Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-08-12
QUEER OLD SAN JUAN
PRINCIPAL CITY OF THE ISLAND OF
PORTO RICO.

Walled Town Built 5 Years Ago-All
the Ground Floors Reek With Filth.
There Is No sewerage-Streets Are Kept
Very Clean.
San Juan, the principal city of Porto
Rico, our new seat of war, is a perfect
specimen of a walled town, with port.
cullis, moat, gates and battlements.
Built over $50 years ago, it is still in
good condition and repair. The walls
are picturesque and represent a stu
pendous work and cost in themselves.
Inside the walls the city is laid off in
regular squares, six parallel streets run
ming in the direction of the length Of
the island and seven at right angles.
The houses are closely and compactly
built of brick, usually of two stories,
succeed on the outside and painted in
a variety of colors. The upper floors are
occupied by the more respectable peo-
pie, while the ground floors, almost
without exception, are given up to ne
groes and the poorer classes, who crowd
one upon another in the most appalling
manner. The population within the
walls is estimated at 20, 900, and most
Of it lives on the ground floors. In Il
small room with a fimsy partition a
whole family will reside.
The ground floors Of the whole town
reek with filth, and conditions are most
unsanitary. In a tropical country,
where disease readily prevails, the con-
sequences of such herding may be easily
inferred. There is no running water in
the town. The entire population de-
ponds Oh rainwater. caught on the fiat
roofs of the buildings and conducted to
the %cistern, which occupies the greater
part of the courtyard that is an essen
tial part of Spanish houses the world
over, but that here, Oh account Of the
crowded conditions, is small.
There is no sewerage, except for sur
face water and sinks, while vaults are
in every house and occupy whatever re-
naming space there may be in the
patios not taken up by the cisterns. The
risk of communicating the water is great,
and in dry seasons the supply is entire
ly exhausted. Epidemics are frequent,
and the town is alive with vermin.
The streets are wider than in the
older part of Havana and will admit
two carriages abreast. The sidewalks
are narrow and in places will accommo-
date only one person. The pavements
are OF a composition manufactured in
England from Stag, pleasant and even
and durable when no heavy strain is
brought to bear upon them, but easily
broken and unfit for heavy traffic. The
streets are swept once a day by hand
and, strange to say, are kept very clean.
From it's typographical situation the
town should be healthy, but it is not.
The soil under the city is clay mixed
with lime, SO hard as to be almost like
rock. 1t is consequently impervious to
water and furnishes a good natural
drainage. The trade wind blows strong
and fresh, and through the harbor runs
a stream Of sea water at a speed Of not
less than three miles an hour. With
these conditions no contagious diseases,
if properly taken care of, could exist.
Without them the place would be a
veritable plague spot.
Besides the town within the walls
there are small portions just outside
called the Marina and Puerta de TERRA,
containing 1000 OR 5000 inhabitants
each. There are also two suburbs, one,
San Turce, approached by the only road
leading out Of the city, and the other,
Catano, across the bay, reached by ferry.
The Marina and the two suburbs are
situated on sandy points, O splits, and
the latter are surrounded by mangrove
swamps. The entire population Of the
city and suburbs, according to the census
Of 1887, was ~, 900. 1t is now (1896)
estimated at 80, 600. One-half Of the
population consists Of negroes and mix
ed races.-Boston Transcript.