The Indianapolis sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1880-1904, 1885-05-24
BY RAIL In CUBA.
WAYSipE NOTES or A JAuNT TO
MATANzAS.
Cars Of the Crude Sort = Lottery Ticket
Vendors and Fruit Peddlers-window
Views Landscape and Products
"A Sugar Plantation.
Cuba Cor. Inter OCEAN

fCuba Cor. Inter ocean,
The rolling-stock for all tho Cuban rail-
WAYS was built In the United States, with
slight notifications from the American plan
on account Of climate and tho traffic to be i
accommodated TIE cars are plain and old,
representing the crude sort in use in the
States a great many years ago. The first
class coaches are, perhaps, on par with our
smoking-cars. The seats are caned, the
roof Is low, and the interior woods are I'M
ornamented. The second-class cars are
shade worse, and the third-class cars have
boards seats without backs, and blinds with
out window-glass. The first-class car Is
always attached to the rear end Of the train,
and is generally about empty.
When the train stops at a station horde
Of vendors Of various articles swarm into
the cars Offering their wares for sale. There
Is the boy with green cocoanuts, and per-
haps these universal fruits are reinforced by
oranges, guavas, and country cheese. Then
follows man with lightning bugs for sale.
These Cuban lightning-b bugs are regular
electric lights. 1t is said that even those
exhibited as curiosities in the states are in
ferior when compared with the native un-
trammeled bug that illumines the Cuban
night The lottery ticket vendors are also
on hand, as they always are everywhere
and on every occasion
Whenever the train is ready to start out
of station where it has made stop, a wiz
xled-up, weazen-faced Chinaman rings a
hand-bell vigorously, and the engineer opens
his throttle.
The place TO see Cuban life is in the third
class coach. There you have the negro, the
Chinaman, the creole or Cuban proper,
and the Spaniard all on common level.
About two-thirds Of the people who get on
ocf~x - Is<Ix.x oh han
fully bestow under their seat when they sit
down; and everyb body appears oblivious to
the vigorous squawking which is going on
among the fowls most of the time. Once in
awhile local policeman will come in and
go through the train, scowling suspiciously
at the passengers. Everybody carries a
collection of bundles Regular baggage is
charged extra in Cuba, and SO it Is Gus
tomary to reduce ones belongings to their
lowest terms and stow them away in odd
hooks and corners
The view from the car windows is novel to
the untraveled American, but characterized
10y considerable degree Of sameness. BY
all odds the most characteristic feature is
the palm. The shining. white, spindle
shaped trunks and bouquet tops Of this tree
dot the landscape on every side, although
nowhere constituting real forest / have
not Travelled in any other country where the
palm appeared so ubiquitous. Then q group
of laurels or cocoanut trees is liable to loom
into view, while occasional solitary ceibas
command remark by reason Of their smooth,
fat trunks and rambling umbrella tops The
ceiba is the largest tree grown on the Island,
and islanders are wont to point to it with
pride. Luxuriant wild morning glories, with
their blue. white and pink blossoms, may be
seen clambering over hedges Of the hardy
cactus; while the huge rugged leaves of the
banana bend dreamily over the palm
thatched huts of the natives. 1t is wonder
full what a servicable house these people are
able to make out of common palm and
banana leaves and bark without nail or
screw or any substantial material
Fields OF corn also a pear beside the track
10 various stages of development This
corn is recent discovery here 1t has now
become the universal fodder for horses and
cattle, since it is so cheap, and will grow the
year around. The reader must not imagine
such corn as our states of the northwest
have put on exhibition at New Orleans
an the spirit of friendly emulation.
The corn here does not seem to grow more
than two or three feet high, and what
they save as the ear we would sall nubbin
But the foliage fulfills an impJftant mission
as fodder. The castor oil beam is indigen-
roadside.
Two kinds of earth are noticeable In max
ing the trip nither-one very red, like that
encountered in Virginia, Georgia. the Caro-
liuas, and some other eastern states, and the
other black. l believe there is contest
among travellers as to the worth of those
two soils for growing purposes The red soil
is so intensely and so tenaciously red that
the hairless pigs which root in the fields and
the tails of the oxen that gaze wonderingly
at the passing train the oxen gaze, not the
tails are dyed with the same brilliant color.
The country can not be called pretty, in
my opinion, on account of the inferior quail
ity of the grass here. The brilliant green
verdure of our American hills is not realized
in Cuba. On the way from Havana here
think every traveller is surprised by the ap-
parent spareness of the population. No
village of any size is passed on the way.
The characteristic picture of a native Cuban
town embraces a few matched huts, con-
spicuous Catholic church and cemetery, a
handful OF fourteenth-century human beings
on horseback, resting under the hanging
roofs Of the few decent buildings near the
depot, and perhaps some ancient-looking
barracks for Spanish soldiers. Some of the
fences are made of our western barbed
wire; but the ma jority are either hedges. OF
prickly pear, or fences constructed OF live
saplings.
But the principal thing that the traveller
notices on the way from the Cuban metrop-
oils to this. the second sugar-exporting city
of the island, whether he comes by one route
or the other, is the series Of mammoth sugar
plantations extending almost the entire dis
tance. The air is heavy with the sickish
sugar smell, which emanates from the mill
house and is seldom out Of the traveller
nostril- Every few miles the huge open
buildings of some large estate loom into
view, the tall smoking chimney visible for
miles in this fat country. Branch railroads
belonging to the estate lead from the main
line all over the plantation.
TEE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS"
losing Their Disfinct;w. 49, 80 nr...