Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-04-16
FROM CUBA.
A Day af Gutnes-An Intelligent Mu-
sattO WOman-Shrubbery of q COun-
try PIRce-Vlsit to a Sugar Mill
Process of Making sugar-COoIies
md NeRrOaa
From 3 Lady CorresPondent.l
FERRnARY 26th. 1866

1854
FEBRUARY 26th, 1866.
Furnished with letters of introduction,
went forty miles into the country to visit
the sugar plantation La Amisted. Upon
leaving the depot at Guines We were, to
our surprise, accosted in the mother tongue
and directed to the French hotel where
we found a breakfast fer which Dur early
morning ride had given US an appetite.
IT," wife OF BUR host is alright, intelligent
n ress Of very lady-like manners. She
tolN ne she had travelled with her hus-
band in France, Italy and England, but
had never been in the United States, for
very good reasons, as 1 recollected with g
feeling of shame at the senseless p%rejudices
of my countrymen.
Walked through the principal street of
the place, which is broad and clean, with
good sidewalks, past the double-tswered
church, in front of which is the Plaza,
filed with towering shrubs and bordered
with box.
Found DR.. - absent, and were be-
ginning to despair of making our wishes
known, when the distinguished natural
ist who had given US letters presented
himself. Were introduced to a beautiful
woman, who took my hand in an afec-
tomato manner peculiar to these people,
led me around the garden, and when we
would have made our sdieus, still held my
hand until a bouquet was made for me.
She was charming, and managed to say a
great many pleasant things with few
words.
After q vexatious delay, q volante with
two horses was gotten ready to take US to
the Enqsnie, 8 distance Of q mile and a
half, for which the modest charge of four
dollars was made.
The road is bordered with a hedge of
pima ration. which has a very curious
flower. A large stalk comes up in the
centre of the plant, white and mealy. The
delicate flowers are white, with the inside
of the petals bright pink; are arranged in
rings around the stalk, and at the base of
each group of half a dozen is a long
bract Of a vivid red color, with stout
splnes at the end and along the edges.
The hedges are full of beautiful flowers,
l Ou6 Will Itu ClOSsOuib HAO CAdDo OAanst
another with clusters that resemble the
double howering-peaeh, vines to grow
ever it in the greatest luxurianee, with
large purple, white and yellow flowers.
At eleven o'clock reached La AmHtad,
presented our letters and were very cor
daily received. The proprietor and his
son both speak English, the latter was ed
ucated in the United States. We were
politely conducted over the establishment
and the various processes of sugarmsking
described.
The cane Is cut by the men and women,
loaded upon ox-carts, hauled to the mill,
unloaded upon a platform andby msehin-
cry conveyed mp an inclined plane to
the mill where it is pressed, the cane COM
ing out very light and almost dry. This
mill is moved BY water. The cane yields
seventy-per cent. of juice by the old
method Of grinding, thirty.
The bagassa pressed cane is spread in
the sun for further drying, and is the only
fuel used.
From the mill the juice passes to large
kettles where it is boiled, thence to others
in which lime is put to purify it. These
kettles have valves in the bottom, one is
opened the pure juice passes out, tits shut,
another opened through which the scum
passes. The juice, after sufficient boiling,
is conducted into large shallow pans to
| cool. In these it is broken up by hand
with iron bars, no machinery having yet
been invented to perform this part of the
work. It is taken in troughs to 8 Kettle
where it is reduced almost to a liquid
state, thence is passed into the "centrefu-
gals" vessels Of iron with sieTe-like plates
and a cylinder with arms in the centre,
which revolve with great rapidity, throwing
the sugar against the intensely heated iron
which soon grains and whitens it. 1t is
scraped out, carried to q bin whence it is
packed in long wooden boxes, the lid
nailed on, the box hoped with leather,
and it is ready for transportation to Ha-
vana.
NThe Juice of the cane which is standing
IN the field in the morning is converted
into sugar before night. At La Amistad
they make seven thousand boxes of sugar,
each weighing FIVE hundred pounds. They
receive at Havana FIVE cents a pound.
Handsome income that. How much may
he profit it is of course impossible to de-
termina.
After q survey Of the mandatory,
seated ourselves upon the broad piazza of
the dwelling-house and took one of the
cool drinks to which the islanders confne
the Specification of the word refresh
ments," afterwards made the tour of the
garden filled with the most gorgeous
flowers. Saw the "Carolila tree" bare of
leaves but covered with crimson tassels
the Lions mouth" whose blossoms grow
in panicles large as the horse-chestnut,
A. ,az,T, 4, 4h=ol- a-a,,,- -rl54a larIa-oI Il
with pink, the petals orange and yellow
the Petrea, very curious, the sepals of a
deep mauve, the petals small, bright pur-
pie and borne on a foet-stalk; palms of
many varieties the Almond and the
Ceiba, the monarch Of the Cuban sylvia,
whose huge, smooth trunk sends out but
tresses as if to fx it more firmly in the
soil and whose thick leaved branches form
a truly regal o W
Our attention was called to the raw
ages of the bibiagus, a large ant
which is constantly and relentlessly
pursued, vet which contrives to do a deal
of mischief. Around the house was a
filed from the stream that turns the
mill, and here and there among the flower
beds were branches of the same r~ivulet,
to keep out these dreaded creatures tor,
like Tam O'Shanter's witches, " 3 running
stream they may not cross" and wherever
their holes are discovered tar is poured in.
Yet, after all these precautions, a man
goes every night, all night long, over this
the fields are left to themselves
to hunt this tiny insect.
Many of the workmen at La Amistad
are Coolies and there seems no difficulty
in having black and white work together.
Oddly enough, the Chinaman counts as q
white, in the cars, not being required to
take the seats assigned to "persons of
though he is dark enough, and to
all intents and purposes as much q slave
as the negro. All had but little clothing,
some were naked to the waist but the
hest made that anything but q privation.
All looked well cared for, alert and active,
and under the direct supervision of the
proprietor, this relation of master and
slave did not seem q painful one. But we
cannot Judge of the peculiar institution "
from what we see upon this, the pearl of
"one of the most f~aultless on
he whole island" KATE y. d.