Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-03-17

Wn1l0 they are dl "OFh. III uO OlHSI Iu- dustry is this thing done, though it would seem that other workers 'by the piece" could initiate the Cubans to ad vantage. Not only do they keep in touch with all the news, but it keeps them from talking, and there isn't minute of their time wasted.
 The Cubaus are great takers, and this is what probably started the GUS tom in the cigar factories of Havana. When the men were brought to this country to make their cigars iI Key West and the lower part of New York city, they wanted a reader more than ever. They are very bright, intelligent fellows, these Cubans, and they take deep interest in the news of the world as we'll as the latest intelligence from their own little island. They all sub scribe to fund to pay their reader, and they work all the harder for keeping their mouths closed and their minds employed as they roll the tobacco.
 Julian Barreda is probably the most popular of the young men who earn good living by amusing and instructing the cigar makers. He is a native of Porto Rico, where he learned the Eng fish language as we'll as great many other things. He has had college ed ucation and can translate the English and American newspapers into Latin and Greek as easily as ill Spanish.
 He is employed just now in two fac tories, that of Lozano, Pendas & Co.,, at 209 Pearl street, and another one at William and Platt streets. When Porrp6a first fhIS rnnntrV he could not speak the language very well, though he knew it theoretically and could read and write it. He is a skilled electrician, but could get nOth- ing to do in his line and so went to ad- dressing envelopes at $3. 50 a week. There was vacancy in one of the Gu ban cigar factories after awhile, and by that time Barreda had mastered the speech of this country.
 He walked into the factory one day, and mounting the table which served as a rostrum for the reader he made a lit tie speech to the men, the purport of which was that he thought he would make good reader for them.
 They told him to go ahead and show what he could do. Ho pulled paper out of his pocket and began reading tariff editorial to them. They demand ed more when he had finished the edi- torial, and he read to them for an hour, translating the cable news, the sensa- tions of the day and the Washington dispatches into their native Spanish. The trial was satisfactory, and he was engaged at once for four hours day. There were 80 Cubans in the factory at that time, and each agreed to give him 25 cents a week. Then Barreda made an arrangement on the same terms with another factory, which employed 40 men, and he was in receipt of good in come at once.
 He reads for 12 hours at each factory in the morning and for 215 hours in the afternoon. He has his evenings to him. self, but he occupies couple of hours then in reading the afternoon papers to familiarize himself with the late news, and so his day is busy one.
 Tt is not so easy task as one might suppose" said Barreda to a reporter. "The men are very critical, and if the matter is dull or uninteresting they do not hesitate to shout out and demand change. They are especially interested in the foreign news. Then they want the general news and anything sensa- tional in the city news. They like scan dal. A divorce case or anything on that order just suits them. As fast as the Cuban papers arrive by mail I get them and read them, and the Spanish papers published in the city contain great deal that the men want to hear.
 Tn the afternoon read to them out of some book. Just now I am reading Gil Bias in one shop and Spanish novel called The Two Sisters in the other. When have finished novel, select half dozen others that I think will suit them and read them a list of titles. Then they vote on which one I shall begin.'
 Are they good listeners?'
 ''The best in the world. They are working all the time, and they are anx- ious not to miss word. They work faster when some one is reading, and they realize that if they ever get to talk ing together their bill at the end of the week will be just so much less. They are nearly all revolutionists, you know, and there is great chance for argument among them, because they all belong to different factions.
 II have to be very careful in reading the Cuban papers and those published in Spanish in this city that do not miss an editorial representing some par ticular shade of opinion. No matter how radical it is, it is sure to have some ad- herent and some sympathizer in the shop"
 Barreda has learned to be very dis eliminating newspaper reader. He knows when to skip the dry part of an article, and he knows just what news paper is the one to begin on in the morn ing.
 None of his hearers speaks English and their desire to know about the country and the city they are living in makes the employment of the reader Tot only a luxury which few workmen en- joy at their occupations, but an absolute necessity.-New York World.