, 1888-03-18

hands are required in the labor upon the
large plantations.
AS with sugar. the greatest impetus of
coffee raising has been comparatively re-
cent; and while coffee bears no important
part in the expert showing of the island
it is still considerable of an industry, ow-
ing to the revolution in San Domingo,
which forced thousands of refugees, ex.
pert coffee growers, to the eastern and
southern parts of Cuba. The cultivation
of the coffee plant was thus begun on a
large scale, but the ravages of war during
the late Cuban instructions nearly ex-
terminated the industry.
A sugar plantation comprising thous'
ands upon thousands of acres of cane
cleaning under a tropic sun is an inter
esting, but still wearying and eye aching
sight. 1t has untold thousands il its I'M
granulated oceans OF saccharine, but it is
devoid of beauty. A stretch of
American valley, with a score of nesting
homes and waving cornfields, is infinitely
more suggestive of plenty and wealth,
while the real beauty of the latter is a
feast to the heart and eye.
all large Cuban sugar plantations are
alike. Having seen one you have seen all,
so far as external affairs are concerned, 1t
Is often thec case that their owners. or les
secs, are people of culture and refinement
and with a host of friends and visitors
about them live here in a style of %affluent
elegance for which we can now find no
comparison in our country. But the dreary
reaches of cane; the long, snake like
tramways and roads for hauling the eme-
raid loads of treasure TO the mill; the
white tree fringed avenue leading from
the highway to the batey or square upon
which all the structures are faced with
startling regularity; the tall and lonesome
chimneys of the boiling house; the glaring
white buildings from villa to the quar-
tiers" that look forever so ghostily lone
some and torture our eyes in the pitiless
sun; are one and the same from one end
OF Cuba to another.
There is also on nearly every plantation
the ruins of the old fashioned sugar mill,
where in former days the excitement and
glare and STRINGS and endless yells for
mas candelal''-'more firel'-from the
imps of darkness who in the flashes and
shadows poked and gaumed with long
poles the thickening juice; and on not a
few estates you will still see the rickety
sheds called the ''purging house" where
huge sheetiron vessels, shaped like the
old fashioned funnel with which you run
buttermilk in your jugs in harvest time,
are now standing. Into these the crude
sugar was formerly put until they were
nearly full. A few inches of damp clay
were then smeared on top and the water
from the clay cleansed the crudities from
the sugar. The refinement was in pro-
portion to the number of applications Of
this clay and water. But the present
process has taken all the poetry and clay
out OF sugar making, 1t is a very bust
ness like matter from start to finish.
The plantation is divided into number
less squares or PATCHES, around and from
which, leading direct to the mill, are
guarda rayos or roads, which are FREE
quently tramways with iron bound wooden
rails, where one mule can easily amble
with 10, 900 pounds of the glistening cane
or cars. Frequently these guarda rayos
radiate in all directions from the batey or
square like the spokes of a wheel. 1t is
one stream of cane day and night to the
ponderous rolls which squeeze it dry as a
bone, whether it comes fast or slowly,
endwise or sidewise, and leave the rag
like, crushed and fsttened stalk in what
is called bagazo. This, dried in the sun,
provides the enuire fuel for the ncver-idle
boilers. The screaming and whining of
these orushing-rolls is one OF the most lu-
gubrious noises you ever listened to, and
can be heard night and day for dreary
miles, recalling the groaning and crying
of one of those old Red river trains that
have now been driven beyond the far Sas-
katchewan.
Then there are the tremendous engines
and boilers kept endlessly raging by the
} burning bagazo; countless pipes and fix
lures and the huge nickle plated wac
l uum pans" imbedded in polished wood,
where the cane juice, seemingly quiet is
kept at a fearful heat by steam; the great
watts and reservoirs; and, finally, the
swirling, whirlihg centrifugal machines
that, inside of five minutes, take the
black, nasty, mushy mess and beat it IN
til 1t is white a snow and ready for mar
ket, and brings. at the nearest seaport
city. from 4 to 5 cents a pound. From
100000 to 5000, 900 pounds are fire.
quently made annually upon each of these
plantations, which is an important factor
in the crop.
The fact is, these great sugar estates
are now run on so gigantic a scale that
they are little less than huge factories,
with all the hard characteristic of factory
life about them, the home or rural idea
being wholly eliminated. The place is
like a factory village, employing and car
ing for from one to two thousand souls.
The discipline is severe, the system per-
feet. The hands are invariably negroes.
They work in watches, or relays, day and
night, precisely as they do at your rolling
mills during the grinding season. The
males occupy quarters walled and barri-
caded from the women; the women from
the men; and there is no more chance Tor
Intercourse or frolic than in the American
ponitentiary. Those married have sepa-
rate quarters. The old ''mammies' are
set at '~ninding'' the ~pickaninnies during
the day, which are only turned over to
the parents at night. The broken down
and imbecile have an asylum. Probably
no village containing a like number of
people has the same systematic surveil-
lance and care. There is an infirmary, a
lying in hospital, physician, apothecary, a
chapel and priest. At night and morn
ing mass is said in church and the crowds
are always large.
There is of a Sunday less restraint,
though this under ceaseless espionage.
On these days, and in parts of holidays,
there is rude mirth, ruder music, much
dancing and cayortinp. Rut with all the