The San Francisco call., 1898-07-10

nu 11ll1I1lUH
 licious eating, but one cannot live ex- clusively on pineapples. There are other fruits put they are eatel. by the peons a. fast as ripe. General Blanco now sees his mistake in having con- centrated his people in the cities in- stead of allowing them to work their llttle ranches and raise what fruit and vegetables they could. If the same amount of land in Cuba was under cul- t1Vatlon to-day that was one year ago the poor people would be infinitely bet ter off for they would at least have something to sustain life, not only for themselves but could be feeding the towns people.
 Blanco is making every effort to en- courage blockade running. He has is- sued an edict forbidding the exnorta- tion of sugar or tobacco. exceptine in | SHlpS that nave run the blockade and brought provisions to the soldiers All port charges, such as anchorage. niIot lees, etc., etc., are remitted to blockade runners and again goods brought in in Lnat way are not included in the edicts llnltlng the price. This is done to make business more profitable and therefore more attractive, but so far as I know very little blockade running has been attempted. There was a report that one ship had arrived at a small port doWn the coast with fifty hogsheads of codhsh, 4OOO barrels and 10000 sacks of houf, o0o bags of rice and lot of beans and other provisions. It might have been true, but I saw no signs of any of these goods having reached the Havana market. ~
 over one million dollars has been raised by popular subscription to he used in strengthening the defenses around Havana. With this money about three thousand men are to be put at work. The Havana papers gave General Blanco and General Ar oles great credit" for this, and called them benefactors of mankind in thus hopIy giving poor men without food and work chance to earn something to keep their families from starving The Military Governor, General Ar oles, has conferred with a committee of citizens to devise other means of giving employment, and relief commit tees are now being organized to raise funds. Block & Co.,, Havana's biggest cigar manufacturers, have opened most or their factories, giving employment to large number of men, women and children. The cigar factories now opened include the Henry Clay, La Espanola, Aquilo d'Oro, Casuncho. Port Arronaga and others.
 Tt Is the people of the two extremes i Of society, the rich and the poor. who fare best under the present condition of | affairs; that is so far as eating is con- cerned. The rich have money to buy at any price and the extremely poor of Havana are so used to deprivation | that they are sort of hardened to it. | It IS on the middle classes that the blockade is most severe. Men of small means, who live by contracting, small stores, etc., have been drained of their last cent. Their little business or store closed and they will have to be- gin life all over again, and that in Cuba means hardships of kind you Americans know nothing about.
 | T knew one man who kept a dairy. He had five cows, and they turned in a nice living, and he was able to save a little money each year besides. In | Havana a milkman does not deliver his milk from a wagon and by cans, as is done in this country. Mo- indeed The Spanish will not have their milk served that way; they want to see 1t milked right from the COW. As they will not go to the dairy the dairy must come to them. The milkman starts out with his COWS in the morning and drives them around to his customers. He stops at the door, asks how much is wanted and milks 1t from the COW while the servant waits. By this
 
 out all day long. As 1t is too far to return for feed during the day a Cue ban jackass, which is brother to your Arizona burro, goes along loaded with sugar tops. When they start out the jackass is piled Ligh with sugar tops, even his head is invisible, and he is muzzled to keep him from eating more than his portion. AS the day ad- vances the drove halts by the roadside vrrot fn1 This is repeated several times during the day.
 ''Of my friends drove the first to go was the jackacs, and the children took it's place by carrying loads of sugar tops on their little backs; one COW was sold and then another, and the re- maining three were bought by the com- missary department. My friend holds a due bill on the Spanish Government for his cows at 20 cents pound, live weight, but it might as well be a dol- lar a pound for all that he will ever get and he knows it. One article after another has been sold until the man is stripped of everything he had and his family are living on rice bought with the proceeds of the sale of the second cow When that is gone they have nothing but pineapples.
 Captain Aridillo has with him a copy of La Union Constitutional of the date of June 23, and in view of recent events in the neighborhood of Santiago con- tains some mighty interesting" read ing. An editorial under the headline, "One Page More of Glory" says:
 '"The Yankees sent to Santiago de Cuba 15,000 mercenaries to conquer laurels at so much yard The on- slaught of so many day laborers with arms, the guns of so many ships with out a soul, the efforts of an enterprise without noble feeling, will break harm less against the strength of the illus trious sons of Spanish warriors, who gave Spain everlasting glory. At San- tiago shall be raised a glorious monu- ment to the memory of our. brave and gallant army, navy and volunteers, who will rival their fathers in bravery