, 1888-05-27
CoLUMBIA's NEAR NEIGHBoR.
A Land Under the ThraIdom of Spanish
Tyranny.

uels home among the old Cuban coffee
plantations were not only full of dreamful
siesta but of delightful wanderings as
well. Some of these | took alone and
afoot after M old Gypsy tramp fashion.
But there is no precedent for walking in
Cuba. This has some unpleasant com
pensatlOns, for there are no tramps.
Everybody rides. Poor and In desperate
dolor indeed is the meapest guaiiro who
owns nc jacas or pony. This has some
unpleasant compensations. There are
brigands in Cuba. But these harm no
n not a Spaniard. No Cuban or Amer
lean ever suffered from the attentions of
my friend Matagas, the terrible, whose
name is a positive horror to each member
of SPANS brutal standing army in Cuba.
Brigand or planter, guajiro or montero,
however, always has a ready saddle pony
at command. Like u flash they are into
the saddle and away.
And what riders they arel They sit-not
like your park horseman, who, ramming
the pommel into the pit of his stomach
points to the horizon with his trembling
legs, and exposes the laughing sky between
himself and the saddle straight as the
WbA ShhSt az hhCCo NGh lDTWaTu, WIFI
loose rein, and are a part of every move
ment of the animal beneath them. Every
one OF them could pick his sombrero
from the ground at full speed; and because
their perfect n~aturalness and good sense
in the saddle is as patent to their horse as
TO any on-looker, there is no behest of
human making within brute comprehen-
SION to which these ponies will not instant
ly respond. These exhilarating rides in
Wiley and upon mountains furnished
many interesting observations upon Cuban
yeomanry IN this region Of the espionage
and public b~rigandage OF Spanish soldiery
themselves, OF Cuban deep woods and
their tenaDtry of beast, bird and reptile,
and Of Cuban coffee lands and coffee cul-
ture.
So far as the Spanish soldiery are con-
erned their maddening goading of Cuban
ceOple are nc better nor worse now than
fol years previous to the recent proclama-
ton of martial law. The class which
seems to have been detailed by the Span
ish authorities to incite another revolution
here, is the guardia civil. These prowl
about the country in small squads, on the
Dretext of searching for bandits and their
harborers, perpetrating all manner of in
dignities and outrages upon helpless and
innocent people. | had a personal expe-
rience Of their delicate system of collect
ing Spanish revenues. A party of four
of us, mounted, were leisurely riding
along one of the Trinidad mountain roads
when there suddenly emerged from be-
hind q thicket of tamarinus a trio of these
guardia civil.
"Artol' ("Ualtl') they yelled at us.
We at once stopped, when, with drawn
reyolyers, they dashed down upon us.
Who are your Where are you
from2' Where are you going2" they
questioned in a brutal manner All this
was most humbly explained. But descry-
ing an American among the party, it
seemed to become Il serious matter. My
passport was demanded t~hreateningly.
nHumphl' "Ohol' and an hundred
"Carambas!' followed its examination.
1t was correctly rised. Everything was as
it should bc-save it stated that | was 80
years of age. They did not believe 1t,
they asserted. with dark looks. Some
thing was wrong. For n moment it
seemed that arrest would follow. Draw
ing the indignant Don Manuel aside. the
brother whispered in Spanish:
KS meior darle un doblen n cada uno
para que nos deien en- PAIL cit is
better to give a doubloon and not be de-
tanned. ")
1t was done, and we were permitted to
20 our way. But they glared at US saw
agely and shouted, "Bien, tengau cuida-
dol C"Well, have a %carel" as we thank
fully left the company of these uniformed
Spanish highwaymen.
During these rides the remarkable Gu
ban hospitality of which | have already
spoken, was again and again emphasized.
L was simply impossible to get past any
habitation, from hat of a decayed but
still well to do planter to the humblest
charcoal burners cabin, without dis
mounting for a light for our cigars, or a
few minutes chatter over the dolorous
condition OF affairs in the island, during
which coffee must be taken. This is
forever ready in every Cuban country
home. Neither coffee or fire are ever out,
and as this was the coffee country of the
island, the quality of that usually offered
on these occasions is remarkable for its
excellence. 1t is invariably taken without
milk or sugar, and necessarily but spar.
lngly, as is also true of the Cuban use of
liquors. There being neither stoves nor
hreplaces in Cuba the question of cooking
fires becomes al odd one. In the cities
all cooking is done on charcoal urns, in
tuc hIBeT ESTABLISHMENTS THESE often De-
ing arranged in the form of massive char
coal ranges. But in these remote country
places a little pagoda like corner is built
next the house, or a detached structure
not unlike an American farmers large
smoke house, is seen. Here the fire is
built squarely upon the ground. or upon
or within rude stone bases, and the smoke
ascends at will, usually finding vent under
raised roofs. In this primitive cocina or
kitchen the guarda Candida LITERALLY can.
die, or Ere gua-d) is always sm~ouldering,
1t Is practically the fireplace back log
Of our olden days to the Cuban country
home. If it should go out, which is sell
dom permitted, as unhappy superstitions
attach to the fact, on discovery it is in
stantly rolighted from flint and steel
sparks stuck into punches of corn tassels
or dry and splintered leaves of the palm.
One of our oldest experiences was a
visit to a genuine ~''cobijar'' or Cuban
house raising" A couple had been
married. About a cabelleria of land had
been given them by an old montero father,
and planters and yeomcn alike, some from
as far as twenty leagues away among the
mountains, had come TO make a sort Of