, 1888-03-11

equivalent to a years scourging toll with
us. The montero though, is a little near
or our thought and standard. Whether
upon his jacas herding the shining horned
bulls of Camaguey, or puttering about
his rose empowered cabin, in a certain in
finitesimal sense, he is a fellow of affairs.
And he possesses a sort OF chivalrous
valor hat has winsomeness in it. In the
revolution of '69 it was the Cuban mon
tero who held out to the last. He is I'M
conquered, though merrily peaceable
still. If the more easily corrupted Ha-
vanese had stood by these, and their
brave brothers of Camaguey, whose hero
ism was never surpassed ever upon the
bloodswept fields of our own revolution,
Cuba would have been a republic to day.
Thus the Cuban montero's indolency
grows rather out of over production than
inherent l~aziness. He does not acquire
and grab and wear his life to shreds to set
great store by. No condition he ever
knew required that. He has no love for
luxury. Hence he is in nowise distressed
or distracted. He has no e%nvious longing
for broad acres, for one acre will suffice.
1t he owns half a dozen, his unnecessary
wealth rests heavily upon him. He needs
no fuel to warm him; for a loving sun al
ways docs that. He needs but little clo-
thing to protect him; for he lives in end
less summer. He requires no barns and
great ~storehouses; for all the world he
knows is an endless ~storehouse, with the
bin-end at his very door. He needs no
grand house, for the whole flower bios
somed island is an odorous bed chamber
e~ternally. He may herd cattle, or work
on the sugar plantations for a few months
OF the year; but, if he does, a negro or
guajlro is his slave for the rest. The
whole active. prompting element of need
is eliminated from the montero's life.
You must know this before you can know
him. Getting a little closer to his home
life and thought, he may be said to exist
in perennial serenity. He marries be-
cause his father did. He rears children
because they come. They are welcome to
come, to stay, to go. The wife attends
to her few duties happily; she has no
mission" to become frenzied over; and
the yams come on the table at the right
time. So in the montero's, there is a bet
ter light than in some Of our %pretentious
American homes.
But guajlro, sltlero, or montero, whether
in hut or cabin, no people living are more
hospitable. At different times | have
visited hundreds in Cuba, and l know
this to be true. With the rich Spaniard
the saying, MY home is thinel' is but
cheap tustian. With all these humble
folk it may be always taken as literally
true. Indeed the little light which comes
to their lives grows out OF this boundless
hospitality. The Cuban countryman will
espy a stranger upon some lonely calzada,
and go a mile from his cabin to beg that
stranger to come to his home for coffee
and rest. His delight at YOU acceptance
of his urgent request is only exceeded by
his success in begging you to remain.
Whatever he possesses you may share it.
Ii your saddle bags are fat with provisions
for an inland journey, then you will share
their contents as generously with him. So
the simple custom yields compensations
both ways.
Perhaps the best idea possible of the
home of the more favored of classes of the
Cuban countrymen can be had from a
brief picture of one wherein | passed a
night and a day while wandering to this
lovely village. The head of the house,
which leaned decrepidly over the noun
tain way, was a brown faced, stocky fel.
low wreathed in smiles and overlooking
with good humor. He had seen me a
lOuR way Ou, anu udu ldlTly DlOChGu IUG
caIzada in front of his cabin with gestures,
petitions and blessings of all the saints
a vcritable sunny bandit band of well
comes-and had actually compelled me
to dismount and tarry. There were
winsome smiles, q silent but kindly faced.old
mother. and a host of hurley hurley. mu-
chachos of boys, whose whoOps and diver
sions among the valiant goats and fowls
were something startling to know. The
house was something better than the aver
age. 1t covered more ground. The por-
tai in front was roomier. The long, low
shed behind was more capacious. The
palm matched roof was higher. The one
or two windows or holes for light and air,
were larger, and their stout bars bore
traces of rude o~rnamentation. There
were just two rooms, the living and sleep
ing room. The former was perhaps thirty
feet square. The latter, which extended
one way the whole width of the structure,
was narrower, but still large enough for
the entire family's sleeping apartment.
The rafters held their usual endless varie-
tY of dried herbs, meats, garlic in strings,
while the walls were covered with saddles,
old arms, machetes and endless pieces of
the household portable property. Here
also, as everywhere in Cuba, was the
meditative goat, the fussy duck, the OBJ
strcperous game cock, and the diligent
flea. Perhaps two acres of ground were
enclosed by a tumble down stone wall.
The most luxurisnt of flowers and vines
wreathed in and over these; birds of
every color and voice glinted and trilled
hither and thither, and the whole spot,
again like all Cuba, was a natures heaven
accursed and disgraced by human igno-
rance and sloth. 70
Great preparations were made for the
dinner, or evening meal. over the smudgy
charcoal urns beneath the porch, and the
food was spread upon a table similar to
all the old inn tables | have seen here
wide, thick, ponderous and shining with
generations of drippings and grease.
The food consisted of a~jiaco, a stew called
Cuban all,sorts, roasted ripe and green
plantains in the place of bread, sweet po-
tatoes, and tassajo dc puerco, OF barba-
cued pig, which the boys had chased down
and dextrously larlated in the canons hard
by. And to crown all there was cheap
Catalan wine. Their drinking of this is
peculiar. No glasses are used, but the