Morning journal and courier., 1888-03-17

I | the dreary reaches of cane; the long, snake | like tramways and roads for hauling the em- erald loads of treasure to the mill; the white tree -fringed avenue leading from the high way to the batey or square upon which all l the structures are faced with startling regu- ! larity; the live hedges of Spanish bayonet or ! savage pIickly pear and dirk-pointed heni- quen that mark the confines or divisions of l the estate; the tall and lonesome chimneys of the boiling house; the glaring white build- 1 ings from villa to ''the quarters" that look forever so ghostily lonesome and torture your eyes in the pitiless sun; the unsavory smell of the cane juice in all stages of conversion into sugar; and the never ending hordes of ignorant blacks sweltering and yelling like demons in their hard labor and as effortful pretenses of toll; are one and the same from one end of Cuba to another
 There is also on nearly every plantation the ruins of the o1d-fashioned sugar mill, where in former days the excitement and glare and stirrings and endless yells for sFmas candela!'-'Akore fre!"-from the imps of darkness who in the flashes and shadows poked and gaumed with long poles the thickening juice; and on not few es- tates you will still see the great riekety sheds called the "purging house," where the huge sheet-iron vessels, shaped like the old-fash- toned funnel with which you run buttermilk in your jugs in harvest-time, are now stand ing. Into these the crude sugar was former
 
 inches of damp clay were then smeared on top and the water from the clay cleansed the crudit1es from the sugar. The refinement was in proportion to the number of applica- tions of this clay and water. But the pres ent process has taken all the poetry and clay
 out of sugar making. It is very business like matter from start to finish.
 BIG BUSINESS.
 The plantation is divided into numberless squares or patches, around and from which, | leading direct to the mill, are guarda rayos or roads, which frequently tramways with iron bound wooden rails, where one | mule can easily amble along with ten thou sand pounds of the glistening cane on cars. Frequently these guarda rayos radiate in all directions from the batey or square like the spokes of a wheel. It is one steady stream 1 of cane day and night to the ponderous rolls, l which squeeze it dry as bone, whether it comes fast or slowly, endwise or sidewlse, 1 and leave the rag-like, crushed and fattened | stalk ill what is called bagazo. This. dried ! in the sun, provides the entire fuel for the never-idle boilers. The screaming and whin- l ing of these crushing-rolls is one of the most 1 lugubIious noises you ever listened to, and
 can be heard night and day for dreary miles, 1 recalling the grooming and crying of one of l those cid Red river trains that have now been l driven beyond the far Saskatchewan. Then 1 there are tine tremendous engines and boilers l kept endlessly raging by the burning bagazo; countless pipes and fixtures and the huge | nickle plated 'vacuum -pans," imbedded in l polished wood, where the cane juice, seem- 1 ingly quiet, is kept at fearful heat by | steam; the great yats and reservoirs; and | finally the swirling, whirling centrifugal ma ] chimes that, inside of five minutes, take the l black, nasty, mushy mess and beat it until 1t l is as white as snow and ready for market, l and brings at the nearest seaport city from ! four to five cents pound. From two to 1 five million pounds are frequently made an | nually upon each of these plantations, be-
 sides the enormous yield of molasses, which
 is an important factor in the crop.
 The fact is these great sugar estates are
 now run on so gigantic scale that they are | little less than huge factories, with all the
 hard characteristics of factory-life about
 them, the home of rural ideas being wholly
 eliminated. The place is like factory will l lage, employing and caring for from one to
 two thousand souls. The discipline is se- | were, the system perfect. The hands are in
 variably negroes. They work in watches o1 | relays day and night, precisely as they do a your rolling mills during the grinding sea-
 son. The males occupy quarters walled ane . 1 barIicaded from the women; the womel from the men; and there Is no more chanc
 for intercourse or frolie than in tho Ameri can penitentiary. These married have sepa , rate quarters. The old 'fmammies" are SC
 l at "minding" the pickaninnies during tn
 day, which are only turned over to the pa ) rents at night. The brokeu-d down and imbe ) cile have an asylum. Probably no villag containing like number of people has tn ] same systematic surveillance and care. Ther ) is an infrmary, lying in hospital, physi } l elan, apothecary, chapel and priest. A night and morning mass is said in the chape ) and the crowds always large There i ! of 8 Sunday less restraint, though this unde ceaseless espionage. On these days and il
 parts of holidays there is rude mirth, rude
 music, mnch dancing and cavorting. Blu with all the wealth; all the aggregation O l busy beings all the elegance that you vii l find at the house of the nabob proprietario } all the sxuberance of nature in her ever ) glowing moods all the singing of birds il ? their endless summer here; all the glory O
 flower and sun and air-yeu will never fnt r genuine human joy the Cuban sugar plan , tation.
 One little old American farmhouse that 7 can see in one little vale away back acros the years held more comfort and heart-hop 5 and cheer in one day than ever came to tbi Cuban luxuriance in all the centuries--
 EDGAR L. WAKENAN.