The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-12-02
PONCE DE LEON'S WHITE
 HOUSE."
An Interesting Relic of Four Centu- ries Ago in San Juan of Porto Rico.
 (Fron a Letter in the Philadelphia

An Interesting Relic of Four Centu- ries Ago in San Juan of Porto Rico.
 (Fron a Letter in the Philadelphia Record.)
 Perhaps the most interesting object in the capital of our new possession is La Casa Blanca (''the White House'D, which Juan Ponce de Leon built for himself 390 years ago, and where he lived during his long term as govern or of the island. It stands in a nar- row, roughly paved street, about half way between the Castillo del Moro and the present government palace, and, although in it's unsightly old age it looks little like the one-time abode of so great potentate, nobody can mis- take it on account of the double line of splendid palms in front. Trees are few in Porto Ricos capital, there be- ing no others except inside the walls of the Marina-and these are fine enough to form conspicuous land mark anywhere. The water side is guarded by a verp ancient and pictur- esque wall, with queer little openings on top for crossbowmen to shoot through, and within the wall is a
 
 cinnamon trees, with passion vines running riot around a messy fountain in the center The Casa Blanca is anything but a "white" house to-day, but gray with the flight of time, mot tied with 1ichens and stained by the storms of centuries. The passing feet of many generations have worn deep hollows in it's stone stairways, and the dim rooms, with their heavily barred easements, slimy walls and sunken floors, have the odor of grave mold in them One has an unanny feeling of spooks fitting ahead up the ancient staircase and lurking in the shadowy corners, and expects at any minute to meet ghostly knight in armor.
 The view from the upper windows is unsurpassed. Immediately below, on the seaward side, is the great gray wall of the line of defense, with it's massive battlements, antiquated can non and little sentry turrets, hanging like orio1e nests over the waves be- yond, the sparkling waters of the bay, and on either hand the palm-fringed coast of the mainland, sweeping to the east and west, with green hills crowding down to the waters edge Tier above tier rise the hills in close ranks to the clouds that veil magnifi- cent Unque--the Indian name of the loftiest mountain. The central range which forms the backbone of Porto Rico. averages only about 1900 feet ir night, but there are several peaks each something over 4,000 feet. Be tween these hills lie some of the rich est lands on the globe, capable ot producing astonishing crops foul times a. year. There are uplands anG lowlands, pasture lands. sandy bot toms and 1oamy bottoms, but no feve1 breeding swamps and marshes, sucf as are found in Cuba. There are dis tricts which grow as fine tobacco a' the celebrated Vuelta Abajo of the sis ter island coffee lands better thai those of Guatemala, Honduras or Bra gil. and sugar lands which yield great CT crops than any other spot on earth Chemists have never been able to dis cover what there is in the soil of thf particular island to make it better 10 sugar than others of the West Indies hut the fact remains, demonstrates over and over again, that a quintal 0 Porto Rico cane yields from to l ner cent. more sugar than can be ob tained from a similar quantity grow in Cuba, Jamaica, or Santo Domingo Perhaps it is because this island is S exceptionally well watered, withou heinz marshy seventeen rivers run ming to the sea on this north shor alone. all of them navigable severa miles above their mouths.