The Republican journal., 1898-05-12

the other, is rather imposing, bv reason of
massiveness and rough architectural beauty.
The custom house, erected near the Begin
ming OF the present century,-long and low,
with overha nging roof of red tiles--before the
war enjoyed the respectable income of 49,.
ooO,OOOa year. There are several handsomely
appointed club-houses here, for in Cuban
cities, as in London, Paris and Madrid, club
life flourishes, at the expense of domestic
institutions. There is also big bull ring in
the outskirts of the city, and cock-pits ga
lore. A few years ago Metanzas province
was the richest in Cuba, rejoicing in the
possession of 478 sugar estates in operation,
besides 528 stud farms, and some 5000 other
plantations of various sorts. Its rapid
decadence from luxurious centre of wealth
and fashion, as we'll as of productive in
dustry and commerce, renders its present
poverty the more pitiful. Many of the finest
plantations of the old aristocracy were years
ago confiscated. Others passed into the
hands of Spanish adventur ers and immi.
grants, who kept up the exhausting struggle
as long as they could against a system
grounded upon violation of every economic
law; and the torch of war finished the
rest.
took an early drive one morning out to
san Severlno castle,-about month before
its alleged commandment. The way leads
along the edge of the bay, through the
San Carlos "Pajeo," which is laid out with
graveled walks and rows of trees stone
parapet on the water side, and tall iron
gates AT either end. In Metanzas' golden
days this used to be the fashionable drive.
thronged every evening with the beauty and
! aristocracy of the place, in elegant equip
pages, attended by cavaliers on horseback
To and fro they went from gate to gate:
until at eight o'clock the music of the
"retrata' sounded in the Plaza d. Armas.
when the brilliant pageant dissolved as by
| magic. Now the place is deserted, except
| by patrolling soldiers and begging reconcen-
| trados, and we saw no steed but one decrepit
mule-maybe the same which Blanco re-
ported as the sole victim of our guns,
| Beyond the Paseo, an excellent road extends
two miles farther out to the forts on Punta
| Gorda,-"Fat Point" On the hills nearest
the bay are the barracks of Santa Isabella,
the military hospital, and those dreadful
sheds in which dying reconcentradoes are
huddled, where we saw such soul narrowing
sights with the Thurston- Gallinger party,
some weeks before. Then up the slopes of
the Cumbre we wound, by steep and stony
accliyities, to the summit of the ridge. The
landscape spread out on either side is some
| thing to live in the memory. More than
thirty miles of undulating shore-line are
included in the prospect, the long bay in its
amphitheatre of hills looking like majestic
river, and the ocean highway dotted with
sails; on one side of the ridge the level
plain, with the river running through and
| the city creeping up the hillside ON the
other the lovely valley of the Yumuri, with
its countless palms and burned cane 1ields
and ruined homes, enveloped in veil of
mist Like Rasselas' "happy valley it is
80 hemmed in by high precipices that it
seems cut off from the rest of the world,
and ought to be the abiding place of pastoral
content. But the heart is saddened on re-
viewing its history, from the earliest DAYS of
Spanish occupancy. Fancy sketches the
scenes of carnarge which marked its con-
quest in 1911, when thousands of the peace
ful Indians were cruelty massacred. The
remnant, driven by blood hounds to the sur
rounding heights, We're forced in despair to
throw themselves down the precipices
into the river below. Disappearing, they
cried 70 Moir-"I de- hence the name of
the valley-so says tradition
... FANNIE BRIGHAM WARD.