The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-08-12

ing of American capitalists in this re- Sion, time was, and time will be again, when well-located sugar estate in Cuba was considered as safe and Valu- able an investment as one could possi- ply have. Of course, the war has greatly depreciated values, but when it is over things will be booming in "the eyer-faithful isle" as never before. Everybody knows how during our civ il war, sugar attained a phenomenal price in the United States, the best grades reaching twenty cents a pound The circumstance induced William H. Stewart, the New York millionaire, to purchase the magnificent estate called La Carolina" in Matanzas province It's annual yield was about eight mill lion pounds of fine white sugar. He paid eight hundred thousand dollars in gold for the property, and for years it returned to him at least one hundred per cent. on the original investment. In 1862 Moses Taylor, another rich and influential New Yorker, who had been large importer of Cuban sugar, pur- chased a htlf interest in the famous San Maritime plantation. It was just
 
 ten miles square), and was superbly equipped, having fine old castellated mansion of stone for family resi- dence. What MT. Taylor paid for his half was never known, but for years the crop was simply marvellous, reach ing for one season 13,965, 900 pounds. It was said at the time that Taylor re- ceived back his purchase money in less than two years.
 The great firm of Ojeiro, Warburg & Co.,, of New York, is a heavy owner of sugar property in Santo Clara prov ince. The Welshes, sugar refiners of Philadelphia, are also owners of large Cuban estates. It will be remembered that when President Grant named the eldest of the Welsh brothers to be min- ister to England his confirmation was strongly objected to by faction in the senate on the ground that he was the owner of slave-worked estates and profited by their labor. Just after our war James McHatton, of East Baton Rouge parish, La., went to Cuba in search of a plantation which limited means could buy. He found it, near Matanzas-tWo thousand acres of the light-colored soil which in Cuba is called "mulatto land," and which had been worked so long solely in sugar cane that it would yield less than half crop. At the upper end of the estate Mir. McHatton found a series of deep caves, which if ever discovered before had been entirely forgotten, and these made his fortune For ages millions of bats had made this their haunt, and time and natures chemistry had con- verted their droppings into the best fertilizer for worn-out sugar and tobac- co lands yet known. Within three years the McHatton place was turning out eight thousand pounds of sugar to the acre, and the shrewd Louisianan found another great fortune in his bat guano. The Bishop family of New Ha- | ven, Conn.,, were-and probably are to- day-the owners of some extremely val uable sugar estates near Remedias, about two hundred miles from Havana | which have enriched three generations | of heirs and owners.
 As nearly as I can ascertain about | two hundred Americans of pure Anglo | Saxon bIood-that is, not counting the | naturalized n-Americans-own property in Cuba. Among them is Ra- mon Williams, formerly of Baltimore | who was once our consul-general at Havana.