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

possession, VIII md new lnletS, the nat
uralist will add to his collection, and
the mineralogist will revel in novelties,
and even the blase cosmopolitan will
recover in Cuba the zest which had gone
out of his life. And all this is merely
to say that great deal Of the accepted
data with reference to Cuba is either in
exact Or wholly faulty. This, Of course,
like everything else that works injury
to the island as to its relation to the
rest of the world, is due to the auto
cratic and ignorant methods of the
Spanish authorities, the tendency Of
whose discipline" is toward handi-
Gaping every public spirited enterprise
and rearding everything that is not
done directly in the interest Of the hon
or and glory and revenue Of the power
across the sea, for whom this poor,
downcast people have been working cut
what has heretofore appeared to be a
life subsidy.
notwithstanding all these difficult
ties, tho enterprise Of Americans and
industry in the right direction, and its
commerce has grown in the teeth of riot
and insurreotion. The normal popula-
tion, LOO, 600, composed of something
near 100000 persons of Spanish de-
scent, 10000 foreign whites, $4,000
Chinese and 500, 600 negroes and colored
people, is not a busy throng The loi-
tering Cuban of today can hardly be rec
ognized as the descendant of those
sturdy pioneers Of the sixteenth century
who fashioned the gigantic bastions of
Ell Castillo de la Fuerza-the Castle of
Strength-but still he can be brought to
bestir himself if sufficient financial
inducement is offered. To be entirely
just, it should be said that enterprise is
not wholly wanting, even among the
laboring classes, And so capital, which
was at first largely American, was put
to work, and az a result cities have
sprung up, large plantations have been
put under cultivation, mines have been
opened up, and sugar, tobacco and the
hundreds of other valuable products of
the island have been made to enrich it.
AS is well known, large and usurious
part of the annual revenues Of planters,
miners and manufacturers has been
taken for taxes, and at length it has
found its way into the ever depleted
Golfers Of the home government at Mad
rid. And still traffic increased until
the beginning of the revolution in 1895,
when there commenced the devastation
which has cost Cuba so dearly.
The chief products of the island are
sugar and tobacco, and the amount an
nually realized from these products dur
ing the years just preceding the last ND
rising has been, on the average, IS, 000,.
600 pesos (dollars), and the revenue from
mineral sources has been grossly esti-
mated at 3, 800, 900 pesos. The amounts
derived from other sources (including
cotton, of which good deal is pro-
duced) were considerable, but these
were the most important, And just here,
as an instance Of the slumbrous apathy
'i"o Hoo iCSull'u liOll ytdlb VI uUD6IthS
subjugation and practical serfdom, the
opening up of the iron mines in the PROV
ince of Santiago de Cuba, at the eastern
end of the island, may profitably be cit
ed These valuable mines, though dis
covered nearly century ago, never felt
the blow of pick until 1883, when n
party of New York capitalists determin.
cd to make an effort to purchase and de,
velop them. Negotiations with the Span
ish government were at once commenced,
and in 1885, after two years of persua-
son. concession were obtained and work
was commenced, Stock companies were
organized III New York and Philadel-
phia, and bonds were hoated. These com
panies were the Juragua, the Spanish.
American, the Signe and others. From
these mines he annual expectation grew