Morning journal and courier., 1885-05-27
IN CUBA.
Hne Rural Regions-DisappOfnt -Anchdents of Travel by Rafl-PaIms -Red Painted Earth ssPalaces,s- Cuban Politeness-Cane and Corn matanzas and Its tsSIghts.,,


 Rural Cuba is subject to which the tour. ist turns with eager anticipation, after having "exhausted" @ Havana, which is largely forelgnized It is subject so com , monplace, however, that the traveller who has had chance to study other than the civili- zations of Europe and America is likely to :, be disappointed. Such was my experience
 If Matanzas is more Cuban than Havana that
 is the reason why it has more slender hold
 on my affections. If it were somewhat
 Americanized it would be more likely to play
 on my heart strings. If this be treason make
 the most of it.
 I realize that it is the part of duty to gush over the Queen of the Antilles, but it is my
 misfortune that cannot honestly do so It
 grieves me that this is so. Now and then you get hold of an illustrated magazine arti-
 ele descriptive of Cuban sugar plantation ! that leads you think of the island as mun-
 dane paradise; and not a few books rest on
 your library shelves which serve to create
 the same impression. I can but wonder
 where the writers get their data. I long to
 be sentimental also, as I have already init
 mated; but how can when all the jungles
 are thin groves of emaciated trees, all the
 gorgeous -plumaged birds are buzzards all
 the palaces storied stucco structures,
 all the colleges are primary schools, and all l the public boulevards are miserable alleys l paved with cobb1e stones?
 | But rural Cuba begins long before you 1 reach Matanzas and is hungry looking pic ! ture. There are two railways leading from
 Havana here. The first of these, the Bahia, is ! considerably the shorter and it's trains make ! the trip in half an hour less time than those l of the other, while the latter make no stops l en route and the former stop at all way sta l tions. To counteract this advantage, the l longer route is made the cheaper. In general
 railway fare is absurdly high throughout | Cuba, ,-the tariff being S16 in gold for the | trip from Havana to Cienfuegos on the south
 ern coast. But competition between these rival lines to Matanzas has brought the fare down to an even more absurdly low figure.
 By the Bahia route the frst-class fare is S1 50 p while by the other it is only s11O. Secou q1 and third class fares are proportionally low CT Most tourists go by one line and come 1o tit by the other,-though the scenery cfEon | m variation. The train of cars that berf of along through the country will haveamorv st familiar look to you, providing vor.;1roai- { or extends back to the early historpe eneire~ rc sf ing in the United States. .Indeeand the an W with their faring smoke-staclnanufactu1ed cient, low, ,hat-1oofed cars w-class coaches | " in New England. The sh paint; but they l' are dlngy in the need ofefore they are sup have caned seats, and The second-class
 posed to be luxur' less decent, and the o coaches are sle windows without glass SC thlrd-class cars seeats without backs. The re and plaln boar attached to the rear of the Il nrst-ciass I eeaggually empty or nearly so, e1 fl I1 sraln ana iG l6Surist season. You get the oesl cept Tn the native life and manners In the | 8 glimpse Ho There the Cubans of small D tnlraS5pnts, the Spanish soldiers, the r oasgpnsaen, par and sslos negroes mingle after ( +&o,oughly democratic fashion The neSro sj4ment predominate. Everybody has chicken or two which must pc saleiy us nosed under the car seat. This mama TOT chickens extends even to the higher walks o1 | life I have been on board Spanish steam boat when two-thirds of the Cuban lady | ,assenoers had chickens in their cabins with them And nobody pays any attention 10 the outrageous squawklng wn1en 'ne lo"is keep up: ot ,,1oca town, Chlnaman or negro rings bell and the train moves on. But in the interim | few men and boys have had a chance to come | in and vend their peculiar wares One man has green cocoanuts for sale, another has | oranges and half dozen varieties of tropical l fruit, third has Cuban lightning bugs for the curious foreigners, and whole raft of boys are present with the ubiquitous lottery | tickets. The 1ghtning-bug is a whole con stellation in himself. Even the specimens | brought to the States and exhibited as curi- | osities do not do him justice.
 The scenery along either route is easily | described, and the same description will an- | swer not only for both, but also for almost l the entire island. The salient feature of the | landscape everywhere is the royal palm, with it's smooth, spindle-shaped trunk and graceful umbrella top. There are whole ! groves of these palms, and it is hard to find a prospect point anywhere from which groups of them may not be seen on all sides. Ere quently they have been planted in magnif- cent avenues by owners ot estates in the country. These palms equal in shapeliness and luxuriant growth any that l have ever seen in other tropical countries. They re- deem the island from utter homeliness, for it cannot be denied that they are picturesque element in the landscape. But for her palm trees and the novelty of things as they appear to the tourist who l has hitherto confined his travels to America, Cuba would be a very commonplace country. Indeed it is so, physically at best, for many | reasons. In the first place the Cubans don't know what grass is The stuff they call grass | is faded dusty imitation of the genuine article. The trees seldom congregate in | sufficiently large numbers to justify the use of the word forest, or even to furnish much shade for the painting cattle. Flowers there l are scarcely any; birds there are few except l buzzards, and those few have such harsh reed voices that you are glad they do not | offer to sing. The other scattered elements
 
 I extent are solitary Ceiba trees, with their ! sleek, corpulent trunks and rambling tops l (the largest tree in Cuba) clusters of laurels l and tamrinds, orange and lemon trees, rag ged-leafed bananas waving over peasant | homes and wild morning glories chamber | ing over cactus hedges.
 l Take it all in all, Cuba very narrowly es- l capped being a most dreary and commonplace | island, to my mind. Two kinds of earth | salute the eye from the car window,-a black TO1-,.G | agreed touching the respective merits of these | two kinds of soil than are land agents from different sections of Florida touching the ' relative prospects of their real estate. The red earth is, I should say, even more intensely red than that so often encountered | in the States bordering on our own Atlantic
 seaboard. Talk of painting town red | there are whole sections of Cuba that are l painted red underfoot, while even the mire- loving, hairless hogs and the tails of such
 cattle as fail to exercise due care in switch ing their caudal appendages are painted the ! same lur1d hue.
 The country is by no means as thickly set
 tied as had supposed. The few cities in
 the island are only overgrown villages if Ha- I vana be left out of consideration. Between
 these cities are small, mean-looking villages located at intervals of ten miles or so. You
 would scarcely call these places villages at | all, They are simply collections of huts l matched out of palm-bark and leaves and
 banana leaves without the aid of nail, screw
 or glue These huts are scarcely less squalid l in appearance than those of the natives in
 the interior regions of India or China. When ! you do come to what they call palace it is a
 storied structure in parti-colored stucco, ram bling over vast area of ground, and at
 tractive only by reason of the pretty tropical
 gardens around it. These palaces would
 look like prisons even if they were not pro- } vided with barred windows and an encircling wall. And yet their bare, lofty, marble ! hoored rooms are very cool and comfortable | when once you get inside of them. But even the people of wealth and certain sort of culture who dwell in these airy prisons are offensive to me. How some people can TO- } nance over this Cuban race passes my com prehension. doubt if any such sentiment al romancist ever sat beside them at table on board of a steamer or in hotel, as l have 5 done. When one is so situated it requires the most careful watchfulness to keep from eating his Cuban neighbor's elbow. so often l l is that member thrust in front of him to
 reach some remote plate. think l am not , fastidious in the matter of table etiquette, l but nevertheless must draw the line at cer-