The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-12-10
NEWS HND COMMENT

NEWS HND COMMENT
Some interesting details as to the Gus
toms and cost of living in Porto Rico
are given in n San Juan letter to the
Chicago Record. Says this correspondent:
Most Americans in this island employ st.
Thomas negroes to prepare their meals.
These negroes speak English and are
considered the best cooks on the island.
Their wages are So a month; maids and
laundresses get So to 50 a month and
board. You can employ a man for 80
cents day as YOU need him. 1t is GUS
tOmary for the cook TO do the marketing,
and If carefully looked after 80 cents "A
person for the days provisions will give
you very good living. AS regards the
price of ordinary groceries, you will find
coal oil very high and other articles low,
according to our ideas. Cocoanuts are l
cent each, oranges from / cent a dozen
to u cent apiece. bananas from 2 cents
a dozen for small ones to cents a dozen
for large plantains. These are eaten
raw boiled, baked, fried In olive oil, or
Stcwed in spiced wine. Practically they
take the place of cur Irish potato. Olive
oil is universally used in nearly every
thing instead of lard. though some lard
is employed. Good olive oil can be had
for 40 cents quart, but the oil in ord-
nary use is much cheaper. The best cof-
fee is 25 cents a pound; Drowned; lower
grades can be bought as cheap as cents.
1t is customary to brown coffee here al
most to a burn, which makes q nearly
black decoction with bitter flavor. The
sugar used here is not clarified; 1t has
medium brown color and is damp. No re-
fined sugar is sold on the island. Sugar
rotails for cents a pound. Milk is deliN-
cred at the door at 10 cents a quart.
Among the green vegetables there are
string beans, lettuce, cabbage and as
paragus, now in market. Sweet potatoes
cost 1l2 cents a pound, Irish potatoes, .
cents a pound, and the other vegetables
are at very low prices. Rice, used as the
principal diet by the natives, costs cents
II pound. The meat is poor No skill is
used III cutting and all meat is sold in
chunks. There are only two kinds-meat
with bones, 10 cents a pound, and meat
without bones, Ii cents a pound. One is
liable to buy a chunk of tenderoin as a
part of the neck or leg. The animal is
killed and eaten the same day. Ice is
brought in carts just before meals and
sold for / cent Il pound Spring chickens
are - cents a pair; large ones, 80 cents
apiece. Eggs are to cents each, and
the average native buys one or two at Il
time. Salt Is imported and costs Il cents
for u two-pound crock-undoubtedly put
up this way on account of the climate.
Good Spanish claret is II cents a bottle.
Bread sells at cents a pound.
The real reason why Admiral Dewey re-
Gently seized II number of insurSent
launches is now for the first time re-
vealed in the Manila correspondence of
the Chicago Record. Not long before
General Anderson wanted to take n pleas
IRE trip up the River PaSig, but was
stopped at the insurgent lines and COM
PEELED to turn back. a day or two af-
terward the admiral sat on the quarter
deck and he saw ala insuTgent launch
steaming gayly along near his ship, with
the insurgent flag flying. Then an idea of
reciprocity occurred to him and he de-
cided TO seize all the insurgent launches.
This was at once done, and eight beautl-
ful craft were tied up i'll Cavite. When
Aguinaldo heard of the calamity he sent
his private secretary to see the admiral
and to find out what had been done to
offend him. The admiral was very nice.
and ne gave the private secretary a heart
to-heart-talk, He spoke of the insur-
gents refusing to allow American army
officers to so through their lines and he
thought that he would not allow the in
surgent launches TO go through his lines,
So for that reason he had taken them.
not contlscated them, just detained"
them. The next day Aguinaldo gave Or
derS permitting American officers TO so
through the insurgent lines and up the
river
The state department has been In
formed by Consul General Holloway at
ST. Petersburg that the Russian govern
ment has placed trial order through
Consul Smith at Moscow with an Amer
lean concern to equip ~ freight locomO-
tives and 200 freight cars with air brakes
at cost of $4,000. This contract was OBJ
tanned in competition with French, Ger
man and Russian companies. Another
American concern IL erecting a plant in
Russia TO make air brakes, and the con-
sui general says that If the mechanical
difficulties in the adaptation of the air
brake to Russian railroads can be over
come the entire freight rolling stock. TO-
600 locomotives and 10000 cars, viii be
equipped at once at cost Of $4,000 900.
Among the numerous souvenir Gifts
which Admiral Dewey has received that
which he prizes most highly is a bcauti-
fully bound and illuminated album which
came 10 him from Milwaukee. Each pa.e
Is decorated with an appropriate painting,
the subjects hearing on something as3u-
clated with the admiral or the battle OF
Manila bay On the last page is a picture
of the Olympia iackies holsting. or
breaking OUT at the main truck OF the
flagship the two-starred flag of tho rear
admiral. The final bit Of text In the book
expresses the hope that sometime the ad-
miral may be in Milwaukee, and that he
may take breakfast" there.
one result of the agrarlan antagouism
In Germany 10 foreign meats has been
an Increase in the conSumption of horse
meat. y statistical table on this subject
Just published shows that during the lis
cal year lSg,-@ there We're slaughtered
9 ls.Rg