Evening star., 1898-11-19
CUBA AND ITS PEOPLE
Lecture by Prof 3. T. Hill Before National
Geographic Society.
Quality and Character of the Island
People of Education.

Robert T Hill of the United States geologi-
cal survey, delivered before the National
Geographic Society in Columbian Univer-
sity Hall last night. Vice President w. ].
MCGEE presided and F. H. Newell and r. B.
Tuley acted as secretaries.
Eighty clear and distinct lantern slides,
prepared from photographs taken by Prof.
MCGEE. showed views of the scenery and
architecture, respectively, of Havana Ha-
vana harbor. Matanzas and Cienfuegos.
Speaking of the population, as a whole,
Prof Hill said:
THE quality and character of the inhabi-
tants of Cuba have been SO variously pic
tured during the recent years OF conflict
that the public mind has been greatly con-
fused on this subject, and 1 fear that my
estimates of the Cubans may not be in
harmony with many current impressions,
but L shall endeavor to judge them fair
ly as possible in the light of a broad eX
perience with the varied people of all parts
of the Union and of the other West Indian
Islands and Spanish American countries.
Neither Ignorant Nor Lazy.
"Contary to many representations 1 have
found them as class neither ignorant nor
lazy. The higher classes are gentlemen of
education and refinement, skilled in agri-
culture, and often learned in the arts and
professions. Some dwell in picturesque
cities, the largest of which, Havana, with
the refinement and gaiety of European
capital has a population numerically equal
to that of Washington Santiago, the east
city. is (or was) as pOpulous as Atlanta,
Nashville. Lowell or Fall River There are
many other cities, each with more than
5000 inhabitants. The rest of the Cubans
lived upon over 100000 farms, ranches and
plantations.
The people may be classified into dis
tinct groups, as the natives, including
white Cubans. black Cubans and colored
Cubans. foreign Spanish officials and in
transigentS and foreigners other than Span
ish. The white Cubans are the owners of
the SOIL the black and colored form the
laboring classes the Spanish officials, the
governing class; the Spanish intransigents.
the commercial class, and other foreigners
birds of passage.
The entire foreign element, exclusive of
about 10000 Chinese males and the army,
probably does not exceed 100000 people.
These include a vast horde of subordinate
officials all Spaniards, who collect the Gus
toms and attend to other executive duties.
The civilian foreigners, in most cases, are
estimable people, the better class of whom
are engaged in banking, trade and sugar
planting. They have other interest in
the welfare of the country than gain of
wealth. and have no intention of permanent
residence. Hence they should not be con-
sidered to represent the Cuban native
people, although their voice has, in recent
political events, almost drowned that of
the true inhabitants.
Dangerous Force.
1.-The lower classes of the Spanish male
popula ton of Havana are organized into
a dangerous and often uncomfortable mill
tary force. known as the volunteers, who,
while never having been known to take the
field, serious menace to the peace of
the city, being feared equally by the au-
thorities. over whose heads they hold the
threat of mutiny, and by the resident and
unarmed Cubars. over whom they hold
the threat of massacre Up to date the rec
ord of this org ganized mob has been series
of horrible crimes, such as shooting down
a crowd of peaceabie citizens they
emerged from the theater, firing into the
office and dining room of a hotel, assault
ing the residences of Cuban gentlemen, and,
in 1871, forcing the authorities to execute
forty three medical students. all boys
der twenty, because one of them had been
accused of scratching the glass plate on a
vault containing the remains of volunteer.
Fifteen thousand volunteers witnessed with
exultatfon this ignoble execution.
LaborinE Classes.
THE laboring classes on the sugar planta-
tions are largely negroes and Spanish peas
ants. many of the latter having been intro
duced since the ten years war and the
abolition of slavery. After the emancpa-
ton of the negroes in 1873. like the south
ern states and the other West Indies, Cuba
had to undergo a reorganization of its in
dustrial system, and 1t may be said, to it's
credit, that the change was accompanied
by far less distress and social debasement
than in the other regions mentioned. At
first, in the universal fear that the freed
men would not work, coolies and Chinese
were imported in large numbers, but the
former soon returned home, and the i'm
portation of the latter did not long con-
tnue. although a large remnant of them
still remains upon the island.
Ihirty-two per cent are black or colored
using the latter word in it's correct sig
nifca ton, of mixture of the black am
white races. This black population of Cuba
has been as little understood in this coun-
try as the creole, especially by those who
nave alleged that in case Cuba should gain
her freedom the island would become a
second Haiti. While the negro shares wiz.
the creole the few social rights possessed
by the Inhabitants his social privileges are
greater than here, although strong caste
FEELING exists. Miscegenation has also pro-
dued many mulattoes, but race mixture is
no more common than in this country
ne colored people of CUBA belong to sew
efai distihct classes The majority of them
are descendants of slaves imported during
the present century, but largo number
like the negroes of Colombia and the ma
rooms OF Jamaica, come from stock which
accompanied the earliest Spanish settlers
such as EsteVan, the negro, who, with the
two white companions of CaheLa de Vaca
first crossed the United States from the
Gulf of Mexico to California in 152S-36
lie dHldiSdrndllOn OF thlS class in the past
century with the Spanish stock produced a
superior class of free mulattoes of the An
tonic Maceo type, unlike any people in this
country with whom they can be compared
Cuban Negro Will Work.
Another virtue of the Cuban negro is
that he will work. 1 italicise the masculine
pronoun, because, 1 shall later show,
the male negro of the other West Indies,
except Porto Rico, usually occupies the
same indolent position in human society as
that ordinarily attributed to the drone of
the bee hive. In Cuba he works the cane
fields, loads the ships. carries burdens and
performs all of the harder tasks of man
ual labor, rot as yet usurped by woman in
the United States but completely monopo-
liZed by her sex in the other West Indies.
1 do not mean to say that many of his race
are not deprayed or dissipated, as else
where, but l of the opinion that the
Cuban darkey is the eaual as a laborer of
his brother in our southern states, ard su-
perior to the darkes of the other West In
dian islands
Another fact which will stand against
the AfricaniZing of Cuba is that it is
highly probable that many of these five
hundred thousand coiored people have been
destroyed during the latest instruction. A
lor har nf had hnt haar