The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-11-02

among her Cuban colonists here. The one
Roman Catholic church..in which services
are held in the Spanish language, small
as it is, is rarely filed; nor do the Protes-
tant missions meet with much success
There is private school in Ybor City
where instruction is given IN spanish,
but as rule the Cuban parents prefer
sending their children to American
schools, that they may learn English. In
pol: tics the Cubans are clannish. They
have no particular partisan attachment,
but vote with the patty that best serves
their interests, and in munlclpal electlons
the candidate who receives their support
is sure Of success. Like the french.
they consume great quantities OF wine
and brandy without being seriously
affected by it. The cigar makers are well
paid, receiving SO, So, or even "a day.
but few of them save their money.
In certain respects Ybor City and West
Tampa are quite dissimilar. Ybor City,
the older and much the larger Of the two.
was founded in 1886 by y. n. 4bor &
Go. (now v. NJ Ybor & Manarara, and
Sanchez & Haya. Its population is
heterogeneous. Besides tho Cubans, who
contribute four-ffths of the total, there
are about 1900 Americans, 1000 Span
iards and 800 Italians.
The Cubars are The masters everywhere.
The two papers printed in the Spanish
language, tine Esclavo (weekly) and the
Cuba daily, are Jealous advocates of the
independence of Cuba. Mass meetings
are held from time to time, at which
orators denounce the tyranny of Spain in
the most impaSsioned language. Every
| where is seen the flag that was taken te
Cuba by Narcisso Lopez in 1851, with its
three blue stripes, symbolical OF the he
publican motto, Liberty, Equality, Fra
ternity,'' and it's lone star of pure white,
floating in triangular field of dark red,
for "oniy by the shedding OF tblood Will
Csba gain her independence.
The Cubans even refuse to work in the
same factory with 'Peninsulars, as
they oontemptuously dub the Standards.
Consequently rhele are Cuban factories
and Spanish factories. 10 TINS rule
Seidenberg's factory is an exec ptlon. In
it both Cubans and Spaniards are en-
p.oyed, and the professional reader, that
universal accompaniment OF every large
factory, reads to the workmen from his
elevated statege the news of the day in
Spanish and Cuban papers alternately,
and makes no comments Whatever. And
vet, since the coming of the Cigar fac
tories to Tampa, there have been open
hostiIities between the Cubans and Span
iards but once, and on that occasion the
trouble was due less to political than to
labor questions.
West Tampa differs from Ybor City in
that it has no SpanlardS Whatever, ana
not more than 10 Americans. The entire
absence Of Spaniards is due to the fact
that West Tampa was built up by Gu
bans who left Key Vest in 1894 and came
to Tampa, because the manufacturers of
Key West persisted in employing Spanish
workmen.
When the revolution broke out in Cuba
last February, it found the 'exterior"
Cupans fully organized throughout
America into revolutionary societies.
whose object was not only political pro-
paaandism, but principally the raising Of
funds, and to those societies the insur-
gents looked for moral and financial as
sistance. Wherever Cubans were found,
in the United States, Mexico, Central
and South America, there were revolu-
tjonary societies, and all were bound to-
gether into d general organization. wit
headquarters in New York. The territory
covered by the Cuban Revolutionary So
ciety was divided into districts, and a
vice-delsgate was appoined for each dis
trict.
= The state of Florida, which alone conf
prised one district, was THE most impor-
tant Of these both in the number of