The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-04-30

took advantage of the times and made
large purchases of tobacco lands. AT
present the tobacco industry is good
for nothing, principally owing to Wey-
ler's decree of two years ago, forbid
ding the expectation of Havana leaf
tobacco. The insurgents retaliated by
burning factories and all the stored
tobacco they could lay hands on. But
the marquis of Teneriffe appears to
have been q thrifty fellow as well as
butcher"
Already a millionaire, he made an
other out of his celebrated order, for
many so-called American tobacco
firms exported thousands of bales IN
spite of the prohibatory decree, pre-
tending that it was a diplomatic trans
action between Washington and Mad
rid. The real secret was that Weyler
graciously permitted shipments to be
made by those who gave him liberal
commissions. The very best tobacco
raising region in the world is Cuba's
''Vuelta Abajo;" but to-day every
plantation in it Is abandoned and in
ruins. After Weyler's little game be-
| came known, the rebels attacked it
with special fury and destroyed up
| wards of four million pounds of tobac-
CO in a few months. 1t will take 20
| years for this famous region to become
as flourishing as it was in January of
'96. But the Incompatible soil, climate
and natural conditions remain, uninl-
pared by wars wild alarmus;'' and
those who come in with a little money
when peace is restored, may buy the
| hoe tnh ,1a H.
become Croesuses in due course.
| Among the refugees at Key West
met an ex-sugar planter, who was
anxious to sell his estate; and for a
Cuban he seemed to have developed re-
markable adaptation to the ways of
the trading Yankees" His method
was to edge up to every group of men
he saw talking together and join in
| the conversation. Presently he would
be heard to say "the soil of Cuba is too
rich; that's what's the matter with the
island" then he would go on relating
what ruinously large crops he had him
self been raising-so remarkably large
| that they had invited destruction by
envious rebels and Spaniards; and in
variably ended by enquiring who wanted
| to buy 10000 acres Of the finest sugar
land in Cuba, worth $1,000 the acre, for
| 80 cents the acre. To. be sure his plan
tation, house and mills are in ruins,
but he pointed out what profit could be
made on the same in the line of scrap
iron and old bricks. Up to date he has
not found a purchaser. heard one
man tell him that he would rather
have three measley acres of corn and
| TOT ~, d. 10
| linois, than the whole of "Cuba's best
under the present conditions.
| Somebody will no doubt be making
money out of Cuba's ruined homes and
mills within the next few months. The
boilers and machinery and other junk
of thousands of destroyed plantations
can be had for almost nothing; but
| the market for scrap iron must be out
| side of the island. The brick and NOR
| tar would hardly be worth buying, but
might be used on the spot in rebuild
ing. Now, grasses and wilted vines
growing over the melancholy heaps
have softened their harsh outlines and
made them a picturesque feature of
the landscape; but they are not con-
sidered as an element toward building
up the resources of rural Cuba. In
spite of the war, several syndicates
4 with an eye to the future, have lately
purchased large tracts of land. Last
winter a company of New Englanders
bought eight thousand acres in the
beautiful Trinidad valley, near Santi-
ago. They are not doing anything
with it now, but say they can afford te
wait for years and then realize heavy
interest on the money invested.
AS to business enterprises on a small
er scale they are innumerable for men
with little money, and more energy. A
few acres in market gardening, with
their continuous crops from one years
end to another, would perhaps yield the
quickest and largest returns for the
smallest amount of capital. Chicken
raising too has always been a strange
ly neglected industry in Cuba. Fowls
and eggs figure conspicuously every
day in the Spanish-American menu;
but nobody on the island has ever gone
into the business of supplying the de-
mand on a large scale, with incubators
and breeders, as in the United States
All winter, beore the present siege be-
gan, eggs sold in Havana at dollar
the dozen, and poultry fifty cents the
pound-and what it is now, goodness
knows, with beef, at the last advices
$500 Il pound! A man with eyes in his
head and the business instinct Of the
average American will see avenues fol
profitable investments of money an6
labor in every direction, soon as peace
is restored in the island.
1t seems pity to take advantage OF
other peoples misfortunes-but many
are the fine old casas in Havana and
other cities which will be bought for q
song. These stately palaces of improv-
ished grandeur with their marble floors
and pillared corridors, and innel
court yards, their fountains and palm
trees, are fairly begging for purchas-
ers, owing to the financial distress OF
their owners.
1t goes particularly hard with the
proud hidalgoes to have to sell theil
property to the hated Yankees, who
are looked upon as a horde of greedy
shop-keepers. AS if any nation under
the sun could be more greedy for gain
than Spain has shown herself since the
earliest days of the conquest! Every.
where in Spanish you hear 6
great deal about the invincible valor OF
Spain and the sordid character of the
Yankees. Their literature tells us that
icIo wi ic hi,