Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-07
IDLENEss AND POVERTY.


ton at any eff these places, or undergoing
repairs. A few shovels of earth are added
to the roof in the rainy season, but the
rapidly accumulating filth on the walls
afford sufficient shelter in their direction.
These houses were made and finished CEN
turies ago, when the capacity of the soil
the richest in all the world-was first dis
covered, and it has never occurred to those
who have succeeded to the inheritance that
they might be replaced OF improved. They
answer as well now as they did then; for the
Cuban's wants are few, he is rich with a
pair of linen trousers and a speckled shirt;
rich in the sun-scorched filth that abides
with him forever. But he seems happy
enough. He has all he wants, all be thinks
he needs, and upon his floor of earth the pigs
and poultry share his food and his slumbers.
This drowsiness, idleness, poverty and
content has pervaded the air and possessed
the people since the Spanish finished slay-
ing the natives, and brought negroes from
Africa for the work the suns glare and
their own Incidence forbade them to do.
The condition is permanent changelessness.
A Cuban Rip Van Winkle would have no
difficulty In recognizing the place if he
should sleep, no matter how many years.
He would see the same. half naked negro
slumbering peacefully in sun that will
roast beef; the same dirty Sonora in the
same filthy calico gown, and the same heel
trodden slippers upon her stockingless feet,
leaning istlessly against the same mud
speckled shirt, worn outside the same pam
falcons, bowling in a hoarse. discordant
voice the virtues of the wares he is vending;
the same pigs wallowing with the same
naked children, and the same drowsy, per-
spring crowd of loafers hanging around the
corner "bodega," or grocery, in the eternal
noon.
ABSENTEE LANDLORDS.
This is the Cuba the stranger finds in the
place of the beautiful thatched cottage with
far reaching caves, surrounded by brilliant
plants, filled with gorgeous birds. and spicy
fragrance, which has had its place in the
pictured Biographies of his childhood, and
the dreams that haunted sleep when he was
planning his tour. He is charmed with no
lovely landscapes, and his senses have been
regaled with no pungent perfumes, which
the poets say can be caught far out at sea.
He finds there are more flowers on any
woodland hill in New York than in the
paradise of the Tropics" and more COM
fort in the poorest farmhouse of New En-
gland than on the best and richest of the
plantations of the "Pearl of the Antilles"
Every energy the climate leaves in man or
beast is concentrated and absorbed in the
production of as many pounds of sugar as
possible to the acre, a production which has
paid to the owner who lives in Havana,
Paris or New York, profit greater than
soil has ever yielded elsewhere, but at the
loss of the manhood, the morals, the health,
and the happiness of those who labor here.
When Spain releases her despotic hold
upon Cuba, the negro population, as is the
case in Hayti, will reach out for genuine
freedom and become the owners and the
rulers of the island. The manifest destiny
of Cuba is to be governed by those who
labor-the rule civilization has followed
everywhere. The Spaniard now only holds.
the place by the vigorous use of an army
that costs Cuba $25, ,00U,00 a year, and by
the terrors Morro Castle inspires. The
Cuban is in state of perpetual revolt-in
his mind; and occasionally the eternal fire
of patriotism burns SO fiercely that he yells
Cuba Librep' and breaks out in insurrec-
tion. but he has not the fiber of which he
roes are mads, and will never resist to sue
cess.
THE TOMB OF COLUMBUS.
HAvana claims to hold in her keeping the
dust of the man who had the daring to cross
an unknown sea with 20 sailors that believed
they were in danger of getting too near the
edge of things and sliding off Although
he discovered world, Columbus died in
poverty and disgrace, as did all the Spanish
explorers. Another man stole the glory
and gave his name to the hemisphere; but
two of the islands Columbus found are dis
putting the honor of possessing his bones.
Historians think that San Domingo has the
best tide to the honor, but in the chief
cathedral of Havana, in the walls that sur
rounded the altar, and just above the Bish-
ORs chair is ss.ssOloFsd 60 t i @arbl: slab