The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-28

have ever had the patience to leave the few
well-established routes and go into the in
terror. There are a number of towns which
a foreigner has never seen until recently.
Many of these are of remarkable beauty,
and will, under more progressive regime,
become famous summer and winter resorts
for people from the North. Among them is
Las Marias. a town about eighteen miles
from Mayaguez, high up in the mountains
Of Porto Rico. The road is very difficult,
rocky and uneven. The distance, eighteen
miles, is a full days journey for an ordinary
OK cart or for a strong pedestrian. An army
ambulance drawn by four mules requires
ten hours for the trip. The town is 1900 feet
higher above sea level that Mayaguez. In
rainy weather the streams are raging tor
rents and the level stretches impossible
quagmireS. In dry weather the steep roads
are rough masses of stones and powders
and the levels abominable alterations of
dust mud holes and rocks. Although the
district is very rich and the farms llnSur-
passable in fertility, yet all the money
which has been eXtorted from the pOpua-
ton by the tax officials has been applied to
every purpose except that of benehttng the
people from whom it was taken. For $l50,OOO
a magnificent boulevard could be con-
structed between the two cities, there belng
very few serious engineering obstacles.
LAS far as is known, not a single centaVo
was ever spent by the Spanish government
upon this important thoroughfare. If any
farmer ever thought Of improving the road
for the sake of his own convenience ne was
be regarded by the officials as a sign of eX-
cessive prosperity, and would be immediate
ly followed by an increased tax and spe-
cial assessment. The scenery is a complna-
ton of beauty and majesty. Hills ana
mountains, some rounded. and some Sharply
cut; sleepy valley and gloomy gorges,
vegetation so thick and green as to suggest
emerald velvet; long lines and clumpS or
cocoanut palms, banan palms. mahogany
trees, cedars, gaily-colored flowers and q
wall-like urderbrush combine to make an
eveT-changing panorama of unspeakable at
Effectiveness. Even the native houses are,
built as if to suit their surroundings. Some
are of wood. rough hewn with a frame
work composed of logs still covered with the
original bark. Others are made of wood ana
tiles rather than shingles Still others are
mere novels, with broken red tiles or pieces
of pottery.
POLITENESS IN POVERTY.
'',The inmates of these houses are pleas
ant people; but. oh, so terribly poor. The
entire belongings of many families, includ-
ing wearing apparel and agricultural tools,
would be dear if sold for $40. AS the trav-
eler passes, he sees children of six, eight,
and even ten years of age perfectly nude;
sees young girls and women with but
a single garment which but half conceals
the outlines beneath; men whose clothing
is but an ancient shirt, ragged and torn,
and the remnants of a pair of trousers.
IneGG IS I1tJle danger or tnelr starving, De-
cause nature is more generous than man.
But of the pleasures of life, the Joys or
civilization, and the comfort of good gov
eminent. they know nothing. What with low
wages, vile roads, heavy taxes, insecurity
of person and property, they have had no
opportunity to accumulate money.
''Three centuries of this mode of living
has well-nigh crushed the energy, indus
try and thrift for which the Spanish hus-
bandman was once famous. They are very
good-natured and so polite Good morning.
the Americans; The Americans are very
good the Americans are our saviors we
are all good Americans here are but a few
of the very many pretty speeches which
come from the lips of men and women, child
and adult.
TT may be poverty, or it may be the
love of color which prompts a to
patch the seat of blue trousers with red
cloth and the knees with white and yellow
startling, especially when the villagers come
together in their working clothes. The only
thing which it resembles in our civiliza-
ton is collection of piebald circus horses.
THEIR PRIMITIVE METHODS.
cat one point of the road you can obtain
glimpse of the degraded condition of the
industrial classes. II is a point where cof-
fee is dried, cleaned and made ready for the
market. In progressive Mexico and Brazil
nearly all of the work is done by machinery
and other labor-saving contrivances. The
grains, when dried on perforated shells, are
run into machine where they are cleaned,
polished, separated into classes, and each
class delivered into a bag, box or barrel A
single machine with a couple of men does
the work of hundred operatives working
along the old lines of the industry, but here
in Porto Rico, where the Dons look upon
American machines as the product of the
devil the old custom is employed to-day.
The coffee is spread out on the ground
usually a stone pavement and exposed to
the hot sun; Dark-skinned natives with
ing it over here and there to facilitate the
drying. 1t is hoed and shoveed up, and
then half-naked workman, filing a large
measure with the dirty grains, stands upon
a box, raises the measure above the level
of his head and pours the contents into a
box or barrel upon the ground. One or two
other Workmen with fans stand alongside
and fan vigorously, so as to blow out any
dead leaves, husks, sticks and other loose
dirt.
Our army in Porto Rico is practically a
schoolnaster abroad The natives in the in
terror have already begun to learn how to
make and how to improve roads, how to
build simple and strong bridges, and how to
increase their own comforts More impor-
tant still, they begin to appreciate the SUI
periority of our medical science and our
physicians. My experience at this place was
very interesting. 1t is q natural Sanitarium
ami the military authorities with great wis
dom sent there such soldiers they thought
would be most benefited by the change My
work was chiefly of a routine character, few
of the cases being Of a serious nature. TO
the natives accustomed to the pomp and
mystery of the old-school Spanish practice,
everything about our system was a surprise.
Because soldier was sick they argued he
must be very sick, and because a doctor
visited him every day they felt assured that
he was bound to die. When, therefore, the
soldier got we'll their amazement passed all
bounds, and they quarreled as to whether
the recovery was due to the medicine
Americana or the 'doctor-Americano'
SPANISH HOSPITAL SYSTEM.
1.-THE result of this admiration was that I
was enabled to obtain an insight into the
Spanish hospital system. If all the hospi-
tails under their flag are conducted in the
same way it is a miracle that any one is
left. I was invited by the mayor to come to
the City Hospital to treat a man who had
wounded his foot severely in chopping wood
with an ak. L complied with his request
and went to the institution. 1t was malodor-
Gus and, apparently, had not been cleaned
once in its history. On the floors the dirt
was an inch or more in thickness. 1t was on
all the furniture, on the posts and ceiling.
There were no cots, and hardly one con-
venience for either physician or surgeon.
There were practically no sanitary arrange
mentS, and absolutely nothing TO provide
for the wants of the sick or wounded.
Il attended to the wounded man the best
/ could, and when my work was over,
looked at the other patients In one ward
an old woman who lay all doubled up
in a dirty hammock. She said it was fever
and that she was getting better; that she
had been lying there for eight days, and
was so weak that she could hardly get up
herself. and during most of the time there