The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-22

army oil the ropuDilc. Ine troops were Dare
foot and half clad. Their arms were va
with a blade from two to six inches
in width Some had swords, OF all
manner of odd patterns. At least one car
ried q mushet without a lock- Abouta dozen
Of these troops lolled in the dirty guard
house, eating bananas, drinking cocosnut
milk, and smoking dirty pipes. The Gala
boose consists of one room, amply ven-
tilated, though il has neither door nor
windows. There is neither dark cell nor
gallows, but fine set of mahogany stocks.
There is no tavern, or hotel or other place
of accommodation for strangers, and so far
as / have been able to learn there are not
more than two or three bedsteads on the
whole Peninsula. Those who have no ham,
mocks sleep on rude bamboo frames, or on
improvised pallets of leaves and bark. 1t is
a curious feature of Samana life that almost
everybody keeps a shop. OF the so houses
| in the place, more than half are in some way
devoted to trade. How 40 shop-keepers can
be maintained in village of 80 houses is
problem in political economy that shall not
attempt to selve, but so it is. All that 1
have seen sell liquor, and besides this staple
of commerce one can buy common calicoes,
! groceries, tobacco, vegetables, and fruit.
PRODUCTIONS, LABOR, AND MONEY.
On these subjects the correspondent
says
The price of labor-such as the labor may
be-is 81 or '25 in United States coin.
But this standard of value is entirely the pro-
duct of the annexation scheme. Before the
excitement on the ubject sprang up one
could hardly say that anything had a price.
Labor was either borrowed and returned in
labor at some future time, or repaid in pro-
duce or store goods. There was no circu-
lating medium, practically speaking. The
/ L. l..
decessors can be bought by the bushel at
the value of waste paper. General Boynton
obtained for one good dollar about $1,000 in
Haytien and Dominican paper currency. He
| bought few copper coins, also, as curiosi-
ties, and the shopkeeper wrapped them up in
| 500 bills of Santo Domingo. Another man
said he had possessed about $15, 200 in bills,
but he had used good deal of it for wrap
! ping paper. So you see whatever else the
! people may expect from the United States,
they evidently don't expect us to redeem their
paper money. The prices of fruits, vegeta-
| bles, and all products of the country are gov
! erned entirely by the market, and the mar
ket depends entirely upon the ships.
| When there are no vessels in the har-
bor the cost of everything is merely
nominal At such times speculators
buy up everything at low rates, for the
people must sell their fruits or see them
! spoil on their hands, and as soon as a cargo
is collected, it is shipped to q northern port.
| Thus, when the market is good, cocoauuts
sell here for 81 % or 81 q hundred, bananas
! for 80 cents a bunch, each bunch containing
from 20 to 10, apples for 5 cents
apiece, coffee for 20 cents ponnd, sweet
! potatoes for i a bushel, rice in the husk for
$3 barrel. Wheat is not raised, and -four
sells for five cents pound. Wheat bread,
therefore, is comparatively rare, but when
ever you get it, you get it very good. The
people generally live on fruits and vege-
tables. The staples of their diet are plan
tains, which are excellent fried, yams,
sweet potatoes, cocoanuts, pines, bananas,
oranges, tomatoes, eggplants, and sometimes
! salt fish,
| The better classes have meat about twice
week, cattle being raised in small numbers
on the high lands; but beef sells for eight or
| ten cents pound-which is far beyond the
means of the poor-and besides it is hard to
! keep in this climate. Everybody keeps poul-
| try, and when there are ships in port
chickens are worth so cents apiece and eggs
80 cents dozen. But as soon as the last
vessel shows her stern to the rickety little fort
at the east end of the village down tumbles
all commerce. and the people become fright
fully lavish in the use of their remaining
stock of beef and eggs.
Fruits are always in season, for they ripen
all the year round. Cultivation, however, is
thing like farming is so profound, that it is
| impossible to ascertain how much of anything
is raised or the average yield per acre. There
are plantations of bananas and cocoanuts but
the plants are not generally set out systema-
tically; they are stuck into the ground any
where. The fruits most abundant are the
orange, lemon, lime, cocoanut, cacao, banana,
! pine, alligator-pear, guava, and tamarind
Pine-apples are immensely large and rich
Some measure 10 inches in diameter and
one of the naval officers was recently pre-
sented with pine weighing 81 pounds. All
these fruits are found in practically unlimited
quantities, the production being checked
only by the difficulty of transportation.
Apples, peaches, blackberries, strawber-
ries and watermelons flourish on the noun
tains Indian corn grows magnifcently.
Three crops are raised on the same land every
year, two of these crops are each larger than
an average crop in the States, besides being
of the best quality. Mountain rice is abun-
dant. Potatoes, yams, plantains, cabbages,
beets, turnips, cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes
g-plants, peas, beans, and l know not how
many other culinary vegetables are produced
in perfection. The Santo Domingo squashes
are the best squashes in the world.
The reports of the value and variety of
timber on the island are probably not exag-
gerated. The kinds most used for commer-
cial purposes are mahogany, logwood, ignum-
vita, iron-wood, and satin-wood, and these
are said by the botanists of the expedition,
as well as intelligent inhabitants with whom
have talked, to be of great abundance and
large growth. The mahogany tree in this
part of the island is from / foot to feet in
diameter; hgnumvite, to inches; satin
wood, to 10 inches; logwood, 6 to Is inches;
iron-wood, ~ to 80 inches. The climate and
soil seem to be admirably suited to the sugar