuba and the prospects tor for the investment of american capital there in fruit growing when the war is over I 1 made the trip from trinidad not many weeks ago until our blockade tied it up a native steamship line sent small vessels at regular intervals to make the circuit of cubs cuba there was not mul much h to be said in favor of the steamers except on the any port ln in a storm principle when one particularly wanted to go somewhere and there was no other way the boa boats to were wera absurdly small for ocean travel extremely dirty and always loaded to the guards with passe passengers ligez two footed and four not counting the variously footed creeping and crawling and wriggling things that infested every cranny the four tooted footed voyagers invariably overfilled over filled the place originally intended for them and were penned so far aft that their noses touched the shoulders of their two footed traveling companions as they sat at table amid odors which bear no comparison to those of araby the blest sailing eastward from trinidad the first stopping place of importance le Is santiago something over miles disi tant but we did not go ashore on this trip having visited the place a tort fort night before from santiago to bara coa on the extreme northeast of cuba is ia a run of only 17 hours even by the slow little coasters the trip is worth making if for nothing but the splendors of the tropical sunsets the greatest painter would find it an impossible task tak to depict the exact shadings of sea and sky and mountains if he were a wise artist as well as a great one he would not attempt it because the nearer he came to the vivid and glorious truth the more he would be criticized for too brilliant coloring the shoreward view Is not particularly interesting at first an endless stretch of keys all monotonously alike covered with mangrove bushes then the jumbled and ragged mountains which frown around santiago amid a country which looks as aa if the angry gods had subjected it to the teeth of a harrow barrow ard and the nearer sindy sandy slopes covered with ch apparel up ud which our soldiers stormed under a broiling sun a few weeks later the same which our brave boys climbed that fateful morning many of them to their death singing the star spangled banner in the face of fearful odds to all americans these blood baptized slopes will henceforth be sacred soil then the shoreward vision Is bounded hy interminable gray cliffs surrounded by screaming seabirds sea birds and beaten by the rest restless kestli li caribbean backed by hills that might be the blue ridges of pennsylvania sylv auld it if they were only a little haher alpher and were there more of them their gentle slopes are bathed in the same blue haze and their flat tops with white clouds floating over look like titian punch bowls gradually ohp hills taper down until lost in the sandy mainland an it that hat the eastern tip of the island is 18 nearly reached and cape malai may soon loon be sighted rounding bounding the island feland in direction you are almost certain to encounter boisterous billows that caun the most hardened sea goers to cast their bread upon the waters hanging in limp bundles over the ralland rail and when a crowd of passengers decidedly mixed as to color and previous condition are all doing the same thing with more or less vehemence mules braying and cat tie itle bellowing in sympathy even historic interest of the region for the moment falls to charm just beyond ia i the island of haiti separated from cuba by the swift and narrow channel marked on the fhe map as the win dwana passage it was at point faial you remember that the word west indiee was first applied when Col ulma sighted it he believed it to be the theeb ez eastern end of asia the border land of the grand khan whom maroo polo had so graphically described hence he named the cape now known as an malsi MAIMI alpha and omega and going ashore dispatched an embassy to the imaginary potentate with gifts sm ana conciliatory messages As aa I 1 we know there was no grand kahn at all nor any city of mighty proportions such i that colossal liar polo had de described but columbus found some indiana tit at M baisi alai differing from any he had seen L before they had palmleaf palm leaf huts bui baht b i in pyramidal shape and when first aeed were smoking tobt tobacco teco a plant wlter which the spaniards were unfamiliar says the historian las casas 1 in hi narrative nara lve tive called el primera vla vlake 11 a colon the first voyage of Colum columbus bui he beheld several of the natives it afo ing about with firebrands fire brands i their hands and certain dried he herta which they rolled up in a leaf anft t lighting one end put the other in their or mouths and continued exalina and puffing out the smoke A roll of t tm kind they called tabac a name transferred to the plant of which the tha rolls were made another oi says that the aboriginal method was to inhale smoke through two cane sta ItaL forked and hollow inserting the forkes ends into the nostrils and applying th other end of the cane to the burniet burklu leaves and he adds it Is a very e ett and pernicious habit Pro producing ducin 9 3 11 near aalst are ability some very ex and curious caverns which must have been much frequented in these old time smokers for crania and many strange relies relics at found in their recesses soon after rounding the cape your yoo come to baracos a uny town on aft a ht tle tie harbor whose en entrance krance is extremely narrow and difficult of access whew once inside the landlocked land locked bay whose tranquil water mirrors the bluest skie and greenest hills and palest palms im hn agi you no longer wonder at th tb glowing report which columbus save s of it to his sovereign having named ik puerto sante he wrote this quaint description which whish to ie as true today as then the amenity of the fhe river raven A through which the sand at the bottom may be seen the multitude of palm trees of various forms the highest and most beautiful I 1 have met with and a an k infinity of the great and gran trees the country most serene prince ai 0 such marvelous beauty that it surpasses all others in charms and gracea as day doth the night in luster I 1 have been so overwhelmed at the sight of im ao much beauty that I 1 have not knowlt how to relate it to your gracious majesty 11 the appreciative visitor of tp to day finds himself similarly overwhelmed for in no other part of the world ean can a lovelier view be found than that sat of baracoa baracca Bara coa whether seen from the th sea or from the hills that rise behind IL t graceful palms fringe the shores ik and adorn the slopes and mountains too r like islands in a sea of forest w seems to retain all ets AA A A eval freshness and maj majesty majett ext tale is tie the port which a few years ago was the greatest banana shipping place in the world there is jib sign of such an industry now and la in their palmy days the banana planta eions were not seen from the sea they werle were back in the interior beyond the three remarkable terraces which rise abruptly from the coast line to a height of 2000 feet and then gradually ascend to td the mountains feet higher in the old days of activity the arrival of sk fruit steamer in the port was announced by telephone to central points tey orid the mountains from these points horse back riders conveyed the news to the banana plantations then the bananas were cut with all possible aeed and transported in harness on the backs of mules and cows to the edge of the plateau overlooking the coast thence they were run down by wire trolleys to the bank of the after where they were loaded upon small lighters negroes poled the lighters out of the river and through the surf to the wait lite 10 a dangerous and uncertain performance in which the lighters were often upset and the cargoes lost the eidath of the river is eighteen aralles from baracca baracoa Bara coa after getting her the fruit steamer had to return town tor for her clearance papers falch bleb the accommodating american consul though not obliged by the duties othes office to do so always gave at ace at any hour of the day or night that the vessel might go on her way york PhIliL philadelphia delphia or boston fr AS quickly as possible the planter re go 80 cents a bunch for his bananas 10 cents a bunch was baj paid d to the ft rolley concern for bringing the mer jaka aHse to the rivers edge the fruit acs stowed in the hold of the vessel to 0 bunches deep stood on end upon fh false deck A man stood at the to examine every bunch and ay aby that showed the slightest sign of ten taff were thrown away or given to tace darkens dar keya keys the laborers of this seeby by the way are all negroes and patently parent a ly the happiest people on tk they sing wild songs brought their ancestors from the heart of ca while passing the bananas aln fashion from the lighter to th the A when the vessel was loaded the y r es were given a free ride to kracha kra coa oa asvery one of them possesses are apet A pet t animal or two which he takes i along wherever he goes had and I 1 am told atrat the he collection of dogs goats pigs h tf st iw sots 0 to chickens chick no and monkeys which r hm on an this frequent trip was a sight aa behold alx in lx spite of all expedition in getting A 4 1 1 1 falte cargo off to its destination it is 18 hass that fully 15 per cent of it was lost loat i aff W transit mostly due however to lack f V fare care on the part of planters the A 24 bruise on the skin of a banana banan a asa U know rapidly develops into a jaback SO t which ruins its market r those that reach their destina ovi in g good order bring in the united waie 10 jes from 1 to 3 the bunch 34 ast s P afke e palmy days of cuban fruit R Z V I 1 I 1 v 1 towel ea eight thousand bunches of P 1 1 b as were ere shipped from baracoa baracca in s bwy ry day from april 1st ast to Qc october tober 1 grAder good american management e r th amere Is no reason why the quantity krould Kb not be many times increased 1 aitse the possibilities of the region are un iii jilted FANNIE pj BRIGHAM WARD |