Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-06-26
Immense Output From the Oldest
Town on This Hemisphere.
CONDITION OF CUBA UNDER SPAIN
Some Of the Curious Customs Of
the Inhabitants.
THEY TAKE LIFE EASY
Written Exclusively for The Evening Star.

Il have just returned from a visit to the
oldest town settled by white men in the
western hemisphere" said Mr. Robert Hill
of the geological survey. 1T is called Ba-
racoa, and is situated at the eastern end of
the Island of Cuba. Spaniards started the
settlement ten years after the discovery of
America by Columbus. 1t has been a scene
of turbulence and bloodshed for centuries.
During the great revolution of twenty-five
years ago a battle was fought there, I'm
which three hundred men were killed. the
high ground back of the city acforuing
refuge for the insurgents, who sailed forth
fern time to time upon the town.
AT present. however Baracoa Is most
I interesting one Of the greatest banana
shipping ports in the world. / should tell
you prelminarily that. whereas the western
! part of Cuba is a vast plantation of sugar
and tobacco. the east end of the island is
viii ierness covered for the most part with
virgin forests. Such portions of the eastern
half as are under cultivation produce chiefly
bananas and oocoanuts. The coast. you
must understand is very abrupt, ascending
! In three remarkable terraces TO general
altitude of 1000 feet. Beyond rise the
mountains TO a height of 600 feet.
The banana planta are not seen
! from the coast. On the arrival of a fruit
| central points in the interior. From these
! points horseback riders convey the news to
! the banana plantations. The bananas are
! then cut, after which they are transported
/ In panniers by cows to the edge of the
/ plateau overlooking the coast Thence
! they run down by wire trolleys to the
| banks of the Yuiniri river, where they are
loaded upon small lighters. Negroes pole
/ the lighters out of the river and through the
surf to the fruit vessel. AS might be i'm
agined. this is dangerous performance.
and the lighters are often upset.
| t..'s Shipping the bananas.
THE mouth OF the Yumiri river Is eight
cen miles from Baracoa. After getting a
! load, the fruit steamer returns to the town
| for her clearance papers, and twenty-four
hours after her arrival she Is on her way
back to Philadelphia, New York or Boston
The planter gets 10 cents bunch for his
bananas. delivered at the top of the cliff
Ten cents bunch in addition Is paid TO the
/ trolley concern for fetching the merchandise
to the rivers edge. The negroes pass the
bananas from the lighters into the hold Of
the vessel chain-fashion. The punches are
stood on end. two deep. upon a false deck.
The negroes are the happiest people i'm
aSinable. They sing songs while they pass
| the punches into the vessel. A man stands
on the deck of the ship and examines every
bunch Any bunch that shows the least
sign of ripening is thrown away or given to
the laboreIs. The craft being loaded. a free
ride TO Baracoa is given TO the darkeys.
They bring with them dogs, goats, pigs
and chickens. which are their pets. Every
negro possesses one or more pet animals
with two or four legs which he takes about
wherever he goes. The place of honor on
board the vessel Is near the door of the
captains cabin. around which the black
| passengers squat.
THE United States consul, though not
| obliged to do SO. clears the fruit vessels at
any hour of the day or night. Thus they
lose no time in starting due north for New
York, or one degree west of north for Phil
adelphia. The American consul at Baracoa
is the only United States citizen in the
place. He has occupied the post for a num-
Der of years and Is likely to stay there, for
the climate is unhealthy that all of his
| predecessors have died OF II. on reaching
the port of destination in this country the
! few hcuts and starts back Immediately for
| Cuba. From April to October from 500
to 5000 punches of bananas are shipped
every day from Baracoa. The town is on
tongue OF land projecting into the gulf
On the point Is an ancient Spanish fort
| about the size of ordinary dwelling
| house. with ditch ard moat, armed with six
| teenth-century cannon.
They Have Carpetbagger.
II have spoken of cocoanuts as the most
important product of eastern Cuba after
bananas. The fruiters pay s. thousand
for them. On the island they are hulled
ground and pressed for oil. The process re-
sembles that by which cotton-seed oil is
made The cake of solid residue is fed to
! hogs or thrown away. while the shells are
used for fuel in sugar factories. The oil
lis employed as a lubricant for sugar-making
machinery. Better uses for the cocoanut
are familiar, such as the manufacture of
Sc APP and mats. but all industries I'm Cuba
| are extremely primitive.
An industry at Baracoa is the refining
of petroleum. 1t would be much easier to
| fetch the refined oil from the United States
| But the import duty is so high that 1t pays
better TO get the crude petroleum from this
| country and refine Ii on the island. This
is just little freak of Spanish custom
laws. Factories have been established in
Central America for making -four from
bananas, which are put through processes
OF slicing, drying and grinding; but II will
be long time before such a modern idea
is taken up in Cuba. The fact is that the
island is about century behind The age.
Carpetbagism prevails there in its most
exaggerated form. All the officials are
from Spain: there is an occupying army Of
| 25.U0 Spanish soldiers, a captain general
does the governing, and no native is per-
mitted TO hold office.
Asus Why Behind the Are.
People in this country have a rather
hazy idea about Cuba. / dare say you do
not realize that the island is as long as
from New York to Chicago. and extends
| through three and a half degrees of lati-
tude. Yet the richest of the Antilles has
no public roads Spanish government
wherever it is found. bars the progress Of
civilization. There are no public improve
ments in Cuba. The eastern half of the
! island has no highway: the roads leading
into the interior are COW paths and nothing
/ more.
Spain will never let us have Cuba She
! will not sell the island at any price. That
is a pity: for. IL could get hold of Cuba
she would jump ahead about two hundred
years within half a decade. The resources
of the country are undeveloped. In the
mountains are vast stores of metallic
| wealth. Some deposits of iron are worked
by the Carnegie company. which employs
about 1000 men. the product being shipped
to the United States. The limestone forma-
| ton of the island decays into rich. RED
soil. which produces great crops of almost
anything. The banenas exported from
Baracoa are the finest in the world.
Tobacco IL grown all over the island
| The best cigars made from east Cuban
! leaves are sold for a cent ard half apiece
OF course. they are not equal to the pro-
duct of the Vuelts Abajo, but they are bet
ter than could be manufactured from any
| tobacco plants produced in the = United
| States Most Cubans roll their own cigars