The Republican journal., 1898-05-12

iousness and constipation One a dose,
They never grippe.
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 became
known, the rebels attacked it with special
fury and destroyed upwards of four million
pounds of tobacco in few months. 1t will
take 20 years for this famous region to be-
come as tiourishing as it was in January of
'96. But the incompatible soil, climate
and natural conditions remain, unimpaired
by "war's wild alarms; p and those who
come in with little money when peace is
restored may buy the best tobacco lands
very cheaply and 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 Cuban he seemed to
have developed remarkable adaptation to
the ways of the Grading 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 runously large
crops he had himself been raising--so remark
ably large that they had invited destruction
by envious rebels and Spaniards; and invari-
ably 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 pantation-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. l heard one man
tell him that he would rather have three
measley acres of corn and potatoes in Ohio,
Pennsy lvania or Illinois, than the whole
10000 of "Cuba's best under present condi-
tions.
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 outside of the island. The brick and
mortar would hardly be worth buying, but
might be used the spot in rebuilding
Now, grasses and wild vines, growing over
the melancholy heaps, have softened their
harsh outlines and made them picturesque
feature of the landscape; but they are not to
be considered as an element toward building
up the resources of rural Cuba. In spite of
the war, several syndicates, with an eye to
the future, have lately purchased large
tracts of land. Last winter company of
New Englanders bought eight thousand
acres in the beautiful Trinidad valley, near
Santiago. They are not doing anything
with it now, but say they can afford to wait
for years and then realize heavy interest on
the money invested.
AS to business enterprises ON a smaller
scale, they are innumerable for men with a
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
strangely neglected industry in Cuba.
Fowls and eggs figure conspicuously every
day in Spanish American menu; but nobody
on the island has ever gone into the business
of supplying the demand on large scale,
with incubators and breeders, as in the
United States. All winter, before the
present siege began, eggs sold in Havana at
dollar a dozen, and poultry fifty cents the
pound and what it is now, goodness
knows, with beef at the last advices So 90
poundl A man with eyes in his head and
the business instinct of the average Amer
lean will see avenues for profitable invest
ments of money and 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 a song. These stately
palaces of impoverished grandees with their
marble floors and pillared corridors, and
inner court yards, their fountains and palm
trees, are fairly begging for purchasers,
owing to the financial distress of their
owners
1t goes particularly hard with the proud
hidalgoes to have to sell their property to
the hated Yankees, who are looked upon as
horde of greedy shop-keepers. AS if any
nation under the sun could be more greedy
the earliest days of the Conquest. Every
where in Spanish-America you hear a great
deal about the invincible valor of Spain and