St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1896-03-27


but they are a perfect protection agains
the insurgents rifles. Then there ar
travelling forts-cars like an ordinar,
freight car, but lined with boiler irol
and supplied with Sits, through which
the soldiers can shoot while their enc
mics bullets can never reach them.
There are soldiers everywhere. You
meet the officers in every first class
coach, and every station platform has it's
quota of civil guardsmen, regulars or
volunteers. But, after all, this is not
surprising in land SO prolific of plot
and counterpart and sudden and disas.
trous uprisings of the people. And yet
perhaps the most amazing thing that
the traveller has always found in Cuba
whether she were quiet or in eruption,
is the mild semblance of peace that
seems to pervade the air.
Spirit of the People.
For the spirit of the people is light
and gay. The Latin mind is volatile
and not given to mourning. Grief here.
like hatred, is violent while it lasts, but
smiles and laughter follow swiftly.
The race characteristics are distinctly
Latin. The Cuban lady is charming. She
moves with simple elegance, invariably
having that great desideratum of most
American women-an unaffected and
graceful carriage. Bonnets and hats are
things which, for the most part, she
happily knows not at all, but she wears
across her glancing shoulders or lightly
thrown over her head shawl of white
or black lace. The highest examples of
her are almost matchless as types of glo.
rious, dark. feminine beauty, with their
slight, we'll rounded figures, their wealth
OF billowy, blue black hair and the
timely chiseled features of their sweet
oval faces, which seem, after all, but the
tit setting of glorious eyes, dark as
night, soft as velvet, yet bright as win
ter stars. That the Cuban lady is not
lacking in mentality, in native wit,
cleverness and understanding she has
often proved when transplanted to more
stimulating climates. She has been a
leader in the brilliant intellectual salons
OF Paris, and if at home she is seldom
distinguished by high intellectual &C.
complishments it may charitabIy be
supposed to be chargeable to climate
which renders protracted mental effort
real pain even to trained minds.
Under the favorable conditions of
peace, when homes have not been mar
red and polluted by the rough and de-
grading touch of the trooper, the Cuban
girl OF quality is reared in the strictest
refinement, and even the poor are more
regardful of the proprieties than thew
are under the demoralizing influence of
war. But the education of Cuban chill.
dren has been sadly neglected AS late
rs 1855 not primary school could be-
found in towns boasting 1850 or 5000
inhabitants. In 1861, when Cuba was
to contribute $4,000, 900 in
support Of the army Of Spain, the
amount appropriated for public instruo-
lion ill the island was less than $50, 900.
A few years ago Baracoa, with 1866
had no more than two public
schools, with accommodation for 1876
and costing for teachers sal
'ries, rent of building and other ex-
lenses the yearly sum of $3.50. Man
ianillo, with 3,079 children, had four
public schools, with an attendance of
S5, their full capacity, at yearly ex- I
'ense of $3, for salaries, rent of
school material, etc. Las Tu \