The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-07-11

Washington, July 6.-Among the things of which only pleasant memories remain to the Cubans is the fruit in- dustry, which was once thriving busi- ness on the island, but for years past has been good for nothing. While in the Trinidad valley this spring met @ New York produce merchant, who had been a fruit-grower in eastern Cuba un- til the loss of the trade to the island compelled him to give it up. Being un- able to understand how the Cubans came to lose so valuable an industry, for which the conditions of soil and cli- mate are perfect, I interviewed him on the subject. And this is the substance of what he told me: "It was the Gu bans own fault, and they will be glad enough to get back even a remnant of their once prosperous fruit-trade, as they may when Americans have taught them how to manage it. To call the Cubans lazy would be unfair; the good old New England word ''shiftless" bet ter describes their temperament. They always choose the easiest way of ac- complaining an end, and leave the rest to Providence. As Dios quire-"As God wills''-is forever on their tongues, applied to neglected crops as to every thing else in life; while Anglo-Saxons believe that Providence smiles in boun- tiful harvests upon the husbandman who put forth the proper effort, rather than upon those who leave it to Him entirely Now oranges, pineapples, mangoes, aguacates, bananas, require the most careful handling, from the time they are picked until offered for sale in the markets. And that is just where the Cubans lost their trade. To get the fruit down, they shook the trees or knocked it off with long pole, as they would cocoanuts. It reached the ground battered by the fall or bruised by the rap from the pole, and was thus handicapped n the start for competi- tion with the carefully picked fruit of the American planter. It must be re- membered that the fruit has to make a journey of hundreds of miles before it reaches the market and the slightest bruise rapidly develops decay. When the fruit is off the tree, the next step was to transport it to the nearest town to be packed for shipment. This was done by mules. The oranges or pines, or whatever it was, were bundled hap hazard into paniers and away went the mule over the rough country roads, jostling the softer fruits into jam in the saddle-bags. When the destination was reached, instead of carefully lift ing the cargo from the mules back, the driver dragged it off regardless and threw it down in, the nearest corner of the store-house.
 The next conner threw his consign- ment of fruit on top of the other, and so it was piled up, with no thought of the consequences. Then in picking, have seen Cubans stand several feet away from the barrels or hampers, and actually throw it in, hit or miss, of course adding to the bruises the poor fruit had already received. When the barrel or box was filled the lid was fit ted on, by force if necessary, as one sits on an obstreperous trunk top Then in getting it down carefully, it was rolled end over end and dropped into the hold, on top of whatever it might hit. Now this sort of thing wont do at all.
 The inevitable result was that the fruit was rotten when it arrived in America and most of it was wasted. Buyers would not stand that even if Adam and Eve had gone into the fruit business in the Garden of Eden. So American planters decided that they could beat the Cubans at fruit grow ing, though under far less favorable conditions. They tried it-and the Cu- bans quickly found that there was no longer any market for their rotting pines and oranges. But the fact re- mains that no country in the world is better adapted to fruit growing than Cuba and under American manage ment the Cuban fruit trade will soon become an important factor in the in- dustrial life of the hemisphere"
 Desiring to see for myself what used to be the greatest banana shipping port in the world-Baracoa, at the eastern end of Cuba-and the pros- poets fir the investment of American capital there in fruit growing when the war is over, I made the trip from Trin- idad. Not many weeks ago, until our blockade tied it up, native steam ship line sent small vessels at regular intervals to make the circuit of Cuba.
 There was not much to be said in favor of the steamers, except on the -port-in-a-sto principle, when one particularly wanted to go some where and there was no other way. The boats were absurdly small for ocean travel, extremely dirty, and al- ways loaded to the guards with pas sengers, two-footed and four-not cunting the variously footed and creep ing and crawling and wriggling things that infested every cranny. The four footed voyagers invariably over-filled the place riginally intended for them and were penned so far aft that their noses touched the shoulders of their two-footed travelling companions as they set at table, amid odors which be ar no comparison to those of Araby the Blest.
 Sailing eastward from Trinidad, the first stopping place of importance is Santiago, something over 200 miles dis tant; but we did not go ashore on this trip, having visited the place a fort night before. From Santiago to Bara- coa, on the extreme northeast of Cuba. is run of only 17 hours, even by the slow little coaster. The trip is worth making, if for nothing but the splen- rls g,F+ far,1