Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1898-10-15
MANGOES IN CUBA.
Cubans Called the Fruit General Mango,
For It Stayed the Spaniards.

For 1t Stayed the Spaniards.
In the long list of suggestions from
the medical department, all of which
were disregarded, the ripe mango was
recommended as a desirable article OF
diet. But somebody at headquarters
issued an edict against it, and the SOL
diers were called up by the company
commanders and told that if they ate
the fruit they would be punished. This
is the way the company commanders
addressed the men:
"Now, I see that some of you have
been eating those mangoes in spite of
our advice to the contrary. Do you
know what the Cubans call this fruit ?
They call it General Mango, because
they say that the mango has killed
more Spanish soldiers than all their
generals put together. If you eat it
General Mango will kill you just as it
has killed the Spaniards. lam told on
good authority that if you eat mango
every day and then get yellow fever
you will swell up frightfully and surely
die. Now, 1 give you this positive or.
der that not one of you shall eat any
of this fruit, and I shall punish Sc
verely any man that disobeys the
order"
After such an order the obedient
regulars generally let the mangoes
alone, although they were abundant,
tempting and delicious. The volun-
teers ate them more freely, without
any bad results, so far as heard from.
When the Cuban officers and aides
were asked their opinion as to the
wholesomeness Of the fruit they gen.
orally said: "It is perfectly wholesome
if eaten ripe; all these bad things ap-
ply to the unripe mango, which is
sometimes eaten by the Spaniards. !"
Most of the army doctors seemed to
think that the only way to prevent the
eating of the unripe mango was to
prohibit the fruit altogether. There
were many cases in which even the
most obedient regulars were impelled
by thirst and by hunger for bit Of
fruit to disobey the order; and, as the
clear yellow mango is always ripe,
while the unripe fruit is green or
greenish, it did not take a very high
order of intelligence to discriminate
between the fruit which was fit to eat
and that which was unfit.
1t was certainly hard to believe any
i'll of a mango when one looks at it.
The tree itself is a most beautiful and
attractive thing. Imagine a tree as
large as a big Massachusetts, oak, COW
cred with rich and glossy foliage finer
than that of the orange tree, and COW
cred also with golden fruit, nesting
brilliantly among the green leaves.
On such tree there must be hundred
barrels of mangoes, fully matured,
every one of which is as large as a
good sized pear. In shape the mango
is not unlike short and thick cucum-
ber, and it has a thin, tough skin,
which, when matured, reveals a mass
of the most delicious juicy pulp. The
only trouble about eating the mango is
that one needs an ablution afterward.
Some say that the ideal way is to get
into bath tub, take the mango, eat it
and then 60 on with the bath. But one
is perfectly willing to take the trouble
to seek the ablution for the sake of the
fruit. And imagine the trees which
bear the fruit growing wild every
where, and also spring up in every
garden and dooryard; the largest and
finest ones were away up on a wild
mountain side, where apparently no
one had ever gathered the abounding
fruit. Nor are they a native fruit in
Cuba; they have been introduced from
India and simply gone wild in the rich
soil of the islands. !