The times., 1898-09-12
IN PORTO RICO.
With an income and No Work 1t
Would He Ideal.

Would anyone go to Porto Rico for
novel experience in a strange land amid
unfamiliar scenes? Let him take with
him a very limited supply of baggage, the
less the better, within reasonable limits,
but let him carry with him an unlimited
supply of determination to put up with
whatever he gets. Would any go for
comfort? Let him take with him his own
hotel and his own carriage and horses
and driver. To one accustomed to the
facilities the conveniences and the COM
forts of the modern American hotel. the
Porto Rican affair in which one eats and
sleeps. IL sleep he can, comes off as an
offense to civilization. / am told that
San Juan has a hotel which can only be
spoken of in the superlative degree and
in words of six or eight syllables. If,
upon my arrival at any point, | find any
foundation for the rumors which reach
me shall devote couple of hours to sit
ting on the city wall and singing peans.
! do not know that there will be any vir-
tue in the process. but / have put in SO
many nights sleeping in dungeons and in
hot, stuffy, dark and sitting closets, that
/ shall want to go somewhere and howl
If l get into decent chamber with a
modicum of air and light. Nor are these
dungeons, into which one is thrust TO
wear out certain number of hours of
unrefreshing semi-consciousness, al all
limited to so-called hotels.
/ have been in many Porto Rican
houses. / have been in the homes of the
wealthy, in the dwellings of the middle
classes, and in the huts of the INDECENT.
l have seen but few rooms which had
anything whatever that would recommend
them as sleeping-apartm The salon
and the dining-room may be spacious and
airy. The bed-chamber will be den in
the most unsuitable corner. small, dark,
and cherries. The Porto Rican may en-
joy his life as keenly as does anyone
but it Is after manner of his own, and
that manner would be far from accep-
table TO the average right-minded Ameri-
can. There should be several moderate
sized fortunes lying around on this island
fer enterprising American bonifaces who
will come here and erect modern hotels
on American principles. They need not
be palatial. The prime requisite would be
that they be provided with windows that
will admit light and air. One is led 10
imagine that the Porto Rican has some
bitter feud with both of those rather
desirable provisions of nature so dill
gently does he seek to exclude them from
his buildings, and particularly from his
sleepingrooms.
Glass is not unknown on the island. 1t
Is familiar to all In the shape of bottles,
goblets and mirrors. Mirrors are placed
In the back of the front seat of many of
the carriages. But window glass is a rar-
ity. both for stores and for private resi-
dences. In dwellings either the solid
shutter or a blind is used TO close the
openings in the walls Stores seldom use
show windows According to the 'front.'
age OF the building will be the number of
the openings closed by wooden doors For
an hour or two at midday these doors are
shut. Commercial Porto Rico goes to its
breakfast and suspends all transactions
While II does so. At such an hour In the
morning as suits ones convenience he
takes a cup OF coffee and a roll, with per-
maps an egg. At midday one eats his
breakfast. 1t appears to be an important
function. and business is suspended while
1t Is in progress. In other words business
seems 10 be conducted between meals
One finds many customs which are
strange to American eyes Cows. often
accompanied by muzzled calves are
driven about the street. Would you have
milk? You get 1t directly from the foun-
tain. The driver will stop in the street
and milk for you, a pint or a quart into
a bottle. Whether or no the ladies go to
market or to the stores on shopping expe-
ditions / cannot say. One rarely sees a
lady on the streets In street dress The
markets are thronged during the morning
hours, but the customers seem to be of
the poorer classes. The quantities pur
chased would indicate only a day-to-day
provision.
Whatever may be the result of in
creased contact between these people and
ourselves, however much or little they
may adopt of American customs and hab-
| its in many things which are now widely
| different, one thing is quite certain. and
| that Is that visitors to the island will
| soon drop into the prevalent Incidence 1t
| is in the air and in the life. For a time
| 1t is possible to fight il. but the convic-
| tion grows that ultimately one must yield
| TO it and accept 'manana'' as the law
/ of life. 1t is not the intense heat, for
measured by the thermometer the heat
| is not so very intense. and in most places
! II is tempered by a breeze which else
| where would doubtless be refreshing. But
| 1t is hardly so here The air is dull and
| heavy, and one grows listless. Physical
| exertion of any kind becomes a bore and
| mental exertion becomes almost an i'm
possibility. How it would be if one could
get restful sleep ! cannot say. ! regret
| that l have not been able to try that In
| the hotel sleeping dungeon one lies and
stiles until he rouses in the morning un-
rested and unrefreshed The very neces-
sary mosquito canopy excludes any air
which may be in circulation with the i'm
| penetrability of sheet iron, while it is no
more effective against mosquitoes than a
barbed wire fence would be- One might
| in time become used to ii all and find life
here as pleasant as 1t is anywhere But
before he reaches that point he will land
in the clutches of potent, implacable. ir-
resistibe manana." With an income
comfortable home, and nothing TO do
Porto Rico is on the borders of Lotus
Land. To one who has to travel over
its roads in their present condition. and
lie in such hotels as are now found here
life savors of the confines of the other
place.