Morning journal and courier., 1888-03-10

l eQlV 8 LraeG1OQ or G1aC amount, TOT WQ1Cl n ] pays an exorbitant rental to the proprietario
 who lives in Havana in opulence and dissi 1 patton. The proprietario is as hard upo1 l his Cuban brother as Spain is upon the is ] land. This landlord lives his little spend l thrift life in the gay capital, only to become | overwhelmed with debt, and in time be sup | planted by other land proprietors, who, 1T l turn, dissipate, grind the tenantry and make way again for others Thus the landed aris l tocracy of Cuba is constantly passing from | opulence to beggary. A common expression
 here illustrates tke quick shifting of fortunes
 in commerce as well as in lands: "Padre bo' deguere, hijo caballero, nieto pordio seroI' ('The father a grocer, the gentleman, the grandson 8 beggarrO
 But in all these changes the sitiero remains the same luckless, sunny gatherer of whatever this grand and exuberant cline brings forth. He has neither motive nor prompting, from an active need or wise landlord, to be else than he is, and this will be so long as the race which rules him continues in mastery. So it is that you will see him on every hand, using the primitive utensils with which mother earth was prodded in old Spain half 8 thousand years ago-scarcely better off than the ancient Goths and Huns in environ ment-and dragging his drinking water by ox-sled in tremendous puncheons from some spring or stream miles and miles away from his palm -thatched, hillside hovel.
 THE MoNTERo.
 But the moutero is more of & man. He is often quite as indoIent. And it must be ever borne in mind that virility, vigor, activity, thrift, as we know them in our rigorous cline, which thrust savage necessity at every door, are here absolutely unknown, are seemingly unneeded. In the scale of re- quirement for actual subsistence 8 months s effort in Cuba is equivalent to Q years SCOUT ging toll with us. The montero though is 8 little nearer our thought and standard. Whether upon his jacas herding the shining horned bulls of Camaguey, or puttering about his rose embowered cabin, in a certain in6nitesimal sense he is a fellow of affairs. And he possesses sort of ehivalrous valor that has winsomeness in 1t. In the revolu- ton of '69 it was the Cuban montero who held out to the last. He is unconquered, though merrily peaceable still. If the more easily corrupted HaVanese had stood by these and their brave brothers of Canaguey, whose heroism was never surpassed even upon the blood-swept fields of our own revolution, Cuba would have been republic to-day.
 Thus the Cuban nnonteros indoleney grows rather out of over production than inherent laziness. 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 envious longing for broad acres, for one acre will suffice. If he owns half dozen his un- necessary wealth rests heavily upon him. He needs no fuel to warm him, for loving sun always does that. He needs but little clothing 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 storehousa, with the bin-end at his very door. He needs no grand house, fo1 the whole dower-blossomed island is an odorous hed-ehanber eternally. He may herd cattle or work on the eugar plantations for few months of the year, but if he does 8 negro or guajiro 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 little closer to his home-life ano thought, he may be said to exist in perennial l serenity. He marries because his father did He rears children because they come. They are welcome to come, to stay, to go. Int
 wife attends to her few duties happily; sh, has no Emission" to become frenzied over and the yans come on the table at the righ l time. So in the montero's there is better l light than in some of our pretentious Ameri can homes.
 But guajiro. sitiera or montero, whether il | hut or cabin, no people living are more hos l pitable. At different times I have visited
 hundreds in Cuba, and I know this to -b 1 true. With the rich Spaniard the saying 'tMy home is thine!' is but cheap fustian 1 w 1bU HI luesS uumO1o 1olh IL may Oo olWoy
 taken as literally true. Indeed the littl 1 light which comes to their lives grows out o this boundless hospitality. The Cuba
 oountryman will espy stranger upon som lonely calzada and go mile from his cabil l to beg that stranger to come to his home fo "coffee'' and rest. His delight at your ac
 ceptance of his urgent request is only ex
 ceeded by his success in begging you to re main. Whatever he possesses you may shar it. If your saddle-bags are fat with provi l sions for an inland journey, then you vii share their contents generously with him So the simple custom yields compensation both ways.
 Perhaps the beat idea possible of the hem l of the more favored of classes of the Cubal 1 countryman can be had from brief pictur l of one wherein passed a night and a da,
 while wandering to this lovely village. Tn | head of the house, which leaned decrepitl l over the mountain way, was a brown-faced l stocky fellow wreathed in smiles and over flowing with good humor. He had seen m a long way of and had fairly blocked tn calzada in front of his cabin with gestures
 petitions and blessings of all the saints ! veritable sunny bandit band of welcomes
 and had actually compelled me to disnoun | TcoNTTNTTED ON FoURTH PAGE