The Saint Paul globe., 1898-07-10

ROAD by some accident not connected
with the operation of the railroad. His
body lay partly on the rails. The
deputy coroner refused to let the com
pany move the man and sent up to
santiago for the coroner and his staff,
and the road was blockaded till that
oiliclal arrived and made an inquest.
by the time they were through there
were seventeen trains waiting on either
side of the body, and operations ait the
mines. on the road. and at the docks,
where an ocean ship was loading, were
all brought to an absolute silence.
when we first went there we had as
surances from S. p. Ely, of Cleveland.
who was at the head Of the enterprise.
that every possible contingency had
been looked out for, that the govern
ment had agreed to permit the import
and export of all articles intended for
the mines without duty, and that our
operations would be unimpeded. The
government had assured MIN Of this.
we went to work and had stripped off
the dirt from the little mountain on
the side of Ba.quiri harbor, with the
intention of tumbling down the rocks
by blasting to make breakwater for
our ships and dock. We were all ready
TO begin blasting and were in a hurry,
1or cne bad season was coming on,
or soi@ers appeared and read us a
long paper all decorated with seals.
winch proved to be an injunction.
we had to stop OF be. shot. We
stopped. If we had thrown one stone
into the water there would have been
trouble. We went to Santiago and got
down the commander and made a big
dinner for him with plenty of wine and
gin. and Jose Ferrara, who was the
local manager of the enterprise, made
a speech full of patriotism and with
references TO the discovery Of America
by the Spaniards and all that sort of
thing. The commander reached over,
signed his name ito a dissolution Of the
injunction and told us that we could
do anything we wanted. 1t was by this
sort of delays and official acts that we
might have been materially delayed or
stopped entirely If we had not conform
ed to the custom of TIE country In the
matter Of theft and bribery
WORKED IN MINES.
For a long time we supposed the
Spanish soldiers at Santiago were we'll
drilled troops and were a good body Of
men. But We foun.1 that instead of
being at the barracks OR drilling, they
were driven out ito the mines Of the
Juragua company. where the company
built Lot Of big barracks for their
accommodation, and that there they
worked right along in the mines. They
were paid SC cents day by the mining
company, and the officers took half of
this, leaving the rest for the soldiers
AT this time the regular pay Of the
soldiers was taken and pocketed by the
officers. That's. the sort of discipline
they had, ard the manner of regulating
the financial part of the Cuban enter
prise. What kind of fight would such
soldiers rut up against American
troops? Eighty cents a day was all
the mining companies paid for any Of
their labor, and at that price it was
high, for one man would do about q
third as much as an American. We
figured that the cost of labor was about
$3.50 a day. from which we could de-
duct about IL per cent for 1.-THE differ.
ence in money at that time.
'"They had locomotive inspector at
Santiago who was supposed to come
out and overlook every engine and
piece Of machinery we put in His
fees were $40 a day, and he was sure
to make a special trip for every ma
chine. He would come down, stay
to dinner, which was made especially
fine for him, drink all the afternoon,
and go back the following day, hav-
, ing collected his $40 and not having
seen the machine he had come to in
spect. That was the regulation way
of all officials. At one time the local
officials Of the province ordered US to
widen the cuts of the railway from
the river tor Santiago. where it was
very narrow and deep. 1t would have
I been an expensive undertaking, and
the company was not prepared to
carry 1t out If dinner would do as
we'll. So we sent to Ferrrara and he
said, Send for the governor general at
seen the machine, he had to come again
BEFORE WEYLER'S TIME.
eve went around to Havana, about
500 miles, and asked the governor gen.
eral to come down. He came. We
learned that he was accompanied by
1hirty-two members Of his official staff
We had lot Of big tents with flies. and
these we spread, making a large pa
vilior, cool and comfortable. Then we
went to Santiago for the best caterer
in Eastern Cuba. In the meantime we
sent cur little narrow -guage special
passenger car. the only one we had, to
the end of the line to meet the party,
and stationed thirty-two saddle horses
at the point where the officials were
to leave the train. They made quite
a cavalcade. The dinner cost Mr. Ely
$3.50, but it did the business. 1t would
have cost 100000 to have widened that
cut. The governor general went back
to Santiago In a condition Of total in
ebriety, but he had agreed to all we
asked before he went. From Santiago
he went immediately to Havana.
"The first ship that brought powder
to us was seized at the entrance to the
bay Of Santiago and the powder stored
in the arsenal, while the ship was fined
$lG0. We got the powder after we had
made the proper moves, but the $780,
never"
"They do business in a pretty slow
way" said one Of the former managers
of the Cuban enterprise. There are
eight pockets in the dock Of the Span
ish-American company, and few more
in that at Vera Cruz. The latter has
storage dock back in the mountains
and they tram the ore by man power
into the storage dock from the cars,
little cars that carry about six or seven
tons, instead Of thirty-five or forty,
as here, crop 1t out Of the storage dock
shipping dock when a vessel comes in
They are in luck Il they can load q
ship in three or four days, and 1t usu-
ally takes several times as long. At the
Duluth docks we load a 3,000-ton ship
in from forty-eight minutes to an hour
Single docks here have as high as 200
pockets, and the Duluth &, Iron Range
road has five such docks. If the coun-
tIy was under American control or was
free in the hands Of the Cubans there
would be opportunity to do business n
a business way, but the thefts and
o:Iicialdom of the Spaniards kill every
thing. 10 81
VERY MOUNTAINOUS. -r